Baseball is back! Yesterday was opening day and the Jays began their season in the Bronx to take on the Yankees. In a game that featured two of the most potent lineups in the league, the game was essentially determined by pitching and defence. When you look at the Jays, pitching and defence are not the first things you think of as keys to victory; you expect them to hit homers and score a ton of runs. However, when up against one of the best pitchers in the game, and runs are hard to come by, you will have to find a way to win low-scoring games. That is exactly what the Jays did yesterday in their 3-2 win against the Yankees.
Cole vs Ryu was the starting matchup, and while they are two of the best in the league, they couldn’t be more different. Ryu doesn’t throw hard, but he finds success with location and finesse. He established his changeup early and demonstrated it in the first inning against Aaron Judge. He threw a couple of changeups early in the at-bat, one of which had Judge way out in front, followed it up with a couple of cutters to run the count full, and then threw a 91mph fastball right by Judge. While 91mph isn’t that hard by today’s standards for a fastball, Ryu can still find success with it because of the movement and location of his other pitches. By establishing a good changeup early, batters have to be wary of it, and since it is only around 80mph, they will become late on the fastball. Cole on the other hand is someone that will look to overpower hitters with his hard fastball and nasty slider. Both pitchers pitched well for their first outings, as they both went 5.1 innings allowing two earned runs each.
There were a few game defensive plays that were made by the Jays that were crucial to their victory. The first was in the bottom of the fifth when Semien made a diving stop to his left to catch a hard groundball by LeMahieu, and made a good throw from his knees to Guerrero at first to get the out. This play ended the inning and saved a couple of runs for Ryu. If that play isn’t made, the Yankees extend their then-2-1 lead and could have had a big inning. However, that play by Semien kept the game close and in the top of the sixth, Hernandez would tie the game with a monstrous homerun off Cole.
The second play that was made, that would have been disastrous if it wasn’t, came in the seventh inning. David Phelps walked LeMahieu to load the bases with Judge coming up and only one out. Unfortunately for Montoyo, there was no one ready in the bullpen to replace Phelps and so he was forced to leave him in to face Judge despite him not having his best command. Thankfully, after falling behind two balls and no strikes to Judge, Phelps managed to get Judge to hit a 2-1 fastball right to Biggio at third to start a 5-4-3 double play and escape the jam. While these types of plays should be routine for big league players, it hasn’t always been that way for the young Jays, and with this being Biggio’s first year at third, it was good to see him turn these kinds of plays.
The final, and probably the biggest play came in the bottom of the nineth with one out and the Yankees’ winning run on third. LeMahieu hit a short ground ball to the third base side which was cleanly picked by Biggio, who then made a perfect throw to Jansen at home to cut down the speedy Tauchman at the plate and force extra innings. This was a difficult play for most third basemen and that made it even more impressive for Biggio. If the throw was a second late, or slightly off-line, the game is over and the Yankees win.
Julian Merryweather put the exclamation point on the game as he struck out the side in order in the tenth to secure the win and record his first MLB save. He looked very impressive as his fastball topped out at 99mph and struck out Stanton on three pitches. If Merryweather can stay healthy, he should be a valuable weapon coming out of the bullpen.
While it was only one game, it was good to see the Jays display good pitching and defence. A key priority for the Jays has been to improve their run prevention, through pitching and defence. Yesterday’s game showed a glimpse of what the coaching staff expects from the team and it was a clean defensive game all around. Of course, errors will happen, but it is about drastically minimizing those errors during a season. Especially when competing against a team like the Yankees, you can ill afford to make mistakes defensively, or else they will punish you. The season has gotten underway, and the Jays are looking to be serious contenders. If they can keep batters guessing and limit unearned runs, they should be well on their way to having a successful year.