It was a fantastic start to the season for the Toronto Blue Jays, and it could have been even better. The Jays started off their season with a three game series against the Minnesota Twins. The Twins won the American League Central last year and had the third most wins in the AL after the Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Yankees.
The Twins are known for both their strong pitching and their consistent defensive play, but the Jays put both of those to the test with an offensive barrage in the first two games.
A 13-3 victory in their home opener on Friday saw the Jays continuing where they left off last year, but with a few new twists on the offense. The Jays lived and died by the home run last year, leading the league in long balls with 247. But when they didn't hit one or more out of the park, they had a great deal of difficulty manufacturing runs.
It must have been both surprising and delightful for the fans to see the Jays work the running game on Friday night. Witnessing Rajai Davis and Yunel Escobar pull of a double steal. Seeing all three baserunners advance on a routine fly ball. These are the types of things that were never seen with the Blue Jays the last few years.
But of course, not to distance themselves from what made them successful last year; Jose Bautista and Adam Lind both hit their first dingers of the season, and J.P. Arencibia blasted two of his own, as well as a triple.
Then the Jays were at it again on Saturday night, with Jose Molina and new addition Jayson Nix knocking in their first round trippers of the season.
Young starting pitching should be another strength for the Jays continuing over from the strong 2010 campaign, with Ricky Romero and Kyle Drabek both getting their first wins of 2011. Romero threw six innings, had one earned run on seven hits and struck out seven. Meanwhile Drabek threw seven innings, walked three, allowed one run on only one hit and also struck out seven, allowing the Jays to collect a 6-1 win.
Sunday was somewhat different for the Jays with Brett Cecil on the mound. Cecil started extremely well, striking out the side in the first, but then seemed to be shaken up somewhat by a lazy fly ball that turned into a home run in the third.
Cecil kept if together though to not let things get out of control, but the Jays could not convert their chances to help their starter out. Their might have been a slight hangover for the team after outscoring the Twins 19-4 in the previous two games, and their energy and luck must have just run out.
Bautista managed to hit his second home run of the campaign in the sixth, and walked to load the bases in the bottom of the ninth. Lind was up next with a chance to win the game if he could score two of the runs, but the closer Joe Nathan got him to ground out to first.
Though they missed their chance to complete the sweep of the Twins, it was a promising start for the Jays. They won the series and demonstrated mostly strong pitching throughout. They worked on diversifying their offense, and while it didn't work all the time, it certainly kept the Twins off-guard.
Finally, it was nice to see the fan support this weekend, with the Jays attendance for the weekend coming in at 110, 683.
The Blue Jays look to continue their winning ways against the Oakland Athletics in a three-game home series starting Tuesday.
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