It’s been months since the Toronto Blue Jays last faced the New York Yankees at Rogers Centre. Fall turned to winter, and a cold and dark period of time passed: the baseball off-season. Stadium hot dogs were scarce, and Blue Jays baseball was nowhere to be found.
But now the wait is over; baseball is back. The Blue Jays will face the Yankees again, minus a few familiar faces (most notably the one in right field) and with the addition of some new ones. The 162-game marathon is now upon us, so, in preparation for the first games of the season, let’s take a look ahead…
Thursday, March 29 – 3:37 pm EST
J.A. Happ vs. Luis Severino
Friday, March 30 – 7:07 pm EST
Aaron Sanchez vs. Masahiro Tanaka
Saturday, March 31 – 4:07 pm EST
Marco Estrada vs. Sonny Gray
Sunday, April 1 – 1:07 PM EST
Marcus Stroman vs. CC Sabathia
Blue Jays vs. Yankees 2017 history
In an otherwise disappointing 2017 season, the Blue Jays took 10 of their 19 games against the Yankees. The Blue Jays took three series of the six series they played, with the Yankees taking two, and one split.
New faces to watch for on the Blue Jays
It will be a very different looking outfield for Toronto to start the 2018 season, with the departure of franchise icon Jose Bautista. With openings in both corner outfield spots, the Blue Jays acquired Curtis Granderson, who, at 37-years-old, is the same age as Bautista. That said, if you look at advanced fielding metrics, Granderson was still a better defender than Bautista over the past few seasons. And with 14 seasons under his belt he also brings a veteran presence to the clubhouse.
There’s now another newcomer on Kevin Pillar’s other side. Randal Grichuk was acquired to help provide athleticism on defence and 30-homer potential at the plate
But really, the outfield’s just the beginning when it comes to Blue Jays newcomers. Infielders Yangervis Solarte and Aledmys Diaz provide depth, relievers John Axford, Tyler Clippard and Seung-hwan Oh are looking for bounce-backs and left-hander Jaime Garcia should stabilize the back end of the rotation.
New faces to watch for on the Yankees
In case having one 50-homer bat wasn’t enough, the Yankees acquired Giancarlo Stanton from the Miami Marlins over the winter. The 28-year-old power hitter joins Aaron Judge in the New York lineup after hitting 59 home runs and winning NL MVP with the Miami Marlins.
Though Stanton had played exclusively for the Marlins before the December trade to the Bronx, he has faced Happ a total of nine times in his career, with one home run and one double in those nine confrontations.
While Stanton was the Yankees’ biggest acquisition, there were others, too. The Yankees also acquired Brandon Drury, a versatile player who can play second, third and the outfield. In 2017 he hit .267 with the Arizona Diamondbacks, adding 37 doubles and 13 home runs.
He’s not the only newcomer who offers versatility, as Neil Walker also joined the New York lineup. Walker, a switch-hitting second baseman, hit .265 last season before signing a one-year deal with the Yankees.
Devon Travis will leadoff for the Toronto Blue Jays in their first game of the 2018 season against the New York Yankees.
The lineup also features a trio of new signings: Curtis Granderson is batting fourth, Randal Grichuk slots in at the six spot, and Aledmys Diaz is ninth.
First pitch of Blue Jays-Yankees is at 3:37 p.m. ET live on Sportsnet.
Velocity, particularly when paired with command, is the ultimate weapon for a pitcher and over the course of his first two big-league seasons, Roberto Osuna wielded the old No. 1 mercilessly. Seeing him dot up the zone at 97, occasionally 98 m.p.h., wasn’t unusual, and in concert with a vicious slider and the occasional change-up coming in at an average of 12 m.p.h. slower, he simply tore through opposing hitters.
Last season, however, the power to his game ebbed after a spring training disrupted by a neck issue that spread to other areas and all of a sudden he felt exposed. At times he took the mound at 92 or 93 m.p.h., still firm stuff but far more pedestrian, like downgrading into a Mustang from a Lamborghini. On the mound, that meant he couldn’t simply blow a heater by batters the way he’d become accustomed to.
Subsequently, he got hit at times, the blown saves mounted at an alarming rate, and Osuna scrambled to adapt. A cutter he rode through an exemplary stretch that earned him his first all-star selection proved to be his salvation. But hitters eventually adjusted, leaving the right-hander to zero in on bringing velo back.
“I did what I could, right?” Osuna says of relying on the cutter. “Last year there were a lot of ups and downs for me, there were tough times, and I didn’t feel my fastball that I wanted to. That’s why I needed to find another way to get guys out, and that’s pretty much what happened. This year I feel strong. I feel my fastball better. My plan this year is to throw fastball/slider/change-up, same as in 2015, so hopefully my velo comes back the way I want it to and see what happens.”
Carrying an additional 11 pounds of muscle, Osuna was back in the mid to upper 90s this spring and the Blue Jays didn’t feel the need to shut off the radar gun at Dunedin Stadium the way they did at times last year. The cutter is in his back pocket, there in a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency scenario, as he eyes the mix he rode through that rookie season.
An executive from one American League club said over the winter that while Osuna was still very tough, the players on his team felt he was more gettable than in the past.
Not having the same fastball was surely part of it.
Osuna’s four-seamer usage in 2015 was up around 67 per cent in 2015, dipping slightly to 59 per cent in 2016 and then plummeting to 32 per cent last year. Though the dip in his fastball velocity ended up being only a slight one, from 95.8 in 2016 to 94.6 in 2017, it was the inconsistency with it that left him feeling vulnerable.
“Absolutely,” he says. “My whole career I was upper 90s, 95, 97, 98, and last year when I was throwing 93-94, yeah, I felt like I had no clothes on, pretty much. Why? As a closer, you’ve got one inning to throw all you’ve got. It’s not like you go out there and you throw two cutters, two change-ups and one fastball. No. You’ve got to throw hard, and I was feeling terrible last year.
“Hopefully this year my velo comes back. I feel like it will.”
The added bulk is one reason for that. Coming out of spring training healthy, rather than on the disabled list in catch-up mode, is another.
Osuna chased health from the moment he returned to Blue Jays camp after pitching for Mexico in the World Baseball Classic last year, an odd injury that started in his neck and limited his on-field work, contributing to the struggles on the mound.
“It was really weird, something new every day,” says Osuna. “One day it was my back, another day it was my neck, another day it was my shoulder, so there were a lot of things going on at the same time. I’m definitely feeling way better this year, feeling strong.”
Blue Jays pitching coach Pete Walker sees a difference and believes the extra weight Osuna is carrying into the season will benefit him as things go along.
More importantly, he likes the way Osuna is getting after it on the mound, having re-established his fastball and honed his slider and change-up.
“He knows he had a lot of success and a lot of it had to do with that fastball command and the power to his game,” says Walker. “Last year, he was fighting the urge to look at that gun. He knows the ball might have been a bit lighter at times than it had been in the past, and that always affects a pitcher who feels confident in the power part of the game. That’s when you go to other stuff a little more frequently.
“He can survive without the big fastball because he’s that kind of pitcher, but with re-establishing the fastball, he’s just a dominant closer.”
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To Walker’s point, even though Osuna ended up with 10 blown saves, he still finished tied for second in the American League with 39 saves. Across the board his peripherals improved, too (career bests with a FIP of 1.74, a WHIP of 0.859, a walks per nine rate of 1.3 and a strikeouts per nine of 11.7), although a late-season August stretch in which he blew four saves in 11 chances around the time the Blue Jays had closed within 2.5 games of the second wild card gnaws at him.
“That was a pretty tough time for me, you’ve just got to go through it,” he says. “I didn’t have the year I wanted to have. I’m definitely looking forward to having a better season and getting back to the post-season.”
Of the 10 blown saves, eight resulted in Blue Jays losses. If five of them are converted, the team finishes at .500 and the post-mortems on the club’s 2017 look a fair bit different, which is why any incremental gains he makes this year are so crucial to the team’s overall success.
Feeling fully clothed again now that his fastball is back, Osuna believes he’s ready to deliver just that.
Opening Day is here, and the Yankees are ready to pick up right where they left off last year.
Fifth Inning
After a few hard hit balls and a walk to Judge, the Blue Jays finally yanked Happ from the game. He threw 96 pitches in just 4.2 innings, but did manage to keep the Yankees offense quite outside of that one Stanton home run. The Blue Jays don't have much of a bullpen, so this could definitely end up helping the bombers in the end. Stanton came up against John Axford and managed to knock a double, bringing Judge around to score and make it a 3-0 game. Gary Sanchez then came up big with a double of his own to bring in another run. This is exactly what the Yankees expected to get from the heart of their order, and it is what they will need all year to ensure this team stays in contention.
Fourth Inning
The Yankees got something going in the top of the fourth inning when Aaron Hicks reached on a single that deflected off the body of Blue Jays pitcher J.A. Happ. Brandon Drury then managed to reach on a bloop single, but that's as far as it got. Tyler Austin unleashed a long fly ball that was ultimately caught near the center field wall. The team now has four hits on the day, with Aaron Judge having roped a double to the left field wall earlier in the game. Everything seems to be going according to plan so far.
On the other side of the ball, the Yankees hit a little bit of a bump. Severino allowed his first hit of the day, and then quickly followed that up by throwing the ball away. Trying to check Granderson at first, the ball went wide and got away from Tyler Austin. A solid ricochet allowed Neil Walker to get the ball back in to second and keep the runner. A long fly ball then went to the wall, but Gardner made the catch. This is now the second time Severino has gone through the order, so he's going to have to be careful. He's done well so far, striking out four and allowing only three baserunners.
First Inning
Starting the game off with Brett Gardner at the plate, J.A. Happ induced an easy fly out to left field. Unfortunately Curtis Granderson started off the 2018 season on quite a poor note. The ball went right to him, but it bounced out of his glove and Gardner reached on an error. That's certainly a embarrassing way to get things started. Giancarlo Stanton made them pay for it with his first dinger in a Yankees uniform. He's projected by multiple systems to hit over 50 home runs this year, so it's certainly the way to get things started here.
In case you didn't hear it on the broadcast, Stanton's home run was the hardest-hit opposite field homer since MLB started tracking home runs with Statcast. That is beautiful.
Maybe the craziest part about Giancarlo Stanton's 117.3 mph home run is that he hit it to the *opposite field.* It is the hardest opposite-field homer since #Statcast started tracking. #Yankees pic.twitter.com/K2Lylg6T9Z — David Adler (@_dadler) March 29, 2018
Luis Severino got things started, but it quickly got away from him for a second. After two outs, the right-hander issues two consecutive walks, which brought Larry Rothschild to the mound for the team's first official mound visit with the new rules. He must have said something good because Severino struck out the next guy to get out of the inning. It's not great to see that in the first inning, but it was actually good to see him work himself out of trouble. Hopefully that can continue.
Pre-Game
Before the beginning of the game, the Blue Jays held a special ceremony to commemorate the loss of Roy Halladay, who died in a plane crash back in November. Toronto showed just how much he meant to the organization for so many years by retiring his number, placing him in the team's Level of Excellence, and making the Doc's Box a permanent feature within the ballpark.
Roy Halladay’s uniform No. 32 is the second retired number in #BlueJays history, joining Roberto Alomar’s No. 12. Also added to Rogers Centre’s Level of Excellence. pic.twitter.com/rX9R3DXP3A — Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) March 29, 2018
It is truly a somber moment to start the season on, but Doc would want us all to cary on all the same. This is probably a tough game for the City of Toronto.
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After months of waiting, Opening Day of the 2018 MLB season is finally here. The Yankees will follow up on a surprisingly successful 2017 season with hopes of making it to the World Series this year.
Much of the roster has returned from the year before, though some turnover has taken place. Neil Walker is now the team's starting second baseman and Brandon Drury will be playing third base. Most exciting is the addition of reigning NL MVP Giancarlo Stanton, who will hopefully do big things in a Yankees uniform going forward. Luis Severino has been appointed the team's new ace, and will get a chance to prove himself right away with an Opening Day start.
Unfortunately, the Yankees weren't able to make it out of spring training without suffering a few injuries. Greg Bird underwent ankle surgery and is expected to be back in game shape by early summer. In the meantime, Tyler Austin will replace him on the roster and hope he can measure up. Jacoby Ellsbury suffered an oblique strain early in camp and was never able to recover in time to make the team. He will start the season on the disabled list with Jonathan Holder up as an extra bullpen arm. It shouldn't be long before Ellsbury returns.
Your 2018 #Yankees Opening Day lineup:
1. Brett Gardner, LF
2. Aaron Judge, RF
3. Giancarlo Stanton, DH
4. Gary Sanchez, C
5. Aaron Hicks, CF
6. Didi Gregorius, SS
7. Brandon Drury, 3B
8. Neil Walker, 2B
9. Tyler Austin, 1B
Luis Severino, RHP — Bryan Hoch (@BryanHoch) March 28, 2018
Even with the loss of Bird, the team's lineup looks great. Batting Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, and Gary Sanchez together could make for some of the scariest situations in baseball. Who are you excited to see play today?
