TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays celebrated their history, their 2025 season and unfurled an American League championship banner during a roughly 40-minute prelude to the first pitch of their 50th season.
They dimmed the Rogers Centre lights, projected highlights onto the infield, touched the right notes on the videoboard and then had George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. address the crowd and count down the rafters reveal. Ernie Whitt, George Bell, Pat Hentgen, Vernon Wells and Jose Bautista delivered ceremonial first pitches to cap the show and it was on to the business at hand – building a meaningful new chapter into franchise lore.
Right out the gate, Kevin Gausman set the tone, striking out the side in the first inning, foreshadowing a dominant six-inning outing in which his 11 strikeouts were the most ever by a Blue Jays starter on Opening Day. Kazuma Okamoto introduced himself with two nice defensive plays in the field, a fifth-inning walk that catalyzed a two-run fifth, a line-drive single to left-centre in the seventh and another base hit to right in the ninth.
-
-
MLB on Sportsnet
Watch the Toronto Blue Jays, Blue Jays Central pre-game, marquee MLB matchups, Jays in 30, original documentaries, the wild card, divisional series, championship series and entire World Series on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.
And after a familiar demon came back to haunt Jeff Hoffman – a home run, the second of the night for Shea Langeliers, that tied the game during a four-strikeout ninth – Andres Gimenez walked off the Athletics win an RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to trigger bedlam in a sellout crowd of 42,728.
Exactly 146 days after Game 7 of the World Series ended in a 5-4, 11-inning Los Angeles Dodgers victory, the new season is on, looking a lot like what the Blue Jays expected it to look like, as always, with a twist.
That Okamoto started both Blue Jays rallies in the win, his walk in the fifth was followed by an Ernie Clement double, just like in the ninth, bodes well for the club’s main offensive addition in the off-season.
His two-out single off Justin Sterner set the stage for Clement, who chopped a ball over Max Muncy at third base to put two on for Gimenez, who slapped a ball right up the middle for the win.
That eased the sting of the top of the inning when Hoffman, who also surrendered a game-tying homer in the ninth in Game 7, struck out Nick Kurtz on the first ABS challenge by the Blue Jays, called by Alejandro Kirk, before Langeliers sent a 98.1 m.p.h. heater over the wall in centre.
Hoffman struck out four in the inning – Tyler Soderstrom reached on a passed ball – so his stuff was where it should be.
So too was Gausman’s, who had the Athletics under his thumb all night.
