Jays win Spring Training Opener

Toronto Blue Jays - 9 Pittsburgh Pirates - 7

The Blue Jays kicked off the Spring Training schedule with a nice win over the Pirates. Some hard hit balls, good pitching and ability to take advantage of some sloppy Pirates’ defense got the Jays their win.

Quick recap on the players who started, including 3 home runs, a triple and double.

Cavan Biggio - 1-3 with a single to LF
Santiago Espinal - 2-2 with a bloop single, home run and a walk
Vladimir Guerrero - 1-2 with a home run
Daulton Varsho - started at DH, went 0-2
Danny Jansen - 0-2
Addison Barger - 1-3 with a big home run to RF
Otto Lopez - started in RF, went 1-3 with a “triple” on a bad played bounce
Nathan Lukes - 0-1 with a sac fly after Lopez’ triple
Vinny Capra - 0-2

25 year old minor league catcher Andres Sosa picked up a pair of hits, including a double.

On the pitching side of things, the Jays got some good performances from most of the guys who came in.

Yusei Kikuchi started, struck out 5 of the 7 batters he faced, with the only hit against him being a 12 foot single.

Zach Thompson followed, and he struggled against his former team, giving up a grand slam and 3 walks.
The only other member of the 40 man roster who pitched in this one was Trent Thornton, who picked up the win with a shutout inning of work.
Jackson Rees finished things up with a perfect inning, striking out all 3 batters he faced.

We got to see first hand the pitch clock in effect. Kikuchi seemed to like it, mentioning afterwards that it forces him not to think about his delivery. Thompson on the other hand struggled with it, looking uncomfortable and like he needed more time to collect himself. But in all, the game was only 2 hours and 47 minutes, despite 16 runs on 20 hits and 10 walks.

The Blue Jays play host tomorrow to the Yankees tomorrow at 1:05pm, and the game is once again on Sportsnet.

Kirk out of WBC

Alejandro Kirk, who is still awaiting the birth of his child, has been removed from Team Mexico at the World Baseball Classic.

There is still no expectation on when Kirk will be arriving at Blue Jays’ camp.