Article: Blue Jays Opening Day Rewind: 2012

[Mac]

Brett Lawrie was preparing for the first pitch of the 2012 season just how you might imagine: belting out LMFAO’s "Party Rock Anthem" in the Toronto Blue Jays’ clubhouse.

Brett Lawrie was far from the only one to be excited for the start of the season. The Blue Jays won the Golden Grapefruit with a club record 24 wins in spring, and as the regular season neared, Ricky Romero also itched with optimism.

Drawing the Opening Day start for the second straight year, Romero starred in his turn as Blue Jays’ ace in 2011, being named an All-Star, finishing 10th in the Cy Young voting, and going 15-11 with a 2.92 ERA. Romero final spring start came in the rain, limiting him to two innings (and three simulated innings inside the Phillies’ facility). Despite the shortened outing, Romero said that it was the best he felt all spring and that the Blue Jays were ready to do special things.

Oh boy.

Romero started shaky in Cleveland and that would turn out to be a bad omen for the rest of time. In the second inning, Romero gave up one run, then prolonged the inning by issuing a two-out walk to Jason Kipnis. With two on, Jack Hannahan went deep for the third time on Opening Day in his career. Cleveland led 4-0, and that was more than enough cushion for starter Justin Masterson.

After striking out the Blue Jays in order to start the game, Masterson threw the Opening Day start that a pitcher dreams of. He struck out 10 over eight innings of work, allowing only two hits and a walk while throwing 99 pitches. The only blemish came in the fourth, when José Bautista went over the wall in left to put Toronto on the board. With three outs to go and Cleveland bringing All-Star closer Chris Pérez into the game, no one would have guessed the game was only getting started.

Yunel Escobar and Kelly Johnson were a combined 0-for-6 with four strikeouts against Masterson, but they hit back-to-back singles to start the ninth. A sacrifice fly brought Toronto to within two, and after a walk, Pérez faced face Edwin Encarnación. While the season opener was the beginning of the downfall for Romero (and Pérez), it was also the start of Encarnación’s star turn. Now in his third full season with the Blue Jays, Encarnación was coming off a 17-home run campaign and made changes to his swing in the offseason. With an opportunity to make an early impact, he delivered Toronto’s first big hit of the season.

Toronto had an opportunity to finally go ahead in an eventful 12th inning but Cleveland manager Manny Acta got ballsy. After a walk put runners on first and second with two out, Acta quickly flashed four fingers from his spot in the dugout as Bautista walked to the plate. Standing behind the slugger was Rajai Davis, having pinch-run for Adam Lind in the ninth ahead of Encarnación’s game-tying double. The decision paid off when Davis flew out to the warning track in left to end the inning.

Cleveland loaded the bases in the home half of the inning ,and that is how Omar Vizquel’s 24th major league season officially started. A nine-time Gold Glove winner with Cleveland, Vizquel came into the game as a fifth infielder as Toronto manager John Farrell prepared his defence to face Asdrúbal Cabrera with one out. Vizquel got a pre-game ovation and his few warm-up tosses across the infield got a roar from the remaining crowd at Progressive Field. As his counterpart had in the top half, Farrell’s move was successful; Cabrera grounded into a Escobar-Johnson-Bautista double play to finally end the inning.

Gotta think Cleveland would have went full Elijah Dukes on their skipper if the intentional pass backfired. Never go full Elijah Dukes.

The game meandered until the 15th, when Shin-Soo Choo got the teams out of their seats. Choo had been drilled in the back by a Romero pitch in the third, and when the first pitch from Luis Pérez whistled by his face, Choo hopped up in a hurry towards Pérez. Toronto catcher J.P. Arencibia quickly got in Choo’s path, but the edgy dugouts and few remaining members of each bullpen had already begun to empty. Pérez walked Choo but got out of the inning, and the game trudged along.

Hopped up on Lord knows how many Red Bulls, Brett Lawrie walked to the lead off the 16th. With Vizquel at the plate and a bunt expected, Farrell put Lawrie in motion. Vizquel instead grounded a ball back to Jairo Asencio on the mound. Asencio quickly turned to second, where the covering Kipnis tried to get his pitcher to pivot to the out at first base. Asencio had committed to the play at second and rushed his throw, pulling Kipnis off the bag and giving the Blue Jays a prime opportunity to go ahead.

This time, Toronto did bunt, which came as a surprise to Farrell. After a swing and a miss to bring the count to 1-1, Arencibia peered down for the signs at third base and then asked Brian Butterfield to go through them once more. The resulting poor bunt attempt put Arencibia behind in the count, but the missed sign would end up being something to laugh about. On the next pitch, Arencibia went yard to give Toronto their first lead of a game that just became the longest in MLB Opening Day history.

Toronto’s comeback victory was secured by Sergio Santos, and the 7-4 win clocked in at five hours and 14 minutes. The excitement surrounding the team didn’t last. Toronto finished 73-89 in Farrell’s last season,n and when they opened 2013 under John Gibbons, Romero was not on the roster. He spent the entire 2012 season in the rotation but finished 9-14 with a 5.77 ERA, walking a major league-leading 105 batters. On the other hand, Encarnación fed off his start, finishing with a career-high 42 home runs en route to legend status in Toronto while Brett Lawrie kept on party rockin'.

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[Orgfiller]

That's a whole lotta throwback names. Sergio Santos, Yunel Escobar, Kelly Johnson. The beginning of the legend that is Encarnacion's tenure with the Jays. Nice writeup as usual Mac.

[paulnotskenes]

Serge Santos!!!!!