The New York Yankees reintroduced Alex Rodriguez, getting a very warm welcome from the home fans, but in the meantime ace pitcher Masahiro Tanaka struggled, making it quite easy for the Toronto Blue Jays to put up some easy points en route to a 6-1 win.
Rodriguez didn’t play a single game last season for the Yankees with a suspension and an injury. His new role? A designated hitter, hitting 7th in the lineup, the lowest of his career on the hitting order. Rodriguez didn’t do too badly, finishing with 1-for-2 and drawing out a walk, but that was one of the few positive things the Yankees can take from their opening day.
The Blue Jays didn’t hit a lot (6-for-33 overall) but almost every hit turned into something. A sacrifice by Jose Reyes turned into the first run during the third inning, followed by a Russell Martin double with Reyes reaching home, not taken out of the running due to an error by Headley on the previous play. Edwin Encarnacion capped it all off to make it a five-run inning with a home run that scored both him and Martin.
A home run from Brett Gardner off of Drew Hutchinson was the only thing that worked out for the Yankees in this game offensively, finishing with just three hits, all of them off of Hutchinson who played six innings before leaving the stage to Aaron Loup and Miguel Castro. Devon Travis scored a home run off of Chasen Shreve to cap things off for the Blue Jays on a fantastic day for them to open the season with.
The worrying thing for the Yankees was Tanaka. His rookie season was going very well until he tore a ligament in his right elbow which took him out of action for the final two and a half months of the season. He said himself he expected his fastball to drop. After hitting the mid-90’s last season, he didn’t go past 93 in the loss to the Blue Jays, lasting only four innings in which he gave up five runs and walked two batters while striking out six.
R.A. Dickey will start next for the Blue Jays while Michael Pineda, hoping to avoid injury for once, will be the next starter for the Yankees.