The Tampa Bay Rays celebrate the win at the end of the Toronto Blue Jays home opener at Rogers Centre. The Tampa Bay Rays won 2-1.Nick Turchiaro
Everything was new at Rogers Centre on Monday night.
There were tight, new security measures that the fans had to deal with as they descended on the aging facility for the regular-season home opener of the Toronto Blue Jays against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Once finally safely inside after passing through metal detectors the fans were greeted by a new artificial playing surface that was laid down during the off-season.
Every time the baseball skipped over the new, spongy track the rubber tire crumbs used as infill created rooster tails along the surface.
The ball team itself has transformed, with six new faces in the starting lineup, including a couple of Canadians in catcher Russell Martin (Montreal) and rookie centrefielder Dalton Pompey (Mississauga, Ont.).
The 25-man roster also includes a couple of fresh-faced 20-year-old rookies in pitchers Roberto Osuna and Miguel Castro, who has already wrested the closer's job off Brett Cecil before the season was one-week old.
"They're really babies and it's really a pleasure being around them," Toronto manager John Gibbons said of the pair before the game.
There is also is a new feeling of nervous anticipation among fans surrounding a club that is courting a Major League Baseball-high 21-year playoff drought.
A hot start on the road to start the new season has fuelled hopes that this could finally be Toronto's year. And a capacity gathering of close to just over 48,000 packed Rogers Centre to form opinions of their own.
But Tampa made the new look kind of old, at least for one night, as the Toronto bats were left wanting in what ultimately turned into a 2-1 win for the Rays in the first of a four-game series.
The star of the night was undoubtedly Jake Odorizzi, the 25-year-old Tampa starting pitcher who stifled the Blue Jays bats to just one run off two hits over eight innings of dominating work.
"We ran into a guy tonight [Odorizzi] that we need to give our due to," said Toronto starter R.A. Dickey, who absorbed the loss. "He pitched a great game. He threw three pitches for strikes, very sharp, keeping guys off balance.
"It's hard to run through our lineup like that at home. He was very, very good."
Odorizzi gave way to Brad Boxberger in the ninth and Boxberger promptly walked Jose Bautista, the leadoff batter, who gained a free pass for the third time in the game.
Tensions were rising in the stadium when Edwin Encarnacion worked the count to 3-2.
But Encarnacion swung through the next pitch for the strikeout and Tampa catcher Rene Rivera then threw out Bautista attempting to steal second to complete a double play.
Tampa's win was complete when Josh Donaldson lofted a high, fly ball that was caught on the warning track in the right field corner.
"He [Dickey] walked in those two runs but he pitched a great ballgame, he really did," Gibbons said. "We just couldn't solve Odorizzi at all.
Everybody loves a home opener and there were plenty of brand names on hand.
Don Cherry, that noted baseball authority, was there, glad-handing his way around the baseball diamond before the first pitch.
Ex-Blue Jay greats George Bell and Carlos Delgado were also there.
They were brought on the field before the game to present Bautista with the Silver Slugger Award he won last year as the American League's best offensive rightfielder.
And although it was 39 years in the making, the Blue Jays also welcomed new MLB commissioner Rob Manfred to the game. It marked the first time in the history of the franchise that the commissioner has ventured into Toronto for the home opener.
Manfred even participated in the ceremonial first pitch.
Before the game, Manfred was asked about the opportunity of Toronto once again hosting MLB's all-star game, something that hasn't happened since 1991.
"There's a lot of demand for all star games right now," Manfred said. "It's grown into just a really popular event, almost a week long. But I think there's no reason why Toronto couldn't be a competitive bidder for an all-star game in the fairly near future."
Dickey's knuckler was erratic as he courted two strikeouts in the first inning. He added another in the second along with a walk and a hit batsman, but was able to escape unscathed.
In the fourth, Dickey ran into real problems when he allowed back-to-back hits to Desmond Jennings and Allan Dykstra, the first two Tampa batters.
After getting the next two outs, an increasingly frustrated Dickey walked three straight batters which forced in two runs for a 2-0 Tampa lead.
Dickey would pitch six innings, allowing the two Tampa runs off just three hits with five glaring walks marring his stat line.
"I throw a knuckleball," Dickey said. "Some would come out, they would move at times, some would come out they'd stay high.
"I lost my release point a little bit in the fourth. They really made me work. They did a good job of laying off some really close pitches. And I didn't make the big pitch when I had to."
Odorizzi, now 2-0 on the year, silenced the Blue Jays bats through the first four innings, yielding just a couple of walks.
That changed in the fifth when Kevin Pillar punched a sinking liner into right field that Steven Souza Jr. charged but could not haul in, the ball squirting past him.
Pillar had a double and he was quickly cashed by Devon Travis, Toronto's rookie second baseman, who singled sharply to right to score Pillar and cut Tampa's lead to 2-1.