Blue Jays Offense Explodes for Much Needed Big Inning vs. Diamondbacks
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The Toronto Blue Jays were one of the American League favorites coming into the season after leaving 2025 with an AL pennant. The team added to its rotation, upgrading what looked like one of their bigger weaknesses with an explosive offense to back it up.
At least, that was the hope. After losing Bo Bichette in free agency, the lineup took a big of a hit, but nothing that would worry the front office too much. They had Vladimir Guerrero Jr. still, as well as George Springer and Alejandro Kirk.
Things haven't gone as planned to start the season, however. With Springer, Kirk and Addison Barger on the shelf, the offense hasn't been able to pick up the slack to begin the season. With a frustrating record of 7-13 entering Sunday's action, Toronto needed a spark. They got it with an eight-run first on Sunday.
The Offense Had a Much Needed Breakout Inning
Heading into Sunday, the Blue Jays had a 94 team wRC+, the 20th best mark in baseball. Only four other teams in the American League had been worse on offense. It was not the lineup that fans remembered from the 2025 run.
The injuries have played a role in that, sure, but the lineup just wasn't producing. Guerrero has been good at the plate but has just one home run. Daulton Varsho has the second best OPS+ on the team behind Guerrero, with a 122 mark, but his OPS is .795. That just wasn't the case with Toronto last season.
What they really needed was the offense to have that one big game in order to get going, something manager John Schneider has mentioned over the last few weeks, according to MLB.com's Keegan Matheson. In the first inning of Sunday's game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the floodgates finally opened.
The first eight batters of the inning reached base until Brandon Valenzuela struck out to record the first out of the inning. The Jays scored eight runs on eight his in the first inning, including two hits from Nathan Lukes and a bases clearing double.
"Today was the Blue Jays that everyone saw [in 2025]. That's what we were missing. We've just got to take it with us moving forward," Lukes said after the game.
According to Matheson, Toronto's seven hits and eight base runners to reach base to open the game tied the record for most in the team's history. It had been done twice before, most recently on May 31, 2014.
"Hitting is contagious, emotion is contagious and winning is definitley contagious," Lukes continued.
If there was ever a time the Blue Jays needed that to happen, it was now. The 10 runs scored were tied for the most of the season so far, but a big inning like that just hits differently. Toronto will look to stay hot as they head to Anaheim to take on the Los Angeles Angels on Monday night.
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