Today in Jays History: Jays Hit 8 Home Run

14 years ago today (this makes me feel old; it should be like five years ago)

The Blue Jays beat the Rays 17-7.

The Blue Jays hit eight home runs in this game: Two by Aaron Hill and one each from Adam Lind, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista, and Lyle Overbay.

And, of course, two by J.A. Arencibia. J.P. was playing in his first MLB game. He would go 4 for 5, with a double, to accompany the homers.

The future was looking bright.

From the recap:

An excellent way to start your major league career: The first pitch you see, you hit out. The second time, a double. Then a single. The fourth time up, another homer. He ended the day with a fly-out. He had 11 total bases, 3 runs, and 3 RBI. I think we ought to keep J.P. Arencibia. It would be tough not to write his name in the lineup every day after this, but I’m sure Cito will find a way.

J.P. would start 9 of our remaining 52 games. But he would hit .143/.189/.343 in 37 P.A. that season. He wouldn’t get a hit in 15 at-bats in September. I wonder how different his career would have been if Cito had some faith in him and had him play regularly after that first game. When a young player only plays occasionally, sometimes they think they have to be great every time out there. It is a challenging way to start a career. I’m thankful that John is, at last so far, letting Davis Schneider play.

Also, from the recap:

Arencibia is just the third Blue Jay to start his career with a home run. Alvis Woods and Junior Felix were the other two. It’s great to see that when they tried to interview J.P., he got shaving cream, had two buckets of Gatorade poured on him, and got shaving cream again. Please, Cito, play him tomorrow.

As you know, now there are four Blue Jays who started their career with a home run.

Cito didn’t play J.P. the next day.

Jordan Bastian tweeted that, since 1900, no other player has had 4 hits and 2 home runs in his MLB debut.

As you know, J.P.’s career didn’t go the way we hoped. He had a problem with breaking balls and never learned to control the strike zone. He would end his career with 85 walks and 484 strikeouts.

He played for the Blue Jays for four seasons, hitting .212/.258/.408 with 64 home runs in 380 games.

After the Jays, he played 62 games for the Rangers in 2014 (primarily at first base) and 24 games for the Rays in 2015.

His defence was always a work in progress. He had a decent arm, throwing out 27% of base stealers in his career, but he allowed a share of passed balls and wild pitches. We would have been okay with his defence if he had hit, but he didn’t. He was good with fans and kids.

Other performances of note:

Travis Snider led off and was 2 for 2 with 2 walks.

Yunel Escobar went 3 for 6.

Bautista hit his 34th home run, leading the A.L.

Edwin Encarnacion went 3 for 5 and made his 10th error of the season.

On the pitching side:

Brad Mills started and gave up 5 runs in 4 innings.

Brian Tallet pitched 3 innings of relief, getting the win and allowing 2 unearned runs.

Jason Frasor pitched a scoreless inning.

David Purcey started the 9th, giving up 2 hits and 2 walks, getting just 1 out.

Casey Janssen got the last 2 outs of the game, giving up a hit and a walk and allowing both of his inherited runs to score.

22 Years Ago

Chris Woodward hit three home runs against the Mariners.

Woodward played seven seasons and 362 games with the Jays and had just 26 home runs for the team. Three of them were in this game. It is hard to believe.

In total, Chris played 12 seasons in the MLB and had 33 home runs, so 9.1% of his career home runs came in this game.

The Jays lost the game 5-4 in 10 innings.

The Mariners had some great players at that time:

• Ichiro Suzuki led off, getting two hits.
• John Olerude was 1 for 4.
• Edgar Martinez hit cleanup, getting 2 hits, including a home run, with 2 RBI.

The Jays were up 3-2 going into the eighth inning, but reliever Scott Cassidy gave up a run in the eighth and then the go-ahead run in the ninth. I have no memory of Cassidy. He pitched in 58 games that season, his rookie year, with a 5.73 ERA. Here is a stat for you: In seven save opportunities, he had seven blown saves (being fair, he wasn’t a closer, but Buck Martinez and his Carlos Tosca (managers that season, Buck was fired) used him as a setup man (being fair we didn’t have much for decent relievers that year) (or starters for that matter, he was Roy Halladay and pray for rain).

Luke Prokopec (him I remember) gave up a home run to catcher Dan Wilson in the 10th to take the loss. He had a 6.78 ERA in 22 games, 12 starts.

Jays boxscore: