Jays open on high note
Toronto triumphs in longest game in opening-day history
CLEVELAND – The Toronto Blue Jays are determined to have a special season.
They opened it by making history.
J.P. Arencibia hit a threerun homer in the 16th inning to send the Blue Jays, who rallied to force extra innings with a three-run ninth, to a 7-4 win over the Cleveland Indians on Thursday in the longest opening-day game ever in the major leagues.
A game that seemed so routine for several hours wound up extraordinary.
“I guess it’s pretty cool now,” said Arencibia, who wasn’t thrilled at catching all 16 innings. “I’m glad to be on the winning end.”
Arencibia was 0-for-6 with three strikeouts before he connected o Indians reliever Jairo Asencio.
The marathon eclipsed the previous longest openers — 15 innings between Cleveland and the Detroit Tigers on April 19, 1960, and 15 innings between Philadelphia and Washington on April 13, 1926.
According to STATS LLC, the Indians-blue Jays opener was the longest of 1,360 openingday games played since 1901.
“If you’re going to break records, you might as well do it on opening day,” said Indians all-star closer Chris Perez, who was able to show some humour after allowing the Blue Jays to come back from a 4-1 deficit in the ninth.
“No position player wants to be out there for 16 innings on opening day. I feel terrible. Everybody did their job today except me.”
Luis Perez, Toronto’s seventh pitcher, worked four scoreless innings for the win and Sergio Santos got two outs to end the five-hour, 14-minute game.
Jose Bautista homered and hit a sacrifice fly for Toronto, which did next to nothing for eight innings against Cleveland starter Justin Masterson before storming back in the ninth.