Throwback Thursday: Insight into the Blue Jays home opener record against the Orioles
Photo credit: © Nick Turchiaro-Imagn Images
Mar 27, 2025, 13:30 EDTUpdated: Mar 27, 2025, 13:25 EDT
Here’s a fun fact for you: The Toronto Blue Jays have never played an Opening Day game against the Baltimore Orioles at home.
With the start of a new season on Thursday, it seems fitting to start a new series called Throwback Thursday. It’s a weekly series where we rewind the clock and look at a historical game, trade, or anything of that nature, usually against the team that they play that day.
On Thursday, they open their season with a home game against the Baltimore Orioles, so today’s Throwback Thursday will be Opening Day and Oriole-oriented.
The last time the Jays played the Orioles on Opening Day
There’s only been one other instance of the Jays and Orioles starting the season against one another – you have to go back to 2017 to find it.
The last time the Orioles and Jays had played one another was in the 2016 Wild Card game, which went exceptionally well for the Blue Jays, but not so well for the Orioles. Thank you, Edwin Encarnación.
Expectations were high for the Blue Jays as they had made the past two American League Championship series, but their first game of 2017 didn’t go to plan. The Orioles jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the third thanks to an RBI single from Chris Davis and an RBI double from Mark Trumbo.
However, the Jays fought back, with new signee Kendry Morales walking with the bases loaded to cut the Orioles’ lead in half. Ezequiel Carrera doubled in the top of the sixth to tie the game. But it was the Orioles that ended up winning the game. Just like Encarnación six months prior, Mark Trumbo hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the 11th, giving us the final score of 3-2.
The Jays went on to have a disappointing 2017 season that signaled the beginning of the end of the José Bautista contention era. It only lasted two seasons but boy were those two seasons fun.
The last time the Blue Jays faced the Orioles in the home opener
While the Blue Jays have never started Opening Day at home against the Orioles, they’ve hosted the Orioles for their home opener in the past. It’s been a long time, to say the least.
You have to go all the way back to 1992, over six years before I was born. Like in 2017, the Orioles opened the scoring as Joe Orsulak hit an RBI double, followed by a Cal Ripken RBI single. The top of the first inning was capped off by a Mike Deveraux solo-home run to give the Orioles a 3-0 lead before the Jays even had a chance to bat.
In the bottom of the second, John Olerud hit a sacrifice fly to give the Blue Jays their first run of the season, and the score stood at 3-1 until the bottom of the eighth. Kelly Gruber hit his second double of the season, scoring the second Blue Jays run.
Down to just two outs left in the bottom of the ninth, Pat Borders hit a solo home run to tie the game up. After Manuel Lee grounded out, Devon White hit a double to put a runner in scoring position before Roberto Alomar drove him in for the walk-off 4-3 win.
I don’t need to tell you how the Blue Jays’ 1992 season went, but I’ll do it anyway. The Jays finished first in the American League East with a 96-66 record and went on to win their first World Series in franchise history. Hopefully, they can win another one in 2025.
The last time the Blue Jays opened at home
Okay, but what about the last time the Blue Jays opened their season at home, regardless of whether or not they played the Orioles? Well, that wasn’t too long ago.
Going back to 2022, before the renovations of Rogers Centre, the Blue Jays opened their series against the Texas Rangers with José Berríos starting that game. Although it was a very fun game that the Jays won, Berríos didn’t have success.
Brad Miller hit a lead-off home run on the fourth pitch of the season, and a wild pitch scored a second runner. Things went from bad to worse as Nathaniel Lowe hit an RBI single to make it 3-0. After Berríos plunked a batter, he was pulled, but was tagged for a fourth earned run as Andy Ibanez got an RBI with a force out.
The Rangers added two more runs in the top of the second and another on in the top of the fourth, but it was the Jays’ mounted a comeback. In the bottom of the fourth, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit an RBI single, followed by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hitting into a force out for their second run. The inning was capped off by an Alejandro Kirk sacrifice fly to make it a 7-3 game.
In the following inning, Guerrero Jr. hit another RBI single, before he and Bo Bichette scored on a three-run home run from Teoscar Hernández to tie the game at seven. Over the next three innings, the Jays added one run each while the Rangers scored just one run, giving the Jays a 10-8 win.
Ryley Delaney is a Nation Network writer for Blue Jays Nation, Oilersnation, and FlamesNation. They can be followed on Twitter @Ryley__Delaney.