For the first time since 1996, the Toronto Blue Jays have started the season 3-0.

After back-to-back walk-off wins on Friday and Saturday, the Blue Jays had a much simpler game on Sunday, defeating the Athletics by a score of 5-2 after jumping out to a 4-0 lead. Let’s take a look at what went on in this one.

The Blue Jays got off to a terrific start in the first inning. Eric Lauer struck out the side in the top half of the first, and George Springer hit his first home run of the season on the first pitch he saw. That put the Jays up 1-0.

After a scoreless second inning, the Blue Jays added two more runs. Tyler Heineman got on base with a single, followed by a George Springer lineout to Canadian Denzel Clarke. Up stepped Jesús Sánchez with two outs, as the left-handed batter smoked it to deep centre field for a 3-0 lead.

In the bottom of the fourth, Kazuma Okamoto hit his first big league home run, as he went deep to centre field just like Sánchez. After the first series, it looks as if Okamoto can hang in the big leagues.

Lauer’s lone blemish this game came in the top of the third, finally giving up a hit, then a line drive home run to Max Muncy to cut the Jays’ lead in half. Thankfully, the Jays got one of those runs back, as Addison Barger walked with the bases loaded to make it 5-2. The Blue Jays’ bullpen did the rest.

This was a historic series opener for the Blue Jays’ pitching staff. After both Kevin Gausman and Dylan Cease struck out 11 and 12 respectively, Eric Lauer struck out nine in five and one-third innings. Over the weekend, the Blue Jays’ starter faced 61 batters and struck out 32 of them. They also gave up four earned runs and three walks, just incredible.

Their bullpen has looked solid as well, aside from Brendon Little’s outing on Saturday. Altogether, the Jays struck out 50 batters in the three games, two shy of matching the record for most strikeouts ever in a three-game series. In this game, Braydon Fisher struck out two, Tommy Nance struck out one, Mason Fluharty struck out the only batter he faced, and Jeff Hoffman struck out two.

It was good to see Fluharty back on the mound after taking two comebackers on Saturday. Hoffman also had a nice rebound game, allowing a two-out single and striking out two. Good to see him shake off that one poor pitch on Friday.

Three of the Blue Jays’ six hits came with the long ball. On the first pitch, George Springer hit his 64th career lead-off pitch to start a game, second most all time. He’s just 17 behind Rickey Henderson now.

Their other two home runs were firsts. Batting in the two-hole and making his first start since the trade, Jesús Sánchez went deep to centre field for his first home run as a Blue Jay. Kazuma Okamoto hit his first big league home run as well.

This was the first time since 1996 that the Blue Jays have started the season 3-0. It’s also the first time that they’ve ever had a 3-0 record, with the other time being their six-game winning streak to begin 1992. I wonder what happened that season. Speaking of the 1990s, after Saturday’s win, the Blue Jays jumped above .500 for the first time since May 1995.

The Jays will have a great chance to at least match that six-game winning streak, as they welcome the Colorado Rockies for a three-game set beginning on Monday. That game has a 7:07 PM ET start time, with Cody Ponce making his Blue Jays debut. Expect some more strikeouts.