Carson on Jays: Solid start to 2011

Through the opening series of the Blue Jays 2011 schedule, where they took two of three from the defending AL Central champion Twins in front of 110,683 at Rogers Centre and another 2.5 million viewers on Sportsnet, the positives far outweighed the negatives.

The positives: J.P. Arencibia, who saves his best for his first appearance each season, slammed a pair of Opening Night home runs — to go with the two he hit in his major league debut last August — and drove in five runs. Jose Bautista picked right up where he left off last season, blasting a pair of home runs while going 5 for 11.

Travis Snider showed how well rounded his game has become, driving in a pair of runs with a pinch-hit double on Saturday and then throwing out a runner at the plate on Sunday. Yunel Escobar stepped into the leadoff spot after Rajai Davis rolled his right ankle in the first game and didn’t miss a beat. And newcomer Jayson Nix made his debut on Saturday, hitting a home run with a couple of walks and made several solid plays at third base.

As a team, they put up a .993 OPS (on-base plus slugging), second only to the Rangers, who have slugged their way to four straight wins to start their season.

The negatives: Only two. The return of Edwin Encarnacion to third base, after Bautista was returned to his rightful place in right field, has been rough. Of the five total chances over the two games he played at the hot corner, Encarnacion made three errors, causing some grumbling from the seats. And Brett Cecil, while allowing three runs in his five innings of work on Sunday, didn’t exactly light up the radar gun, touching 90-plus just a handful of times among his 75 pitches.

While not injured in any way, Cecil losing some speed on his fastball is causing some head scratching. If he keeps the ball down in the zone, the loss of velocity shouldn’t be a problem. After all, Jimmy Key never exactly lit up the gun but was very successful spotting his fastball down. Cecil can be that type of pitcher. But if he misses up like he did to the Twins’ Danny Valencia on Sunday, then he will get hurt.

The Athletics come to town for a three-game series to finish off the first homestand of the season, fresh off losing two of three from the Mariners. The Jays have played Oakland very well at the Rogers Centre of late. In the last 11 meetings in Toronto between the two clubs, the Jays have won nine of them with a run differential of plus-28 and a huge advantage in the starting pitching department (Jays ERA 3.33 vs. A’s ERA 6.71).

The one Jay who is not looking forward to the Athletics’ visit is slugger Bautista, who has just one home run in 53 career at-bats vs. Oakland and, as a whole, has had trouble hitting A’s pitching during his time in the majors. His .151 career average against the Athletics is his lowest against any major league team.

BIRDS OF A DIFFERENT FEATHER

There are many theories as to why the Orioles have played so well since Buck Showalter replaced Dave Trembley as manager last August 3rd. For a team that was sleepwalking its way to a third consecutive last-place finish in the ultra-competitive AL East, the biggest factor was fear. Showalter came in and told everyone who would listen that no jobs were safe in the clubhouse. They responded by winning eight of the first nine games, 38 of 61 through the end of the season and their first four games to start 2011.

Orioles president of baseball operations Andy MacPhail overhauled the infield by bringing in Mark Reynolds, Derrek Lee and J.J. Hardy to join incumbent second baseman Brian Roberts in a rebuilt infield, and also brought in veteran DH Vladimir Guerrero to add some thunder to the middle of the line-up.

While it was expected that for the O’s to compete, they would have to slug their way to any victories, it has been their much-maligned pitching that has carried the team under Showalter. Since the day that the veteran skipper arrived, the Orioles team ERA has been 3.37, good for second in the AL behind the Athletics. Through Monday’s 5-1 win over the Tigers to open the home portion of their 2011 schedule, Orioles pitchers have allowed just a single run in each of their four wins to start the season.

While four games is a very small sample, it appears that the O’s won’t be quite the patsy that many had expected.