TORONTO BLUE JAYS NOTES:

THE LATEST:
The Blue Jays snapped their three-game skid with a 4-1 win in Kansas City last night…Marked the franchise’s 100th win all-time at Kauffman Stadium. Toronto has come back to earn both of its victories this season…Recorded 41 come-from-behind wins in 2022.

WELCOME TO THE VAR-SHOW: Daulton Varsho gave Toronto a 3-1 lead last night as he led off the 6th inning with his 1st home run as a Blue Jay…The ball went out 373 feet to left, his first opposite-field homer since Aug. 21, 2021 at COL. The outfielder also bunted for a single off lefty Amir Garrett to wrap up his night at 2-for-4, his 2nd multi-hit game…Has gone 3-for-7 with a walk and an RBI against LHPs to start this season.

STAT CHAPMAN: Matt Chapman singled twice and doubled last night to go 3-for-4 with an RBI…Is now batting .579 (11-for-19) with five doubles, two walks, and three RBI for a 1.461 OPS through five games…The 11 hits are tied with George Bell (1984) and Shannon Stewart (2001) for the most ever by a Blue Jay in the team’s first five games of a season, and are currently tied for the most in the Majors this year. The third baseman’s hot start also has him leading MLB in doubles while sitting T-4th in extra base hits…His three 3+ hit games are tied with Danby Swanson for the MLB lead while his four multi-hit efforts are also tied for tops among MLB batters (five players).

BICHETTE KEEPS HAPPENING: Bo Bichette singled and scored in the 3rd inning last night…Is the only Blue Jay with hits in all five games to begin this season…Is now 9-for-24 (.375) with a double, a homer, two RBI, and four runs scored… Led the AL in hits in each of the last two seasons, becoming the only player in team history to lead the league in hits more than once, and was the first player to do so since Whit Merrifield in 2018 and 2019 for the Royals.

VLAD HABITS: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. picked up a single and drew a walk as he finished 1-for-4 last night…Including that single, a groundout, and a flyout ranging from 97 to 108 MPH, has recorded an MLB-leading 13 hardhit balls (95+ MPH) this year, two more than any other batter…Recorded 265 hard-hit balls over the course of last season, the most in the Majors (2nd: José Abreu – 256).

STARTING FROM THE BOTTOM: Kevin Kiermaier went 2-for-4 on a pair of singles last night…Is now 7-for-17 (.412) while recording hits in all four games to start his Blue Jays career…His seven hits while batting 9th are the most in MLB.

HITTING IT: The Blue Jays have notched 53 hits so far, 3rd most in MLB…Their team batting average of .294 sits 2nd in the Majors as the season begins (STL: .344).

LENGTHY ROAD WORK: The Blue Jays start the season with 10 straight road contests as renovations wrap up at Rogers Centre… Ties the longest road trip to kick off a campaign in team history (10G in 1984)…Marks the 3rd trip of 10+ games to begin a season by any team in the last 20 years, joining the 2019 Red Sox (11G) and the 2022 Athletics (10G)…Played three games in St. Louis (1-2), are now in Kansas City (1-1) for four contests and will then wrap up the trip with three games in Anaheim. Toronto’s .556 road win% in 2022 (45-36) ranked 3rd in the AL and tied for 2nd best in team history (1st: .580 in 1993)…Blue Jays hitters led the AL in road runs (416), AVG (.266), OBP (.331), SLG (.428), and OPS (.759)…The pitching staff ranked 5th in the AL in road ERA (3.70), 5th in road WHIP (1.24), and 6th in road opponents’ batting average (.245).

YU DON’T SEI:
Yusei Kikuchi tossed 5.0 frames of one-run ball last night, allowing three hits while walking one batter and striking out two…Was his first start since Aug. 15, 2022 vs. BAL…Marked his first start with just one run allowed since July 28, 2022 vs. DET.

GETTING ON:
Toronto has had 77 runners reach base through five contests, 3rd most in the AL while the two teams ahead in that ranking have played an extra contest… Are now on a streak of 23 games with 8+ runners on base, the longest of all MLB clubs (courtesy Stats Perform). The Blue Jays led the AL in times on base in 2022 (2,395) as Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. tied for 3rd most among AL hitters at 306.

MORE THAN YOUR AVERAGE TEAM:
The Blue Jays led the Majors in 2022 with a .264 team batting average and 1,464 hits…Also led the AL in OBP (.329), SLG (.431), and OPS (.760) while ranked T-1st in extra-base hits (519), 2nd in runs (775), 2nd in doubles (307), and 3rd in home runs (200)…Topped the AL in AVG, OBP, SLG, and OPS for the 1st time in team history. Blue Jay batters combined for a hard-hit (95+ MPH) percentage of 44.3 in 2022, the top rate in MLB (2nd: ATL – 43.5) while their average exit velocity of 90.2 MPH was also highest in the Majors (2nd: ATL – 89.9).

VS. THE ROYALS: All-Time: 221-200
2023: 1-1 Road: 100-110
Road: 1-1 Kauffman Stadium: 100-110
The Blue Jays went 5-2 against the Royals last season, taking two of three contests at Kauffman Stadium…Have taken each season series since 2018, now 21-9 vs. KC over that span.

Whit Merrifield is facing his former team for the 1st time…The 9th-round pick of the 2010 draft debuted with the Royals in 2016 and played in 863 games across seven seasons…Batted .286, was named to two All-Star teams, and led the AL in hits in both 2018 (192) and 2019 (206).

Matt Chapman went 10-for-27 (.370) with three doubles, two home runs, and six RBI in the seven games against the Royals last season…Is now a career .355 (39-for-110) hitter with 13 doubles, seven home runs, and 19 RBI across 30 contests (1.067 OPS)…His career .664 SLG vs. KC ranks 3rd best among active hitters (min. 100 AB). George Springer leads all current Blue Jays with 44 career games played vs. KC…Has hit .237 (42-for177) with eight doubles, two triples, 10 homers, and 31 RBI for an .830 OPS.

STARTING PITCHER – Alek Manoah, RHP #6
TODAY’S GAME:
Making his 2nd start of the season…Was the Opening Day starter for the Blue Jays on 3/30 at STL…Took a no-decision that day, giving up 5 runs on a career-high 9 hits and 2 walks over 3.1 innings with 3 strikeouts… At 25 years and 80 days old, became the 4th-youngest Opening Day starter in team history (Drew Hutchison – 24.227 in 2015; Todd Stottlemyre – 24.324 in 1990; Marcus Stroman 24.338 in 2016).

2022 HIGHLIGHTS:
His career 1.01 WHIP was the 2nd lowest all-time by an AL pitcher in his first two big league seasons, trailing only Walter Johnson’s 0.98 mark in 1907-1908 (min. 40 starts)…courtesy Stats Perform.

Finished 3rd in AL Cy Young voting, behind only Houston’s Justin Verlander and Chicago’s Dylan Cease.

Named an All-Star for the 1st time in his career…Pitched a scoreless 2nd inning in the Midsummer Classic, notching 3 punchouts and a hit batter on 18 pitches (13 strikes)…Joined Dave Stieb as the only pitchers in franchise history to strike out at least 3 batters in a single All-Star Game (Stieb – 4K in 1983).

Ranked 3rd among qualified AL pitchers in both ERA (2.24) and wins (16)…Also ranked 4th in the AL in innings pitched (196.2), 4th in WHIP (0.99), and 5th in opponent batting average (.202)…Became the 6th AL pitcher since 1920 to turn in a sub-1.00 WHIP under age 25…His 0.99 WHIP was the best in team history (2nd: Roger Clemens – 1.03 in 1997) while his 2.24 ERA ranked 2nd (1st: Clemens – 2.05 in 1997).

His 25 quality starts tied with Yu Darvish for 2nd most in the Majors, trailing only Framber Valdez’s 26.

Held right-handed hitters to a .159 AVG, 2nd best in the AL (3rd in MLB).

Made his 1st career postseason start in Game 1 of the ALWC vs. SEA on 10/7…Was the 7th Blue Jay pitcher under the age of 25 to make a postseason start, and the 1st since Aaron Sanchez in Game 4 of the 2016 ALCS vs. CLE (10/18/16)…Gave up 4ER on 4H and a walk over 5.2 IP.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS:
In 2021, led MLB rookies (min. 10 starts) in WHIP (1.05), AVG (.192), and opponents’ OPS (.604), while 2nd in ERA, 3rd in K rate (27.7%) and 4th in SO/9 (10.24)…Became the 4th pitcher aged 23 or younger to average at least 10 strikeouts per nine innings in his debut season, joining Mark Prior (2002), Kerry Wood (1998) and Dwight Gooden (1984).

Named AL Rookie of the Month for Sept./Oct. 2021, going 4-0 with a 3.38 ERA and 41 strikeouts over 37.1 innings (six starts)…Was the the first Blue Jay to win the award since Lourdes Gurriel Jr. in July of 2018, and the first Toronto pitcher since Scott Richmond in April of 2009. Selected by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 1st round (11th overall) of the 2019 First-Year Player Draft.

VS. THE ROYALS:
Facing the Royals for the 4th time in his career…Has allowed just a single run over 20.0 combined innings (0.45 ERA) with 12 hits, 4 walks, and 14 strikeouts while holding hitters to a .171 AVG…Tossed 6.0 shutout frames in his only visit to Kauffman Stadium on 6/7/22 (6H, 3BB, 4K).

KANSAS CITY ROYALS NOTES:

ABOUT LAST NIGHT: The Royals suffered a 4-1 loss to the Blue Jays last night at Kauffman Stadium, falling to 1-4 through the first 5 games of the season for just the sixth time in franchise history…Franmil Reyes gave the Royals an early lead with a solo home run to begin the 2nd inning, a moon shot that traveled 455 ft., according to Statcast, to mark his 1st hit as a Royal…Matt Duffy was the only other Royal to record hit, as he went 3-for-3 to eclipse 600 hits for his career…Kris Bubic made his season debut and allowed 2 runs in 5.0 innings.

ROSTER MOVES: The Royals announced today that outfielder Kyle Isbel has been placed on the Paternity List, as he and his wife, Priscilla, are expecting…in a corresponding move, infielder Nick Pratto has been recalled from Triple-A Omaha…Pratto was 4-for-16 with 5 walks and 3 strikeouts in 4 games with the Storm Chasers.

PITCHING PROPS: Through the first turn in the rotation, Royals starting pitchers Zack Greinke, Jordan Lyles, Brad Keller, Brady Singer and Kris Bubic have combined for a 2.84 ERA (8 ER in 25.1 IP), which ranks 5th in the Majors and is nearly 2 runs lower than their 4.76 ERA (440 ER in 832.2 IP) from last season, when Royals starters ranked 27th out of 30…the Royals starting rotation is one of three in the Majors that hasn’t allowed a home run this season, along with the Braves and Rays…all five Royals starters to this point have held their opponent to 2 runs or fewer and only Keller, who pitched 4.2 innings on Sunday, failed to complete 5.0 innings.

Tonight the Royals turn to Greinke, who has allowed 2 earned runs or fewer in 18 of his last 20 starts at Kauffman Stadium dating back to Sept. 30, 2010, during which he owns a 2.26 ERA (29 ER in 115.1 IP).

HIGH HEAT: Aroldis Chapman has only appeared in 2 games with the Royals, but he’s already etched his name into the club record book…Chapman threw a 103.5 mph pitch last night that struck out Bo Bichette, which matched Kelvin Herrera for the fastest pitch recorded by a Royal since data is available in 2008…in fact, Chapman is already responsible for 5 of the 9 fastest pitches by a Royal since 2008…his 103.5 mph pitch last night was the 3rd-fastest pitch in the Majors this season, trailing only the Cardinals Jordan Hicks, who hit 103.8 and 103.6 mph on Opening Day…Chapman’s club-record-tying heater last night was nothing new for him, marking the 150th time in his career he’s thrown a pitch at 103.5 mph or faster, and it was well shy of his fastest pitch…as a rookie in 2010, Chapman hit 105.8 mph, the highest velocity tracked by any pitcher since 2008.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS: The Royals added three veteran non-roster invites to their Opening Day roster in Jackie Bradley Jr., Matt Duffy and Franmil Reyes…Bradley Jr., who appeared on the 2013 and 2018 World Series winning teams in Boston, is only 1-for-8 with 2 walks through 3 games, but has already made his Rawlings Gold Glove Award-winning presence felt, making starts at all three outfield spots…Duffy, a World Series champion with San Francisco in 2014 and the Rookie of the Year runner-up in 2015, had 3 of the Royals 4 hits last night and is 5-for-7 through 2 games with the Royals…Reyes, who hit a career-high 37 HR in 2019 and hit 30 HR in 2021, recorded his 1st hit as a Royal last night on a 455-ft. home run that sailed over the fountains in left-center field and marked the longest homer by a Royal in two years…according to Elias, Reyes is the fourth player on the Royals active roster to have his 1st hit with the team be a HR, joining Nate Eaton on July 14, 2022 at Toronto, Vinnie Pasquantino on July 1, 2022 at Detroit and Zack Greinke on June 10, 2005 at Arizona.

UNDER THE LIGHTS: Tonight’s 6:40 p.m. CT start will be the Royals last night game until next Monday, as the next 4 games are matinees, including tomorrow’s 1:10 p.m. CT series finale vs. Toronto and a trio of day games this weekend in San Francisco…Friday’s 3:35 p.m. CT start will be the Giants home opener, and will be followed by 3:05 p.m. starts on Saturday and Sunday…tonight marks the third of 16 Royals weeknight home games that will begin at 6:40 p.m. CT this season, including 5 in April, 8 in May and 3 in September.

Tonight marks the fifth of 12 consecutive days with a game before the next off day on Thursday, April 13.

VS. TORONTO: The Royals have split the first 2 games of this set as they attempt to win a season series vs. the Blue Jays for the first time since 2017, when they went 4-2…they’ve gone 8-20 in the four completed seasons since, but they have won 5 of their last 9 games vs. the Blue Jays at Kauffman Stadium dating back to 2021, including Monday night’s 9-5 win…after this week’s 4-game set in Kansas City, the Royals in September will travel north of the border for 3 games, where they haven’t won a series since taking two of three in 2017.

Since the Royals defeated Toronto in the 2015 ALCS, they’re 15-27 (.357) in 42 games vs. the Blue Jays.

Whit Merrifield last night made his 1st appearance at Kauffman Stadium as a visitor, after spending the first six-plus years of his Major League career with the Royals…Whit, however, isn’t the only former Royal representing the Blue Jays in this series, as Buck Martinez is here in his 14th season calling games on Sportsnet…Martinez, 74, spent the first eight seasons of his 17-year big league career with the Royals.

CAPTAIN SALVY: The Royals announced prior to last Thursday’s season-opening game that Salvador Perez has been named team Captain…Perez, 32, joins Royals Hall of Famers George Brett (1989-93), Frank White (1989-90) and Mike Sweeney (2003-07) as the only team Captains in club history…Salvy is a seven-time American League All-Star, a five-time Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner, a four-time Silver Slugger Award winner and a two-time Royals Les Milgram Player of the Year…he was unanimously named the Most Valuable Player of the 2015 World Series, and ranks among the Royals all-time leaders in home runs (223, 2nd), RBI (732, 7th), extra-base hits (472, 7th), total bases (2,207, 8th), doubles (238, 9th) and hits (1,278, 8th).

PACE OF PLAY: The new pitch timer rules implemented for 2023 have already produced dramatic results through the first six days of the season…through 76 games that have ended in 9 innings, the average game time has been 2 hours, 37 minutes, and only 11 of the 76 games (14.5%) lasted at least 3 hours…the Royals 5 games have averaged 2 hours, 30 minutes, 7 minutes below the league average…compared to 9-inning games across the Majors last season, average time of game is down 26 minutes, while batting averages are up from .243 to .250, runs per game are up from 8.6 to 9.2 and stolen base success rates have jumped from 75.4% to 82.8%…the current success rate of stolen bases would shatter the Major League record set two seasons ago at 75.7%.

TONIGHT’S STARTERS: RHP ZACK GREINKE (0-1, 3.38)
ZACK GREINKE is making his 2nd start of the season and 516th of his career tonight vs. Toronto, matching Jack Powell (1897-1912) for 43rd place on the all-time starts list…it’s his 14th career start (16th appearance) vs. the Blue Jays…Greinke, now in his 20th season in the Majors, is a six-time All-Star, a six-time Rawlings Gold Glove Award winner and was named the AL Cy Young Award winner in 2009 with the Royals.

He is one of three pitchers in Major League history with at least six Rawlings Gold Gloves and six All-Star selections, along with Greg Maddux and Bob Gibson.

Among active pitchers, Greinke ranks 1st in starts (515), innings (3252.1), 2nd in wins (223) and 3rd in strikeouts (2,886)…he is one of three pitchers in Major League history to win a Cy Young Award, a Rawlings Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger Award, along with Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser.

OPENING DAY: Greinke suffered a 2-0 loss to the Twins last Thursday at Kauffman Stadium, in which he allowed 2 runs on 6 hits and 1 walk in 5.1 innings, with 4 strikeouts…he stranded the bases loaded in the 1st and erased an error to begin the 2nd with a double play, which began a stretch in which he retired nine straight batters…Zack stranded a pair in the 5th but allowed back-to-back hits to begin the 6th, including an RBI single by Trevor Larnach…he exited in favor of Amir Garrett, who allowed an inherited runner to score on an RBI single by pinch hitter Donovan Solano.

This marked his 7th career Opening Day start and 6th in the last eight seasons, matching Max Scherzer, Aaron Nola and Madison Bumgarner for the most in the Majors among pitchers since 2016…it was his 3rd Opening Day start with Kansas City, tied for the 3rd most among pitchers in Royals history behind Royals Hall of Famers Kevin Appier (7) and Dennis Leonard (4).

At 39 years, 160 days old, he was the oldest Opening Day starter in Royals history, surpassing his own record set last season…the last pitcher older than Zack to start a game for an American League team on Opening Day was Curt Schilling, who started for Boston in 2007 at age 40 at Kauffman Stadium vs. the Royals.

BACK IN BLUE: Zack returned in 2023 for the second straight year to Kansas City, where he spent the first seven seasons of his Major League career, after being selected by the Royals 6th overall in the 2002 Draft…Greinke is the 33rd player to play for the Royals, leave the organization and later return…he missed time due to two stints on the Injured List in 2022, limiting him to only 137.0 innings, the 4th fewest in his career behind the shortened 2020 season (67.0 IP), 2006 (6.1 IP) and 2007 (122.0 IP)…he did, however, rank 2nd among Royals starters with a 3.68 ERA (56 ER in 137.0 IP).

Zack enters tonight with 1250.1 innings in a Royals uniform, and is 6.1 innings shy of matching Charlie Leibrandt for 7th in Royals history.

MILESTONE MAKER: After surpassing 500 starts and 50,000 pitches thrown last season, Greinke is on the verge of many more milestones this year…among them is a rare feat, courtesy of Baseball Reference’s Kenny Jackelen…Greinke has struck out 993 different batters in his 20-year career and is seven new strikeout victims shy of joining Nolan Ryan, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens as the only pitchers in Major League history to fan 1,000 different batters…there are five players on Toronto’s active roster who Greinke has yet to strike out, including Santiago Espinal, Danny Jansen, Kevin Kiermaier, Alejandro Kirk and Nathan Lukes.

LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON: There were seven full seasons that passed between Hall of Famer Vladimir Guerrero’s retirement in 2011 and the Major League debut of his son, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in 2019…thanks to some exhaustive research in the Royals Media Relations department (s/o Krafty), we know that only eight pitchers have struck out both Guerreros, and two of them are on the Royals active roster in Aroldis Chapman and tonight’s starting pitcher, Zack Greinke…the others are listed in the chart above and to the right.

VS. TORONTO: Zack is 5-5 with a 4.08 ERA (37 ER in 81.2 IP) in 13 career starts (15 appearances) vs. Toronto, including a loss in his most recent meeting last July 15 at the Rogers Centre, where he allowed 4 runs (3 ER) on 8 hits…in 6 starts vs. the Blue Jays since the 2010 season, Greinke is 3-1 with a 2.84 ERA (12 ER in 38.0 IP), including a 6-hit shutout in Toronto less than two years ago, on June 4, 2021 when he was pitching for Houston.

CROWN VISION: Greinke has made 107 starts at Kauffman Stadium, 6th most in the 51-season history of the ballpark…he’s 4-3 in 13 home starts since returning to the Royals in 2022, increasing his career win total to 41, the 7th most in this ballpark…his 1.91 ERA (14 ER in 66.0 IP) at Kauffman Stadium in 2022 was the 3rd-best home ERA in the American League (min. 10 starts) behind Justin Verlander (1.64) and Shohei Ohtani (1.82)…it was the 4th-best home ERA in Royals history (min. 10 starts) behind himself in 2009 (1.70), Bret Saberhagen in 1989 (1.71) and Paul Splittorff in 1971 (1.90).

Zack has allowed 2 earned runs or fewer in 18 of his last 20 starts at Kauffman Stadium dating back to Sept. 30, 2010, a stretch in which he owns a 2.26 ERA (29 ER in 115.1 IP), including 6 starts as a visitor from 2012-21…he allowed just 2 home runs in 66.0 innings at Kauffman Stadium in 2022 for a 0.14 HR/9, the best home mark in the Majors (min. 10 starts)…he has not allowed a homer in his last 38.2 innings at Kauffman Stadium dating back to June 29, 2022, and has a 35.2-inning homerless streak overall that dates back to Aug. 21, 2022 at Tropicana Field