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The Toronto Blue Jays are a special team.
No, not just because their bright young core features budding superstars like AL MVP candidate Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and his league-leading 1.104 OPS.
Toronto isn't special simply because offseason additions like Marcus Semien -- who was named to MLB's team of the month -- have paid off immediately or because Toronto boasts a stacked farm system that now features eight prospects in Baseball America's Top 100.
Forget all that jazz for just a moment.
The Blue Jays are unique because they managed a 27-25 record, in one of baseball's hardest divisions, all without a true home ballpark.
TD Ballpark in Dunedin, Fla. was Toronto's initial 2021 home, but it rarely saw an all-Jays-crowd in attendance. At times, unruly Red Sox fans or Rays supporters crashed the party.
But in Tuesday night's 5-1 win -- the Blue Jays' first game at Sahlen Field in Buffalo, NY., -- the atmosphere looked better than it has all season.
With two men on in the third inning, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. took a big hack at a slider from Miami Marlins starter Sandy Alcantara as the Buffalo crowd erupted.
The foghorn sounded, fans hollered and Guerrero Jr. put three runs on the board for the Blue Jays with his 17th home run -- tied for the league lead. The 22-year-old recorded the first four-hit game of his career, falling a triple shy of the cycle.
After command slipped in his last start, Blue Jays starter Robbie Ray was on his game Tuesday. He threw six innings, allowed six hits, one run, two walks and struck out nine Marlins, often to a backdrop of whistles and applause from the crowd.
At just 35% crowd capacity, Sahlen Field wasn't the usual thunder dome the Rogers Centre is known to be, but the 5,321 fans in attendance made their presence known. The pro-Toronto crowd was refreshing, as it represented a step towards normalcy that COVID-19 has deprived Blue Jays baseball of.
“We were the visiting team every night in Dunedin, to the point that our players were heckled,” Blue Jays President/CEO Mark Shapiro said before Tuesday's game.
Shapiro said Blue Jays players arrived in Buffalo excited about the renovated Sahlen Field facilities -- which include a new home clubhouse, relocated bullpens and improved lighting, among other things -- but also the potential of home-field energy.
“It'll be nice to have more fans, and it'll be nice to have those fans, hopefully most of the time, cheering for the Blue Jays," Shapiro said.
The Blue Jays enjoyed a 17-9 record at Sahlen Field last season and will look to re-kindle some of that Buffalo-style magic for however long they play here in 2021.
Up Next:
RHP Alek Manoah vs. RHP Pablo Lopez @ 7:07 PM ET
The Blue Jays rookie makes his second big league start as Toronto faces a tough challenge in Lopez and his 2.71 ERA.
Manoah showed great swing-and-miss stuff last time around, striking out seven Yankees hitters through six scoreless innings. He'll look to help Toronto finish this two-game series on a winning note.
More must-reads:
- Blue Jays might return to Toronto this season?
- Cities that have infamously lost sports franchises
- The 'Famous MLB fathers and sons' quiz
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