Watch: Blue Jays ended their 29-game streak of scoreless baseball in the first inning

Originally posted on Bluejaysnation | By Ryley Delaney | Last updated Jun 8, 2024 5:00 PM ET

The streak is finally over.

Coming into Saturday afternoon’s game, the Blue Jays hadn’t scored a run in the first inning in 29 consecutive games, just two games shy of breaking the record set by the 1937 Boston Bees.

However, it was Spencer Horwitz’s duty to end the curse. His roommate, Davis Schneider, led off the top of the first with a pop-up, with every Blue Jay fan saying “oh, here we go again”. Horwitz was the next batter and he walked on four pitches.

Then Vladimir Guerrero Jr. walked, and then Bo Bichette. Finally, the Blue Jays had the bases loaded with only one out, allowing Danny Jansen to hit a sac fly to drive in Horwitz.

Blue Jays end the 29-game scoreless first inning streak! pic.twitter.com/sKZtlWQyCt

— Ryley Delaney (@Ryley_L_D) June 8, 2024

The streak has ended, but it was to be expected. Coming into this series, the Athletics allowed a league high 46 innings according to Gate 14’s Avery Chenier, so this was the team the Blue Jays needed to do it against.

The Oakland A's have allowed 46 first inning runs this year. 3rd most in the league. We break the curse this weekend.

— Avery Chenier (@AveryChenier) June 6, 2024

Funnily enough, the Blue Jays’ best inning is the second inning, where they’ve scored a league high 44 runs, slightly edging out the Milwaukee Brewers’ 43 runs and the Baltimore Orioles’ 40 runs. However, they failed to score in the second innings during Saturday’s game.

So what gives? Well, the player batting lead off for the Jays this season, whether it is George Springer or Davis Schneider, hasn’t had great success. As a team, their leadoff hitter is slashing .201/.267/.320. The batting average is the second worst in the league, while the on-base percentage is the worst in the league by a fairly large margin.

The second spot isn’t much better, as the team is collectively slashing .203/.307/.337, with the batting average being the third worst. However, the team bats better in the third spot, mainly because of Vladimir Guerrero Jr. who is slashing .295/.386/.427. However, the fourth spot has struggled this season as well, slashing .226/.309/.312, with the batting average being sixth-worst in the league.

It’s a fairly odd statistic that doesn’t really have an explanation, but hopefully the team can get it sorted out soon if they wish to make the postseason.

me on Twitter @Ryley_L_D.

This article first appeared on Bluejaysnation and was syndicated with permission.

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