The first lesson of MLB's opening weekend: Don't overreact.
The second lesson of opening weekend: If you don't overreact, you have no soul.
And the third lesson: We're all going to be watching a lot of Blue Jays baseball in 2022.
In their home opener, the Jays were down seven runs to the Rangers but rallied to win 10-8. It was an early statement showing why this is the team everyone is so excited about, the consensus American League favorite. No lead is big enough when you roll out a top four of George Springer, Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Teoscar Hernandez, all of whom are easily capable of 30-plus home runs. On Saturday, the Jays rallied from another deficit to win 4-3. On Sunday, they hit four home runs, including the longest so far in Guerrero's young career.
Now the Rangers weren't exactly rolling out Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz, but for all the preseason hype given to the Dodgers' lineup, Toronto is certainly capable of leading the majors in runs scored. Of course, another thing that will make Blue Jays baseball so exciting is that no lead might be safe -- on either side. The Jays had a 6-1 advantage on Sunday and lost 12-6, as Hyun Jin Ryu struggled in the fourth inning, and the bullpen coughed up a bunch of runs. Closer Jordan Romano looks solid, but the middle relief for Toronto remains a big question mark.
The Blue Jays will want to get that sorted out in a hurry, because they face a brutal April schedule: They head to New York for a four-game series against the Yankees, host the A's, travel to Boston and Houston for six games and then come back home for 10 games against the Red Sox, Astros and Yankees. So that's 20 of their next 23 games against the Yankees, Red Sox and Astros. Guerrero & Co. better bring the lumber.
Here are nine other observations from the opening weekend of the 2022 MLB season:
