Edwin Encarnacion circles the bases after hitting a solo home run in the sixth inning on Wednesday.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
The roof at Rogers Centre was open for a gloriously sunny Wednesday, and close to 47,000 fans – many of them no doubt skipping out early from work to take advantage of a rare late-afternoon start – excitedly turned out to watch the Blue Jays take on the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Darrell Ceciliani was also energized, arriving early for work that morning and seeing that Toronto manager John Gibbons had chosen this game for the recent minor-league call-up to make his Blue Jays starting debut in right field.
The Blue Jays would go on to record a 5-2 win over the Diamondbacks to earn a split in the mini two-game set. But as far as first impressions are concerned, this one for Ceciliani was rather a mixed bag.
The 26-year-old, who played in 39 games a year ago for the New York Mets, was inserted into the Blue Jays lineup in place of Ezequiel Carrera, who is nursing a strained Achilles tendon.
Ceciliani was called up to the big-league team on Friday after Jose Bautista, the regular right fielder, injured his left big toe and was placed on the disabled list.
On the first play of the game, Ceciliani hustled back to make a nifty catch at the wall on a line drive by Jean Segura, leading off for the Diamondbacks.
But delight turned to horror in the third inning when Phil Gosselin lined a single off Toronto starter J.A. Happ toward the newbie with two out and an Arizona runner at first with the Blue Jays already leading 3-0.
It is a play Ceciliani has made successfully hundreds of times in the past. But on this occasion, playing before a sold-out gathering and desperately wanting to earn the trust of his new team, Ceciliani just plain muffed it.
The ball scooted off the artificial turf and bypassed Ceciliani's outstretched glove and rolled all the way to the wall as Segura rambled home from first base to cut Toronto's lead to 3-1.
Gosselin would wind up on third on the two-base error.
"I can say I was Happ's biggest fan in the stadium, rooting for him to get out of that afterwards," Ceciliani said later. "It was a little bit of an adventure, but I'm glad to get it out of the way."
Happ obliged, but it was nip and tuck there for a while. After Ceciliani's error, a rattled Happ walked the next two batters to load the bases before getting a key strikeout of Welington Castillo to limit the damage to one run.
It was that kind of an afternoon for Happ, who improved his record to 9-4 on the year despite struggling through just five innings.
The righthander issued four walks for the first time in a start this season, while striking out a season-best eight Arizona batters.
"It was a battle for sure," Happ said. "I felt like I was executing some pitches and I suppose I was just missing there, so it made for a lot of long counts. And four walks is too many.
"The bullpen came in and did an awesome job – picked me up, picked the team up."
Gibbons called on Gavin Floyd, Drew Storen, Jason Grilli and Roberto Osuna to collectively pick up the pieces, and they did not allow a run over four innings of work.
Osuna came on to work a perfect ninth and collect his 14th save of the year.
The Blue Jays started the game with yet another new leadoff batter in Devon Travis, sliding into the role when Carrera was unable to play.
It marked the fifth different player that Gibbons has used at the top of the Toronto batting order this season. Travis would go 0-for-4 in the contest, with two strikeouts.
The Blue Jays gained a lead in the first inning when Russell Martin launched his sixth home run of the year off Arizona starter Robbie Ray, a three-run shot that put Toronto ahead 3-0.
Down 3-1 in the fourth, Arizona tagged on another run when Yasmany Tomas stroked a one-out double and then scored on a single by Michael Bourn to cut the Toronto lead to one.
On a day when they gave out his T-shirts to the first 20,000 fans, Jays slugger Edwin Encarnacion celebrated by clobbering his 19th home run of the season leading off the sixth.
Three batters later, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki followed suit with his 11th of the season, and that put the game out of reach.