Blue Jays catcher J.P. Arencibia is really good at introductions.
You might remember that the 24-year-old catcher hit two home runs in his major league debut last August. Well, Arencibia hit two more in last night’s 13-3 drubbing of the Twins.
Arencibia became the first rookie to hit two homers on Opening Day since Gary Gaetti in 1982. He’s the first player to have multi-homer games to start a season in consecutive years since Joe Torre did it with the Braves in 1965 and 1966. If that isn’t enough history for you, according to Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com, Arencibia became the first Jays rookie to homer on Opening Day since Carlos Delgado in 1994 and the sixth Jays player to have a multi-homer game on Opening Day. Maybe I’m just weird, but I have missed hearing obscure stats like this.
You wouldn’t know it by last night’s results, but Arencibia was flat out awful this spring. He batted just .161 with 19 strikeouts over 62 at-bats. Many expect him to struggle to hit for a high batting average -- remember, he went 1-for-30 after his historic exploits last season -- but nobody has ever questioned his power.
