Sixteen years ago today, the Blue Jays put up one of those box scores that still looks a little unreal: a 17-7 win over the Rays, eight Toronto home runs, and a debut for J.P. Arencibia that practically announced itself in neon.
Arencibia wasted no time. In his first major league game, he homered on the first pitch he saw, doubled in his second at-bat, singled in his third, and then launched another homer in his fourth.
He finished 4-for-5 with 11 total bases, three runs, and three RBI. Toronto also got two homers from Aaron Hill, with Adam Lind, Edwin Encarnacion, Jose Bautista, and Lyle Overbay each adding one more.
For a moment, it felt like the Blue Jays had found something special. Arencibia became just the third Blue Jay to homer in his first career game, joining Alvis Woods and Junior Felix.
During the postgame interview, he was covered in shaving cream, doused with two buckets of Gatorade, and then hit with another round of shaving cream. “Please, Cito, play him tomorrow.”
That didn’t happen. Cito didn’t play him the next day, and Arencibia ended up starting just 9 of Toronto’s remaining 52 games that season.
He hit .143/.189/.343 in 37 plate appearances and went hitless in 15 September at-bats. Jordan Bastian tweeted that, since 1900, no other player had 4 hits and 2 home runs in his MLB debut.
The rest of Arencibia’s Toronto run never matched the opening act. He spent four seasons with the club, batting .212/.258/.408 with 64 home runs over 380 games.
After that, he played 62 games for the Rangers in 2014, mostly at first base, and 24 games for the Rays in 2015. His final numbers tell the story of a hitter who never solved the strike zone: 85 walks against 484 strikeouts.
He also had his share of defensive issues, though his arm played. He threw out 27% of base stealers.
Off the field, he was popular with fans.
Toronto’s offense that day was all over the place in the best possible way. Travis Snider, leading off, went 2-for-2 with two walks.
Yunel Escobar was 3-for-6. Bautista hit his 34th homer, which led the American League.
Encarnacion went 3-for-5 and made his 10th error of the season.
On the mound, Brad Mills started and allowed five runs in four innings. Brian Tallet worked three innings in relief, earned the win, and gave up two unearned runs.
Jason Frasor tossed a scoreless inning. David Purcey began the ninth, allowed two hits and two walks, and recorded just one out.
Casey Janssen finished the game by getting the final two outs, but he allowed a hit and a walk, and both inherited runners scored.
There’s also another blast from Jays history: 25 years ago, Chris Woodward hit three home runs against the Mariners in a game Toronto still lost 5-4. Woodward spent seven seasons and 362 games with the Blue Jays and hit just 26 homers for Toronto, which makes that night even stranger. In his 12-year major league career, he finished with 33 home runs, so 9.1% of them came in one game.
Seattle’s lineup that night was no soft landing. Ichiro Suzuki led off and had two hits.
John Olerud went 1-for-4. Edgar Martinez hit cleanup and had two hits, including a home run and two RBI.
Toronto led 3-2 entering the eighth, but Scott Cassidy gave up the tying run in the eighth and the go-ahead run in the ninth. He pitched in 58 games that season, his rookie year, and posted a 5.73 ERA.
In seven save chances, he blew all seven. Buck Martinez and Carlos Tosca used him as a setup man, but the bullpen and rotation never gave the club much stability.
It was basically Roy Halladay and pray for rain.
The Jays’ debut-home-run list now includes Al Woods in 1977, Junior Félix in 1989, J.P. in 2010, Davis Schneider on August 4, 2023, and Charles McAdoo on June 1, 2026.
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