Best of all, Rays ace Chris Archer was on the mound.Then the game started. And Archer — the ace of the staff, the face of the franchise — had trouble getting out of the first inning.Definitely not the start the Rays wanted. From themselves. And especially from their best pitcher.That poor start bled into a 5-3 loss. With the exception of a few — well, a few thousand — Blue Jays fans, the sellout crowd of 31,042 went home disappointed. Perhaps the 9,000 and change who go to tonight's game will be a little more entertained.Tampa Bay Times

It didn’t take long for the Blue Jays to pick up where they left off.In the first game of this new season, they exhibited many of the same characteristics that made them such a powerhouse in the second half of 2015.It started, of course, with their veteran-laden lineup — baseball’s highest-scoring by a mile last year — which took an early lead by grinding patient at-bats against one of the game’s best pitchers.Then there was Marcus Stroman, the team’s budding ace, who worked with remarkable efficBluejays,MLB,iency and elicitedSo in many ways, Sunday’s season-opening, 5-3 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays was a familiar one for the Jays.The Star