Everything goes according to plan for Blue Jays in Opening Day win

A strong starting pitching performance, rookies stepping up, stars coming up with big hits – the Toronto Blue Jays got it all on Opening Day in a 6-1 win over the New York Yankees. Don’t plan the parade yet, but it was the kind of all-around performance that, if done with regularity over 162 games, will have fans excited about the Blue Jays ending their playoff drought.

Starter Drew Hutchison set the tone with an impressive performance in his first career Opening Day start. He went six innings, giving up just one run on three hits, and striking out three. Hutchison is two years removed from Tommy John surgery but had a solid season last year and is a popular pick to have a breakout season in 2015.

Offensively there were several bright spots. The Blue Jays put up five runs in the third inning thanks to a two-run single by Russell Martin, his first hit as a Blue Jay, and a two-run home run by Edwin Encarnacion.

Last year Encarnacion didn’t hit his first homer until April 22. Rookie second baseman Devon Travis, making his big-league debut, got his first career hit in style, launching a solo home run to left in the seventh inning. He also walked twice and scored two runs. Kevin Pillar had two hits out of the No. 8 spot in the order.

The bullpen wasn’t bad either. Aaron Loup pitched 1.2 innings before giving way to 20-year-old rookie Miguel Castro. Castro made his major-league debut in the eighth inning with runners on second and third and two outs – but only threw one pitch. He threw a strike to Mark Teixeira then Martin gunned out Didi Gregorius foolishly trying to steal third. Castro returned in the ninth and pitched a perfect inning, including a strikeout of Brian McCann, to finish off the game.

If you’re a pessimist that wants to find warts in Game 1 you could point out that Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson were a combined 0-for-9, with five strikeouts between them. But the beauty of the Blue Jays’ lineup is that there is enough balance and overall potency to find runs elsewhere when their two biggest offensive stars go quiet. Not to mention that Bautista was great defensively.

The Blue Jays have an off day Tuesday then resume their series with the Yankees Wednesday night with R.A. Dickey taking the mound against Michael Pineda.

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Ian Denomme is an editor and writer for Yahoo Sports. Email him at denomme@yahoo-inc.com or follow him on Twitter.