Toronto has officially wrapped up their seven game home stand to begin the season, finishing a very impressive 5-2 to begin and landing themselves at the top of the AL East for the time being. A big part of this record was due to their dominant series sweep over the Nationals for the past three days, ending last night on Wednesday with a 4-2 Blue Jays win. This game was exciting and fun to watch all around, and got to see Jays pitcher Easton Lucas make his first career big league start. Lucas, who was a career long reliever, got his chance to make his first start in the MLB after Max Scherzer went down with an injury earlier in the week, and the choice was pretty much between Lucas and Yariel Rodriguez, but the team ultimately decided to pitch Rodriguez out of the bullpen in the game previous to help secure the win in the second game of the series and let Lucas take over the mound for the third and final game.

The offence once again was working early, as Anthony Santander picked up a two out double in the bottom of the first, that led to Andres Gimenez knocking him in with an RBI single just one batter later.

The bats would get hot again in the fourth for the Blue Jays, when George Springer launched his first home run of the season over the wall to lead off the inning to make it 2-0 Toronto.

Our first #SpringerDinger of the season!

Stay hot, George 🔥 pic.twitter.com/Gi3hy33cRe

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) April 2, 2025

Nationals starter Mackenzie Gore was able to weather the storm however, and get out of the inning with no further damage being done. As for Easton Lucas, he looked completely unhittable in his first start in the major’s, dealing five shutout innings, and racking up three strikeouts and only giving up one hit. Lucas was incredibly impressive in this one, and it may even stir up a conversation on whether or not the Jays try to implement him back into the starting rotation more often.

Back to the Jay’s offence, bottom of the fifth, bases loading and only one away with Ernie Clement at the plate. Clement sent a high fly ball deep into right field back to the warning track, that would be deep enough for the runner from third to score, giving Clement the sacrifice fly and an RBI to get the score to 3-0.

Brendon Little came into the game to replace Easton Lucas to begin the sixth inning, and was promptly greeted from the bullpen with CJ Abrams sending a leadoff home run into the seats to put Washington on the board and cut into the lead making it 3-1. Little was able to get the next three outs in order to retire the side and keep the lead right where it was.

Going to the bottom of the sixth now, Myles Straw connected with an impressive hit going the other way and led off the inning with a double, and was moved over to third base with only one away for Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to step up. Guerrero smacked a ground ball to the shortstop, and Straw broke for the plate on contact. The throw to the plate came in too high for the catcher to grab, sending the ball to the backstop, allowing Straw to score and Guerrero to end up at second base on the play.

The Jay’s bullpen was able to keep the Nationals from scoring heading into the ninth inning where Jeff Hoffman came in looking to close the door shut on the game. Hoffman was able to get the Nationals down to their last out with only a runner on first, but Nathaniel Lowe was able to send a double the opposite way against the shift that rolled all the way into the right field corner, allowing the runner on first to score making it 4-2 with two outs and a runner on second. Luckily, after Lowe was able to make it to third base after another single with two outs, the runner from first tried to steal second base, but was gunned down by Tyler Heineman to end the ballgame.

1-0 in Work From Dome games in 2025 😉 pic.twitter.com/3QVmwr47PY

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) April 2, 2025

Toronto sealed the win and broke an infamous team curse in the process. Last year, the team went an abysmal 0-6 at home during their  “work from dome” promotional days, and afterwards fans began to ask on social media that the team remove the promotion for the following season as a result. However, the team kept the work from dome days and on their first chance of the season, broke the curse by getting the win. Toronto now takes a day off after defending their home turf for the last week straight, before heading off on the road for a 10 day trip starting Friday in Queens, New York when the Jays take on the Mets for their first series on the road in 2025.

Winner: Toronto Blue Jays (5-2)

Loser: Washington Nationals (1-5)

PLAYERS OF THE GAME:

M. Straw 3/4, 2 2B, 1R

G. Springer 1/3, 1HR, 1RBI, 1BB

A. Santander 2/4, 2B, 1R

PITCHERS:

Win – E. Luacs: 5.0IP, 1H, 0ER, 3K (1-0)

Loss – M. Gore: 5.0IP, 9H, 3ER, 5K (0-1)

Save – J. Hoffman: 1.0IP, 3H, 1ER, 1K (3)