The Toronto Blue Jays have to be happy with the early results (4 wins, 2 losses) in the very early stages of the 2012 MLB season. They took two of three from both the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox and could have easily swept both of the series with a bit of luck from the reliever gods. Either way, they won a couple tough fought extra inning games and gave a solid effort from start to finish.
They have also received solid pitching performances from their starters:
| Pitcher | Opponent | Result | IP | H | ER | BB | K | HR |
| R.Romero | @Cleveland | W 7-4 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 1 |
| B.Morrow | @Cleveland | W 7-4 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 |
| J.Carreno | @Cleveland | L 4-3 | 6 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| H.Alvarez | Boston | L 4-2 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 |
| K.Drabek | Boston | W 7-3 | 5.1 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 0 |
| R.Romero | Boston | W 3-1 | 8.1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 0 |
Looking at the above chart and it is easy to see why the Jays are off to a fast start. The starting rotation has been oft-discussed as the weak link heading into this season and although it has only been six total starts it does look a bit better than advertised. Joel Carreno has been sent back to AAA for now with Aaron Laffey taking his place and the backend will be a patchwork for most of the season.
I fully expect the young and promising Drew Hutchison to make a few big league starts in the next month or so as the Jays look to fill innings.
What I find even more encouraging when considering the Jays fast start is when you look at the slow starts from two guys expected to be our biggest producers. Brett Lawrie is hitting 240/259/240 and is off to a pretty terrible start overall. Jose Bautista has been just as cold with a slash line of 174/310/304 and only one homerun.
When they both start to produce at their projected levels it will give a boost to an offensive attack currently being led by the surprising Kelly Johnson, the only Blue Jays batter with an OPS above .800!
If the bats start to heat up and they continue to get quality efforts from the starting pitchers this team could surprise the American League.
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