A winnable game against a team that the Blue Jays hope to catch was wasted on Opening Day.

Sorry to make my first column of the 2008 regular season negative, but I saw nothing that would lead me to believe that the Blue Jays will finish any higher than third, again, in the A.L. East. Doc Halladay gave the Jays a start that would normally land him a win. The bats, though, performed eerily like they did for most of 2007, and it had nothing to do with any injuries.

All told, the Jays were their offensively feeble self. It started right off the hop. With two on in the first, Vernon Wells popped out to second and Alex Rios inexplicably got doubled up. In the second inning, two hits started the inning but just one run came in on a fielder’s choice. It was the same thing in the fifth, when the first two batters reached but only one scored, with a ball failing to leave the infield. In the end, the Jays went one for 12 with runners in scoring position, as the heart of the order – Rios, Wells and Frank Thomas – ended innings with a runner standing on second, thanks to a pop up and two strikeouts.

And the Jays’ above-average defence also let them down in the fateful seventh inning when Aaron Hill booted a likely double play, allowing the winning run to cross.

Not that it was all bad. Shockingly, the Blue Jays stole three bases. Yes, you read right. Marco Scutaro had a pair and Rios had one as the Jays went against the front office’s philosophy and swiped bases. Let’s hope there will be more of that. Halladay induced a pair of double plays, and Gregg Zaun threw out Derek Jeter attempting to steal, the latter something that rarely happened a year ago.

And Scott Downs, fast becoming one of the most reliable relievers in the game, kept the Yankees from scoring an insurance run by stranding a lead-off triple by Johnny Damon in the eighth and navigating his way through the tough Yankee lineup.

One down, 161 to go, but like I said at the start of this piece, nothing went down Tuesday night that led me to believe things will be any different this year. A winnable game against a team that they hope to catch was wasted.

THE YANKEE RULES

I’d still like to hear the reason why the season opener on Monday afternoon was rained out. An hour and 15 minutes after the scheduled first pitch, the rain, which never got heavier than a drizzle, stopped and didn’t start up again for the rest of the day. I was walking around Manhattan at 4 p.m. and it was bone dry. I knew something was up when the Yankees YES TV crew packed up and left a half hour before they announced the cancellation to the fans. who booed lustily. I’ve always suspected that the Yankees play by different rules than the rest of the teams, especially at home, but this smacked of a conspiracy. Were they trying to throw Jays’ ace Roy Halladay off his game by making him wait until the following evening, thus making it close to a week between appearances? Who knows, but something seemed fishy.

THIS & THAT

All one had to see was Pedro Martinez give up a pair of home runs on 86 mph fastballs, and then see him leave the game with a groin strain to realize that it might be a long season for New York’s other team. All the good feelings from Johan Santana’s Mets debut quickly dissipated and this might be another long year for a very talented team.

I realize that a lot of the pundits have picked the Tigers to win the A.L. Central and challenge the Red Sox for the league pennant, but unless they get their bullpen in order, they will lose a lot of high scoring games like they did on Opening Day to the bottom-feeding Royals.

Another pre-season favourite, the Angels, start the season without their top two starters – John Lackey and Kelvim Escobar – and their set-up man – Scot Shields. Escobar’s career is in jeopardy and suddenly the Angels are very vulnerable and the A.L. West is wide open.

I realize one game does not a career make, but the Twins debut of Torii Hunter’s replacement in Minnesota, Carlos Gomez, was dazzling. This guy might be the fastest player in the game and if he can continue to reach his vast potential, the Johan Santana deal might not turn out too bad for the Twins.

Watching Eric Gagne and Kerry Wood cough up three runs apiece in their ninth inning appearances at Wrigley Field the other day leads me to believe that the N.L. Central might be the wildest and wackiest division in the game.

I know the talk is that B.J. Ryan might be ready to rejoin the Jays by the middle of this month, but here’s hoping that sanity will prevail and they’ll leave him in Florida to pitch in the warm weather until his arm is better than 100 per cent. What’s the rush?

If there was ever a perfect representation of the gap between the rich and poor teams in the salary cap-free world of baseball, it was the release of payroll information on Tuesday. The New York Yankees head the list with an Opening Day payroll of $209,081,577, led by the $28 million that Alex Rodriguez pulls in. His season salary is almost $6 million more than the entire Florida Marlins payroll. Unbelievable!