Game 1 opener is warmest Blue Jays playoff game ever

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The 36th post-season Blue Jays game in Toronto was only the second played under an open roof at Rogers Centre.

And with good reason. Saturday’s American League Division Series opener between the Jays and New York Yankees was played under conditions more summer-like than usually seen in October. It was 26° Celsius when Kevin Gausman threw his first pitch to Trent Grisham, hotter than when Toronto hosted Baltimore for a night game on Oct. 4, 2016 and it was 17°C at first pitch.

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That game, won memorably by the Jays on Edwin Encarnacion’s walkoff, was the other one that came with the roof open.

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Later that month the team played two games against Cleveland with the weather at 20°C, but the roof was not open for either of them.

The team has played other open air playoff games though, dating to before the SkyDome’s June 1989 opening.

Back in 1985, in Toronto’s first trip to the post-season, four games were played under significantly different conditions at Exhibition Stadium.

The opening game began at 8:30 ET and it was 13°C, but quickly dropped. Game 2 was a more balmy 18°C for an afternoon start, and by Game 5 it was oddly 21°C. But by the heartbreaking Game 7, fans had to bundle up as the temperature dropped from around 6°C at first pitch to closer to 0°C.

By the time Toronto returned to the playoffs in 1989, the games against the Oakland Athletics were played with the roof closed at the sparkling new SkyDome, which had opened less than four months earlier, and that’s been the case ever since other than the 2016 game against Cleveland and on Saturday.

With the forecast calling for a high of 24°C Sunday, the roof was slated to be open again.

The Blue Jays are 844-632 all-time with the roof open, including 25-11 this season.

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