Familiar problems emerge in Blue Jays' Opening Day loss to Orioles

Last year, too many of the Blue Jays games seemed to follow the same script. The starting pitcher was effective but struggled, the offense went quiet and things seemed over by the sixth inning.

And while the vibe around this year's Blue Jays team seems to be different, they spent most of Opening Day doing their best impression of last year's squad in a 12-2 defeat to the Orioles.

Blue Jays struggle in Opening Day loss to Orioles

The Orioles faced off against Zach Eflin for the second straight Opening Day, only this year it went a little bit different. Last year, the Blue Jays had their way with Eflin in an 8-2 win over. This year, Eflin allowed just two runs in six innings in his taming of the Blue Jays lineup.

On the other side, José Berríos allowed six runs in five innings and frightening allowed three home runs. He only allowed three home runs in two starts last year.

The Blue Jays are going to need more from their pitching staff this year, and Berríos didn't get that quest off to a great start. It also didn't help that the Blue Jays' bullpen allowed six runs behind him.

Richard Lovelady, Jacob Barnes, Chad Green and Yariel Rodríguez all gave up runs. Rodríguez's outing was especially alarming since he gave up two home runs. The Blue Jays need him to be good this year, but his first outing was alarming.

It wasn't much better on the offensive side, as the Blue Jays only generated four hits and only managed to get a runner into scoring position once.

Their two runs came on a two-run home run from Andrés Giménez, who was making his Blue Jays debut.

Alan Roden also got the start in his MLB debut, where he collected his first major league hit.

Outside of that, there wasn't much life in the Blue Jays' offense. George Springer struck out twice. Anthony Santander went 0-for-4. Bo Bichette failed to reach base out of the leadoff spot.

There was also a striking lack of hard contact. Outside of George Springer's groundout and Alejandro Kirk's single, no ball Blue Jay hit a ball harder than 103 miles per hour. The Blue Jays hit seven balls 103+ miles per hour.

One game doesn't make a season, but it's still concerning to see so many of last year's ugly trends rear their head this year.

The quest to 161-1 begins tomorrow.