The home opener is special every year. Just kind of like setting a tone at home, what the fans can expect of us this year. It's a very important game for us. You can probably say even more, now that we didn't get the result we wanted in the first game, I think it's very important that we step on the pitch looking for three points at home and also offering something good for the fans.
Lauri Markkanen will be re-evaluated in two weeks after an MRI on Thursday showed symptomatic hip impingement with associated inflammation and bone bruise, sources told ESPN. Markkanen also twisted an ankle in practice Wednesday, but those tests returned clean, sources said.
Entering 2017, the core of the team was getting old. José Bautista was 36, Russell Martin was 34, Josh Donaldson was 31, Troy Tulowitzki was 32, Kendry Morales, who was Edwin Encarnación's replacement, was 34. On the pitching side of things, Marco Estrada, J.A. Happ, and Francisco Liriano were 33 and 34. Their two promising pitchers, Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman, were still in the mid-20s.
Together with the performances of 18-year-old wing-back Harry Amass and 17-year-old striker Chido Obi off the bench, Amorim can at least say he's learned from another home league defeat even if he wasn't in the mood to be overly positive immediately after full-time.
