Chris Archer was good on Sunday afternoon, setting a Rays Opening Day record. Marcus Stroman was better, leading the Blue Jays to a 5-3 season-opening win, with a sellout crowd of 31,042 watching at Tropicana Field.

Kevin Kiermaier took full blame for his baserunning blunder in the fourth inning of Sunday’s 5-3 season-opening loss to the Jays, which proved to be a tough mistake considering the way Toronto starter Marcus Stroman was pitching.

Marcus Stroman has always wanted to be known as a big-game pitcher, and if he keeps pitching at his current pace, it might not take very long before that becomes a reality.

Blue Jays DH Edwin Encarnacion did his best to prove that Spring Training is overrated by coming through with a key two-run single and going 2-for-4 on Opening Day.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred visited Tropicana Field for Sunday’s Rays season opener against the Blue Jays, making him the first commissioner to attend a home opener at Tropicana Field.

After nearly three days away from his teammates, Jacob deGrom met the club in Kansas City on Saturday and was present in the dugout for Opening Night on Sunday.

The schedule-makers did the White Sox no favors at the outset of the 2016 season. One off-day in April, 19 games in 19 days starting after that off-day on April 12 in Minnesota and 10 road games out of the first 13 played, not to mention 16 contests away from home in April. Getting off to that rare good start could be a challenge for the South Siders, even with the positive vibe they take away from Spring Training.

Marcus Stroman set a career high in strike zone percentage on Sunday, and the Rays obliged by doing little but pounding the ball into the ground. We saw the beginnings of the new Stroman last year, but this is a new extreme.

Temperature aside, this was an ideal way to open the season for Major League Baseball.

Lifting the curtain on the 2016 regular season with a matchup between the Majors’ winningest teams over the last three years, the Pirates beat the Cardinals, 4-1, on Sunday afternoon at PNC Park.

Ken and Roanna Naquin cracked their first Opening Day roster this year. So did Heather and Brian White, and Julie and Jeff Shaw. These proud parents will be living vicariously through their sons — Tyler Naquin, Tyler White and Travis Shaw — who will don uniforms for the Indians, Astros and Red Sox for the first time.

Welcome to DraftKings fantasy baseball, the Official Daily Fantasy Game of Major League Baseball. The players listed in this article could provide difference-making stats for DraftKings participants on Monday.

The Rangers ended any speculation about Adrian Beltre’s contract being a distraction before the 2015 season when they picked up his option for ’16 during Spring Training. That’s not going to be the case this year, as Beltre prepares for the final year of a deal he signed with Texas before the ’11 season.

Excited fans were lined up outside Tropicana Field’s center-field rotunda three hours prior to Sunday’s Opening Day contest between the Rays and Blue Jays.

Young and old lined up in Olympic torch mode for what was billed as the “longest Opening Day first pitch” Sunday, as more than 2,500 fans formed a 9.49-mile path from Kansas City’s Union Station to Kauffman Stadium for a “Relay the Way” event that raised funds for the Kansas City MLB Urban Youth Academy.

The 2016 season won’t match 2007’s level as The Year of the Milestone, but it does offer its own notable array of possibilities.

The goal this spring for the Cubs was to be well and ready. Manager Joe Maddon said Sunday he definitely feels the players are ready. The players share that vibe. They presented Maddon Sunday with two bottles of wine before Monday night’s regular-season opener.