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Jays land in L.A. with offence flying high
Can a record-setting series against the Rockies spark the Blue Jays in what figures to be one of their toughest stretches of the season? TSN Baseball Insider Steve Phillips has more.
Just when it looked like the Blue Jays were cooling off and regressing back to the pack, they went to Colorado.
The Rockies are the worst team in baseball, and the Jays made them look even worse than their 30-84 record indicates.
The Jays pummeled them in record-setting ways. The 45 runs scored were the most the Jays have ever scored in a three-game series. Toronto’s 63 hits were the most by a single team in a three-game series since 1900. Of the 63 hits, 13 were home runs, 13 were doubles and one was a triple. The remaining 36 hits were singles.
The offence was relentless. Bo Bichette and Daulton Varsho each drove in 10 runs. The are the first teammates to drive in 10 runs each in a three-game series since 1900.
Everyone got fat on Rockies pitching. The Jays offensive confidence must be at an all-time high. Coors Field has a way of doing that anyway, and when coupled with an ultra-poor pitching staff you get what happened over the past three games.
There is an old saying in baseball that you are only as good as your next day’s starting pitcher. But when a team scores 45 runs on 63 hits, the offence is flying high. Hitters are confident and believe that they will do damage when they get their pitch. They can’t wait to grab a bat and get in the batter’s box again.
The Jays crushed Colorado’s starters and relievers. They hit high-velocity fastballs, breaking balls and changeups. They hit lefties and righties.
There can be a negative pendulum effect when leaving Coors Field. Hitters can hit the ball exactly the same way in another stadium and it doesn’t travel as far. Hitters have to guard against the feeling that they need to do more to get the Coors Field carry on well-struck baseballs. The way to counteract that notion is to trust the process, barrel up the baseball and surrender to the result. Good things will keep happening if hitters can do that.
The schedule turns tough
All in all, this week has been great preparation for the Jays’ weekend series in Los Angeles against the Dodgers. In fact, the next three series (at Dodgers, then home versus the Cubs and Rangers) will be a test for the Jays in a way that the Rockies were not.
They will see three of the Dodgers’ best starters: Clayton Kershaw, Blake Snell and Yoshinobu Yamomoto. Then they will likely face Cubs ace Shota Imanaga and Rangers starters Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom. It’s going to be a tough stretch.
There is a baseball axiom that states, “Good pitching can beat good hitting.” The Jays will need their offence to be good, but the key for the next 10 days is the pitching staff.
There can be no clunkers by the starters that force Jays manager John Schneider to overuse his bullpen. The best way to have a good bullpen is to keep those arms in the bullpen. If the manager can use his pen because he wants to and not because he needs to, then, the bullpen is properly paced.
I would challenge my team with 10 days of playoff baseball practice. Approach each game one pitch at a time. Win this pitch, then the next one and the next one. Do the little things well: get runners on, get them over, and get them in; score first in games; add on runs whenever opportunities arise with hits or productive outs; get outs when they are available; run the bases with controlled aggression.
The Jays need to keep looking ahead, not over their shoulders. If they do that, they will not only be fine over the next three series, but for the rest of the season. If they can go 4-5 or 5-4 over this stretch they will be totally fine. Of course, they want to be better than that, but the reality is they don’t need to be perfect.
Bieber’s return will impact rotation
I’m anxious to see Shane Bieber pitch in a major-league game.
The former Cy Young award winner is close to returning from his rehab assignment as he recovers from Tommy John surgery.
When healthy, he is a strike-throwing machine who would be the Jays’ best starting pitcher. It’s an unfair expectation to think he would immediately return to Cy Young form, but something close to that would elevate the Jays as the clear favorite in the American League.
I would use a six-man rotation when he’s activated. It would protect Bieber and the five other starters, who have to be getting to the point of fatigue. The goal would be to keep everybody fresh and sharp down the stretch and into October.
I can see a playoff rotation that includes Bieber, Kevin Gausman, Max Scherzer and Chris Bassitt, with Jose Berrios and Eric Lauer in the bullpen. I don’t see Scherzer or Bassitt as being able to warm up quickly as relievers. Berrios and Lauer have more resilient arms. The Jays are blessed with, potentially, six good options.
State of the AL East race
While the Jays are playing the Dodgers, Cubs and Rangers, the Boston Red Sox travel to San Diego and Houston, then head home to play the Marlins. The Red Sox have their own challenges ahead of them.
The Yankees play at home against the Astros and Twins and then head to St. Louis. The schedule favours the Yankees over the next 10 days, but they seem to be competing against themselves more recently than the opposition. They have lost five of their past six games in ugly fashion.
The next 10 days won’t win or lose the Jays anything. There is plenty of time left in the season for teams to turn on a dime. Remember, last year the Detroit Tigers were 53-60 on Aug. 6, nine-and-a-half games behind the third wild-card spot. They went on a 33-16 run and made the playoffs, out of nowhere.
That being said, it does feel like the division is going to be a battle between the Jays and Red Sox. Toronto is four games ahead of Boston and six-and-a-half games better than the Yankees.
Boston is playing excellent baseball. They didn’t do much at the trade deadline, but their young roster doesn’t seem to notice. Manager Alex Cora has them playing exciting, fun baseball. Red Sox fans are rocking Fenway Park.
The Yankees are fading and fading fast. They lost star slugger Aaron Judge to the injured list for 10 days to a sore elbow and then collapsed. He has returned, but only as a designated hitter so far because he can’t throw yet. That means slugger Giancarlo Stanton has to sit on the bench as he can’t play the field either. He is a pricey pinch hitter.
The Yankees added three quality relievers at the deadline, and they all gave up multiple runs in their first outing. They have been knocked around and so too has Yankee closer Devin Williams, who has allowed runs in each of his past four appearances.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone and general manager Brian Cashman are getting ripped in the New York media, with some calling for their dismissal. How quickly they forget. They did go to the World Series last year and are still in the playoffs as the third wild-card team if the season were to end today.
The Jays have what it takes to hold off both the Red Sox and even a hard-charging Yankees if they get their act together.