![]() “They were tremendous,” Schneider said of the bullpen’s effort. ![]() But Trevor Richards, Tim Mayza, Erik Swanson, Yimi García and Romano combined for six scoreless innings, allowing the offence a chance to complete the comeback win. In fact, Sunday’s win had a lot to do with the bullpen holding steady when starter Chris Bassitt was chased from the game after giving up three runs on nine hits over four innings with four strikeouts. Toronto’s bullpen has been sneaky solid, too, and is ranked fourth in the AL with a 3.63 ERA. Elsewhere in the rotation, José Berríos and Yusei Kikuchi have both had respectable bounce-back seasons after they were the weak links in the rotation a year ago. Gausman had been selected for the All-Star Game, but he elected to skip the event in Seattle in order to rest and spend time with his family. He leads the AL with 153 strikeouts and set a Blue Jays franchise record for most strikeouts pre-All-Star break, besting Rogers Clemens’ mark of 140 set in 1997. On the pitching side, starter Kevin Gausman is having another strong season. Whit Merrifield has been a sparkplug in the lineup and is off to his third career All-Star Game next week. Bo Bichette is having a career season: He leads the AL in hits (122) and is second in batting average (.317). There have been promising developments over three months. It’s not been all disappointment, however. After a month away, he returned this weekend and ended his first half on a high with six one-run innings against the Tigers and looked far closer to the guy who was a Cy Young Award finalist a year ago. The most stunning underperformance of the first half, though, came from starter Alek Manoah, who had a 6.36 ERA over his first 13 starts before he was optioned to the minors. The team has also only gotten sporadic production from its bench players, though Ernie Clement and Lukes stepped up in Sunday’s win. Alejandro Kirk was an All-Star a year ago, but his 78 wRC+ this year is well under the 124 wRC+ he averaged over his first three seasons. After his stunningly productive April, Chapman is still been hitting below his career norms since May 1, though he’s gotten hotter in July. That’s above the league average (100 wRC+), but below his own career average (132 wRC+) and well below his peak, when he put up a 166 wRC+ during his near-MVP 2021 season.īut it’s not just Guerrero. Fair or unfair, perhaps no one represents that more than Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who has a 120 wRC+ through 88 games. Their lineup features a lot of talented hitters who haven’t quite been at their best yet. They’re fifth in hits (810), yet 13th in runs (410). They rank seventh in the league in wRC+ (107) and 12th in OPS (.741). ![]() This year, however, they’ve not had the same sort of pop. Over the past two seasons, no team has been better offensively than the Blue Jays, per OPS and wRC+. While all facets of the roster - pitching, hitting, defence, baserunning - have hardly felt like they’ve synced up on the field this season, the often grinding offence has been perhaps the most underwhelming, especially after we’ve become accustomed to a powerhouse lineup in Toronto. “I’m sure, frustrating at times for the fans and us for sure, right? But I always believe that the best ball is ahead of us.” ![]() “It’s been a little bit of a roller coaster,” Romano said. Over an up-and-down three months, it’s fair to say the Blue Jays wanted to be in a better spot than they are, but things could also be worse. The Blue Jays will finish the season’s first half at 50-41, their best record at the All-Star break since 2016 when they were 51-40. ![]() “It’s the last game before the break and to be able to go out on top and to have that feeling of going into the break and being hungry and ready for the second half, it’s good,” Jansen said.Įspecially after they were no-hit a day ago, this win was the energizing end Toronto wanted to finish off what’s been, at times, a puzzling first half for a team that came into the season with aspirations to win the American League East but instead is in third place in the division and holding onto the second wild-card spot, sandwiched between the Baltimore Orioles and Houston Astros. In the top of the 10th, Nathan Lukes hit an RBI double that gave the Blue Jays a narrow 4-3 lead and in the bottom of the frame, closer Jordan Romano, fresh off being named as a replacement for the All-Star Game, retired the side in order to complete the comeback win and series victory on Sunday at Comerica Park. ![]()
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