TORONTO – Another bat would have helped, sure, ideally one providing an additional threat in the lineup that might prompt teams to challenge Vladimir Guerrero Jr. a little more often and split the heavy lifting a bit more evenly. Still, it wouldn’t have fixed everything for the Toronto Blue Jays, especially now that Bo Bichette is on the injured list with right knee patellar tendinitis.
Really, the American League East’s most confounding club won’t hit full stride until its hitting with runners in scoring position – a season-long issue – and underperforming bats come around. Think about how different the Blue Jays’ dreadful in-division record would look if you sprinkled 10 more hits across those 22 losses, let alone closed the gap between their batting average of .259 and their hitting with RISP mark of .238. Think about how quickly things change if Guerrero or George Springer or Daulton Varsho or Alejandro Kirk suddenly get hot.
Easier said than done, obviously, and in the interim, the Blue Jays must continue to find a way, the way they did in Wednesday’s 4-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles. Springer did break out of an 0-for-35 drought by dunking an RBI single into centre field that opened the scoring in the fourth inning, but the decisive three-run sixth was accomplished without a single base hit, three walks followed by two bases-loaded hit by pitches and, finally, an error.
Credit to Yusei Kikuchi, who limited the damage against him to one fifth-inning RBI single by Adley Rutschman that might have been prevented had he scrambled to cover first, for setting a tone early and going six strong innings, and to Yimi Garcia, Jordan Hicks and Erik Swanson for following with dominant relief work before a crowd of 36,924.
The Blue Jays went 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and are now just 4-for-49 through the first six games of this homestand. Against the Orioles, who they’re now 2-7 against, they are 13-for-89 with runners in scoring position and left at least three wins on the table as a result of that.
Early in the season, it was harped on and perhaps, that created a snowball effect that continues to now. There have been high points, for sure, but their season is littered with unrealized opportunities to either ease leverage in games or turn losses into wins.
The current approach from the coaching staff is to ease the reins.
“Sometimes talking too much about it puts more pressure on the players and they try to do more than they need to,” said hitting coach Guillermo Martinez. “There are times that we show good signs. Last week we thought we had a pretty good road trip. But every day is different, we don’t really try to make it a big, big focus, just try and calm anxiety down.”
To that end, the messaging has been simplified. Get a good pitch to hit. Hit a single up the middle. Take your base if they don’t pitch to you.
The Blue Jays did some of all three Wednesday.
Springer’s slump-busting single was dunked into centre and he threw his arms up in celebration as he reached first base.
In the sixth, Brandon Belt, Guerrero and Springer each spat on borderline pitches to load the bases and Shintaro Fujinami then hit both Matt Chapman and Danny Jansen. Varsho’s broken-bat grounder up the middle was then booted by Jorge Mateo to make it 4-1.
