TORONTO – The question for the Toronto Blue Jays is not whether they have it in them to regularly enjoy these types of offensive days – they do, in spite of their erratic performance thus far – but in how to make the way they dismantled Jameson Taillon on Sunday more sustainable.
Led by Daulton Varsho’s three-run homer in the second and two-run single in the fourth, strong at-bats were rewarded by good results up and down the lineup in an 11-4 rout of the Chicago Cubs that averted a three-game sweep.
Taillon had allowed only nine earned runs over his previous six starts dating to July 7 but got tagged for eight by a lineup that had only scored 13 times in its previous six games combined. While the right-hander born in the United States to Canadian parents was in the middle of the zone far more often than he’d have liked, credit goes to the Blue Jays for forcing him there and taking advantage.
And it was clear they had a plan at the plate they were executing.
Whit Merrifield turned two sweepers into base hits; Vladimir Guerrero Jr., delivered RBI singles on a cutter in and a sinker away; Varsho unloaded on a middle-up heater against Taillon before tagging a middle-down sweeper from Hayden Wesneski; Cavan Biggio got a centre-cut heater and didn’t miss; Brandon Belt didn’t give in during two walks before sending a middle-up curveball off the wall; George Springer slashed a middle-middle sinker to right for an RBI single.
The outburst ended a week of frustration at the plate before a Rogers Centre crowd of 41,960 and allowed the Blue Jays (66-54) to finish a stretch of 17 games in 17 days at 9-8. On Monday they’ll enjoy their first of three off-days in the next eight days as they enter a softer portion of the schedule through Sept. 10 that includes only two powers in the Philadelphia Phillies on Tuesday and Wednesday and the Baltimore Orioles on Aug. 22-24.
It’s the perfect time for them to hone their approach before they close out their season with three weeks featuring nothing but the Texas Rangers, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays.
What became a good day got off to a rocky start for Hyun Jin Ryu, as after a one-out walk to Nico Hoerner in the first, an Ian Happ chopper skipped over Belt’s glove for an error that led to a pair of unearned runs on Dansby Swanson’s two-run double.
Unfazed by the early deficit, the Blue Jays seized control of the game in the second when Cavan Biggio singled, Danny Jansen was hit by a pitch for the fourth time in seven games (he’d be hit again in the eighth) and Varsho turned the score around with his 14th homer.
Two outs later, Merrifield extended the inning with a single, stole second and after Belt walked for the second time, scored on Guerrero’s first RBI single. Springer followed with his single before a Biggio rocket to right was caught by the wall for a third out.
The Blue Jays kept adding on from there, Taillon giving up an RBI single to Guerrero in the fourth and leaving two on for Wesneski, who served up Varsho’s two-run single.
They then tagged on three more in the eighth on RBI singles by Santiago Espinal and Paul DeJong – who ended an 0-for-20 slide – and a run-scoring double by Merrifield.
Ryu, meanwhile, settled in nicely after the first, allowing only a single and a walk over the next four innings. He didn’t allow an earned run over five frames and showed no ill effects from the liner off his right knee that cut short a gem in Cleveland last time out.
With Alek Manoah’s demotion to triple-A making Ryu’s spot in the rotation all the more essential, the left-hander’s continued progress coming off Tommy John surgery is all the more vital.
So, too, are more days at the plate like this one.
The runs won’t always be as plentiful, but the process behind them can help ensure they won’t be as sparse as they were in the week beforehand, either.
