TORONTO – The damage could very easily have been much worse for Santiago Espinal when a 98.1 m.p.h. fastball from Gerrit Cole struck him on the right wrist. There was pain for the Toronto Blue Jays infielder, quite a lot of it actually, along with fears he’d suffered more than just a contusion.
But Espinal was back on the field getting work in on Monday, took batting practice and hit off the velocity machine Tuesday and returned to the lineup Wednesday with three hits, an RBI and two runs in a 8-0 win that completed a three-game sweep of the Chicago White Sox.
“Good to have him back,” manager John Schneider said beforehand. “Dodged a bullet there, for sure.”
The Blue Jays may very well have dodged another during their fourth straight victory, and fifth in six outings before a day-time crowd of 35,069, when George Springer left the game after taking a Michael Kopech fastball off the right hand in the third inning.
X-Rays were negative, the club said in announcing he had a contusion, the hit by pitch becoming another uncomfortably close call rather than a troubling injury.
In that way, the Blue Jays kept rolling along, improving to 16-9 ahead of a weekend visit by old friend Teoscar Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners, buoyed by the collective strength of their starting rotation along with a lineup showing both its depth and diversity.
Yusei Kikuchi extended his resurgence with a fourth strong outing in five starts, allowing four hits and a walk while striking out eight in 5.2 innings against the spiralling White Sox, who have lost seven straight and 12 of 14.
Only once did he allow more than one baserunner, working around an Andrew Benintendi leadoff single and one-out Seby Zavala walk to get Lenyn Sosa on a flyout to right and strike out Romy Gonzalez.
With Kikcuhi and Jose Berrios on track, the Blue Jays rotation looks like the bulwark it was expected to be.
Their offence, meanwhile, continues to look like a deeper and more diverse unit than the homer-dependent group of recent vintage, using a mix of contact, speed, patience and power to press opponents.
Espinal started a rally in the third with a two-out single and after Springer was hit on the hand, Bo Bichette delivered an RBI single ahead of a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. two-run double. Springer remained on base there and played the field in the top of the fourth before leaving when his turn came up again in the bottom half, when Espinal’s RBI single opened a 4-0 edge.
Bichette added his fifth homer of the season, a one-out solo shot in the seventh ahead of Whit Merrifield’s eventual two-run single, while the star shortstop cashed in Espinal again in the eighth with another RBI single.
Espinal came into the game batting just .114 this season with four hits in 35 at-bats and nearly matched that total. He, Merrifield and Cavan Biggo, who took over in right field for Springer, have been sharing duties at second base and occasional action in the outfield.
“They’ve done a really good job with it,” said Schneider. “It’s tough, because they’ve been everyday players, Espy’s been an all-star. Messaging has to be consistent from myself, staff starting in spring training, and the good part is I think they’re all at the point where they just want to win and they know what they can bring to the table each night. Sometimes the runway is a little longer, sometimes it’s a little shorter. The more upfront you can be with those guys, the better. They’ve been really good so far.”
