JAYS KNOW IT'S EARLY — UNTIL IT'S NOT
Aaron Boone knows a division isn't won in the month of May, no matter how searing his New York Yankees have been lately.
And in his team's most recent opponent, Boone sees a team that won't be tepid for much longer.
“When it comes to the Blue Jays, I look at them as one of the best teams we play,” Boone said when we asked him this week to assess the emerging power of the American League East. “Obviously, they present a lot of challenges from a lineup standpoint. They're athletic. They have a lot of guys who can really hurt you in different ways.”
Of course over a 21-hour stretch up in New York, it was the Yankees who were inflicting most of the pain, sweeping the two-game set in the Bronx.
The losses were excruciating for the Jays — both in the way they went down and the opponent taking advantage of their struggles.
The walk-off, three-run homer off the booming bat of the Yanks' Aaron Judge on Tuesday continued the recent inept run by the weary Jays. And then on Wednesday, the silent bats continued in a 5-3 loss that saw the Jays leave eight runners stranded in scoring position.
Worse, for a team that was going bad, the winning blow this time was a three-run homer from Gleyber Torres that just cleared the shortest wall in all of Major League Baseball — the right-field barrier in the Bronx.
The “it's early” crowd loves to dismiss results at this point in the calendar, but the Jays now have dropped four in a row and sit six games behind the AL East-leading Yanks.
So has there been in a change in form from the April Jays who gamely fought their way to a series of one-run wins to the current scuffling version?
“No,” centre-fielder George Springer says emphatically. “I think what gets lost on a lot of people is that we just had a long stretch where we played some very, very tough teams. We had some close games. A lot of mentally draining games. A lot of physically draining games.
“It's not an excuse for what we're not doing or what we expect to do as a team, but it happens. There's still time to right the ship, but there needs to be a little bit of urgency.”
Springer and Boone and any right-thinking baseball observer know there are plenty of fluctuations remaining in a 162-game season. The Jays, in all likelihood, will have a torrid run not unlike the Yankees' recent form — 15-2 in their past 17 before Thursday. But the fact that Springer dropped the word urgency into his assessment hints at some exasperation.
The good thing, the veteran all-star says, is that beyond the occasional moment — like Vlad Guerrero Jr. snapping a bat over his knee as though it was a toothpick following a Wednesday strikeout — the Jays have remained buoyant.
“There's not (frustration). I think guys understand we have to get the job done,” Springer said outside the visitor's clubhouse at Yankee Stadium. “That's a good team over there. We've played playoff teams and playoff-style teams. It's tough. But at the same time, it's over with and on to the next.”
Of course, on to the next means three games in Florida against the reigning AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays at a venue — Tropicana Field — that has long given the Jays fits.
At least Toronto will have its two best starters (based on early season form) with Kevin Gausman getting the ball on Friday and Alek Manoah on Sunday. Sandwiched in between is Hyun Jin Ryu, returning from the injured list.
“That's a really good team that knows how to win,” Springer said of the Rays. “It's not an easy place to play. I don't know what it is, but whenever the team is good, it's always hard to play in that ballpark.”
The Jays are well aware of the challenges. Manager Charlie Montoyo worked as coach for the Rays for five seasons and some denizens in the Trop press box still refer to the joint as “Gibby's House of Horrors” in reference to a number of harsh losses there when John Gibbons was manager.
But back to the tangible stuff. At some point, the Jays bats have to come to life when runners are on base, don't they?
“This is a young team but it's not an excuse,” Springer said. “We're professional hitters and it's our job to score a guy if he's there, but that's baseball.
“We're not going to be perfect all the time. It's about slowing down, understanding that it will come. It's in there. The talent is there to do it. It's frustrating that it's not happening right now, but there's still a long way to go.”
On that final point, Boone agrees.
“How I look at the division 30 games in?” Boone said when asked him for an early scouting report. “Look, the AL East is always tough. Nothing's changed my mind on that for this year.
“We've seen everyone except Tampa to this point who we know are obviously good also. It's also 30 games in. It's early. We've got a lot of baseball in a tough division. I kind of look forward to that.”
Not that they Yankees — or the Jays — have a choice in the matter.