National Post (National Edition)
Blue Jays head home on the upswing
Donaldson and starting pitchers leading charge
Once again the Toronto Blue Jays find themselves in the shadow of .500, a mark the team hasn’t met since the opening day of the 2017 season.
And once again, they’ll try to burst through the barrier in a five-game homestand beginning Tuesday with a pair of games against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Is this finally the time they get into positive territory? After holding serve on a 3-3 West Coast road trip, the players are getting antsy to make a definitive move forward.
There’s also a belief that performance is trending in the right direction.
With a healthy pitching staff and a surging Josh Donaldson, the Jays returned home just a game and a half out of the second AL wild card.
The red-hot New York Yankees are threatening to run away with the East, but the other two playoff spots available appear to be wide open.
With Monday’s off day to get the body clocks calibrated, we offer our take-aways from the trip to Oakland and Seattle, the Jays’ final visit to the Pacific time zone this regular season.
START ME UP With four of their five starting arms healthy, the Jays are waiting only on the blistered finger of Aaron Sanchez to be back to the highly-touted rotation that left spring training with big expectations.
In their last three starts in particular, Toronto starters gave the type of performance the team needs, both in terms of quality and distance. J.A. Happ (six innings), Marcus Stroman (seven) and Joe Biagini (seven) each delivered quality starts.
“That always helps,” Jays manager John Gibbons said. “Everything revolves around pitching in this game. Our bullpen’s been really good, but it takes a toll on those guys when the starters can’t go a certain distance.
“One thing we proved last year with the group that we had, is that is what (the starters) could do. I think they threw more innings than probably anybody in baseball as a starting staff. They all seem to be kicking in gear right now,” Gibbons said.
They certainly did over the three-game weekend series in Seattle, where the aforementioned logged a combined 20 of the 27 innings played.
“It’s always a bonus for our starting pitchers to go deep into the game,” Donaldson said after Sunday’s Happ outing. “I know for sure it makes (Gibbons’) job a lot easier. Our bullpen has definitely been taxed a little this year.”
As for Sanchez, he’s expected to throw in the bullpen this week and will need at least a couple rehab assignments before he’s ready to rejoin.
DID WE MENTION
DONALDSON? First inning or extra innings or any time he’s at the plate, really, it seems like every home run he hits now has an impact.
Including his first-inning blast off Canadian James Paxton to give the Jays a 2-0 lead Sunday in Seattle, a Donaldson homer has provided the winning RBI in three of the past four Blue Jays victories.
Before Sunday’s blast, the Bringer of Rain knocked out the winner in the 10th inning Wednesday in Oakland and the previous Sunday did so at home against the Yankees.
Since returning from the DL on May 26, Donaldson is batting .386 with eight runs scored, four home runs, nine RBI and 10 walks. Those kind of numbers also add up to reaching base safely in 21 of his 22 starts this season.
HOME AT SAFECO The support the Jays get in Seattle has been well documented, both by the incredible visuals of the thousands that filled the seats on the weekend, but also by the apparent annoyance of those in Seattle with the now annual invasion.
Say this about Safeco Field, however: It’s a fantastic place to watch a baseball game, with the bonus of being in a great city.
The amenities are topnotch (draft beer in a cask!), the sight lines excellent and even when the roof is shut, it doesn’t feel enclosed because of the open air flowing in at the sides of the park.
Gibbons said it’s his favourite of the new stadiums (the traditionalist in him, with his New England roots, still appreciates Fenway Park.)
The Canadian baseball fans who drift down from B.C. and Alberta do it right, as well. In a perfect weekend away, rowdiness is at a minimum and the atmosphere is off the charts.
As for Oakland’s aging, lifeless Coliseum? Pass.
OUT IN LEFT FIELD Yes, the Jays are taking the derogatory term a little too literally in the left side of the outfield.
To say it has been an adventure lately would be too kind. After a disastrous game in Oakland, Chris Coghlan gave way to Ezequiel Carrera in left field against the Mariners and the struggles continued.
The team hopes to have Steve Pearce back in the lineup by the weekend and as tough as it is to imagine, he may be a defensive upgrade over the other two.
The pre-season worries about first base are gone thanks to the great work of Justin Smoak, but the concerns in left aren’t going away.