That’s more like it
Blue Jays heading into May in a much better position than they were a year ago
MINNEAPOLIS — By Blue Jays standards of recent vintage, it has been a spectacular start to the 2018 season.
OK, so maybe the starting rotation has struggled, most recently Marco Estrada on here Tuesday night. And maybe the team has lacked consistency overall with some veterans struggling at the plate.
But 16 wins when the calendar flipped to May? Compared to what the team endured last year, it’s a massive turnaround with notable implications.
The Jays did so without Josh Donaldson for 19 of those games as he recovers from shoulder inflammation and with a serious regression from starter Marcus Stroman, who will try to get his season back on track here on Wednesday afternoon.
But as much as the Jays dismissed the 8-17 April record last year as too early to worry, there is an acknowledgement around the team of the benefits of not being dead and buried before patio season in Toronto.
“Getting off to a better start allows everybody in here to be a little bit more confident,” said centre fielder Kevin Pillar, who has been the steadiest Jay at the plate so far. “We’re not getting everyone offensively swinging the bats up to their capability or all of our pitchers throwing to their capability and we’re still finding ways to win games.
“That’s a huge relief for everyone in this room. Nobody feels like they’re carrying a burden to have to step up and be the guy to throw a gem or come up with a big hit to win a game.”
Pillar believes the solid, if not spectacular start, will have some residual benefits starting with the eventual return of Josh Donaldson to the lineup.
“It will be nice to get JD back and he can try to just fit into the equation and not have that added pressure of coming back to a team that’s 9-20 and feeling like he needs to be the saviour of this team,” Pillar said. “He’s coming back to a pretty good baseball team with a pretty good record and just gets to be one of 25 guys.”
Pillar believes that Donaldson is a player who can take get bogged down with the weight of producing to lead the team out of a funk.
“That extra pressure that he might have felt coming back last year with us being off to a bad start hopefully shouldn’t be the case this year,” Pillar said. “Hopefully he can just kind of fit in where he fits in. It’s a hard thing to do when you miss a lot of time. We have the pieces in place for him to be able to do that.”
From a team perspective, not having to play catchup out of the gate is a welcome development. Just as a slow start in the 1 1/4-mile Kentucky Derby won’t doom favourite Justify in Saturday’s Run for the Roses, a laggardly April isn’t lethal in baseball. In both cases it can leave a mark, however.
Another upside for the Jays is that they’ve stayed comfortably above .500 (a mark they didn’t even hit once last season, you will recall) despite not firing their best.
“It’s still early in the season one month in, one sixth of the way through,” Pillar said. “It’s a scary thought to think that when this team clicks on all cylinders what we’re capable of doing. We haven’t been able to do that thus far. We’ve shown games where we’ve been able to do it but we haven’t rally been able to do it for a long period of time.
“Get the starting pitching deep into games with three runs or less and score a lot of runs … all the pieces haven’ really been there altogether and yet we’re still above .500 and within striking distance of leading the American League East.”
Over the past five seasons, the Jays have a 52-75 record in April, the worst in the big leagues. Picking up noticeably from that pace, despite the warts, is at the least an encouraging development.
“If you look at the whole month, I think we played pretty good,” Jays manager John Gibbons said. “We had a little down spurt a couple weeks ago but it’s a good team. It’s only going to get better when (Donaldson) comes back and I think our rotation will pick it up.
“Once that happens, we have a chance to be really good.”
RAIN IN FORECAST?
More evidence that Donaldson is nearing a return to the Jays lineup — possibly as soon as this weekend’s series in Tampa — was the Bringer of Rain’s performance Tuesday night in Bradenton.
Playing for the class-A Dunedin Blue Jays, Donaldson had two singles and a walk in two at-bats and had an RBI.
The team hasn’t indicated when Donaldson will be back as he continues to rehab from shoulder inflammation. But Tuesday’s contest — a 5-2 Jays loss — was his first at third base since going on the DL on April 11.
AROUND THE BASES
Gibbons raised a few eyebrows with a last-minute lineup decision on Tuesday putting Kendrys Morales in at DH for Steve Pearce. No reason was given for the move other than what a club official called a “manager’s decision.” Turned out to be even wiser when Morales hit homers in both the fifth and sixth innings to get the Jays back in the game. The two Morales blasts gave the Jays 42 on the season, the most in the majors … The Jays struggles from the rotation remain real. Prior to Tuesday’s game, Toronto starters had a combined ERA of 5.29, the 25th worst in MLB.