Offence puts on holiday bash

Sixteen-hit attack as Buehrle goes seven strong

• It was a Canada Day crowd-pleaser and a prototype Blue Jays victory, with Mark Buehrle’s delicate touch complementing a five-homer fireworks display by his offence. But when John Gibbons opened his postgame news conference, he was well aware of the priorities for Toronto sports fans.

“Are we gonna start off with the Phil Kessel trade?” the manager asked with an impish grin.

Elsewhere, the Kessel deal was an enduring obsession, but Gibbons and general manager Alex Anthopoulos remain preoccupied with trades yet to be made. The GM’s focus might be different if he could count on the rest of his rotation to do what Buehrle typically does.

“I think clearly the rotation is the area that has the most need,” Anthopoulos said before the game as he discussed the state of the Jays a month before the trade deadline.

Discounting velocity and age, Buehrle might represent the archetype of the starter Anthopoulos seeks. At 36, the soft-tossing left-hander still averages almost seven innings per start. He owns nine wins and a 3.64 ERA. In his past six starts, his ERA is 0.84.

In Toronto’s 11-2 bashing of Boston on Canada Day, Buehrle allowed a run on four hits over seven innings, and as usual, said he got lucky with some of his pitches. There is a reason for his luck.

“He’s just good,” Gibbons said, running out of ways to account for Buehrle’s success.

The evergreen lefty had lots of help, much to the delight of 45,392 fans. Edwin Encarnacion hit a three-run blast. Justin Smoak homered from each side of the plate. Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista contributed solo shots.

Meanwhile, Anthopoulos was on his way to Buffalo to watch Daniel Norris pitch. Before leaving, he mentioned that Norris, who was sent down May 1, might get a spot start with the Jays before the all-star break. He also said Miguel Castro, who also opened the season in the big leagues, might be back soon, providing a potential solution to the club’s bullpen needs.

“It’d be a huge add for us to get him back,” Anthopoulos said of Castro, who struggled in April, then suffered a hand injury in Buffalo. Castro has been impressive in two recent outings at class A Dunedin, hitting 100 on the radar gun, and could make a quick ascent through the minors, the GM said.

“You’d love to solve your problems internally if you can,” he said. “That (would allow) us to allocate some of our trade assets (and) our dollars to the starter market. So the more answers we have internally, the better. And we only have a month left.”

But like the Jays, everyone covets pitching. And many teams have not decided whether they will be buyers or sellers at the deadline. So as Toronto starts a July schedule that includes 16 road games, all internal solutions — even of the interim kind — will be welcome.

Making a trade will likely be costly, either in prospects unloaded, cash taken on, or both. And naturally, Anthopoulos would prefer to find a front-line starter with at least another year of contract control. But he would not turn up his nose at the right rental pitcher.

“I think we’re always interested in taking a rental,” he said. “It just comes down to (how) the rental component impacts what you’re willing to pay. That’s the hardest part: managing the short term and the long term. You want to be in the position that you have to make a tough decision, but it is tough. It’s much easier to swallow (to give up) a young player when you know you can keep the guy you’re getting.”

In his quip about Kessel, Gibbons said he was unaware whom the Leafs had reaped in return. But the skipper surely knows what his team needs. He’d be happy if the recruit reminded him of Mark Buehrle.