Jays continue promising trend
SOLID DEFENCE, CLUTCH HITTING AND BULLPEN THE KEYS TO LATEST SERIES WIN OVER ASTROS
Eventually, the Toronto Blue Jays want to play in series far more meaningful than a three-gamer at Minute Maid Park, or Fenway Park before that.
But that ultimate goal is still months down the road.
So, in the view of a 162-game season, the focus on winning series after series is both a means of narrowing focus and a motivational tool in the midst of the grind.
And so far, so good, for a team that has yet to lose one of the five series they’ve played (4-0-1) early in this 2022 season. While no one expects the Jays to continue piling up the wins at this rate, the more series you win or draw, the more the numbers add up favourably as the months advance.
“What we talk about in the bullpen especially is the focus on winning series,” Jays reliever David Phelps said. “If we look too much in the long view, you lose track of what we’re trying to do in the short term.
“We focus on the game at hand, but if you have a three-game series and you win two out of three, and then you do that over 162, it’s going to be a really good year.”
It’s a particularly handsome result during the rather stout early-season schedule the Jays have slogged through. Series wins against the Astros, Boston Red Sox and a draw in a four-gamer against the New York Yankees have all been impressive.
“If you’re going to be good, you’ve got to beat the good teams,” says Jays bench coach John Schneider. “Definitely, it’s something we’re up for and looking forward to.”
It doesn’t hurt that they’ve played in noisy environments in every game, including the 39,534 who were at Minute Maid on Sunday. In fact, for the first time in club history, they have played their first 16 games without one contest having an attendance of less than 25,000 fans.
“Hard environments to play baseball in against two teams used to playing at the end of the year,” said third baseman Matt Chapman, in reference to one-run wins with late-season drama at both Fenway Park and Minute Maid Park. “I feel like it shows the kind of character our team has. That’s how it’s going to be this whole season. Every game is precious. This team knows that. They missed out on the playoffs by one game last year and that hurts.”
That character has certainly been on display as the Jays compiled a 10-6 record through their first 16 games. Also notable in terms of that single-minded focus is the fact that they’re 5-2 in onerun games after Sunday’s 8-7 extra-inning setback in Houston against the Astros.
The little things are paying off: Solid defence, clutch hitting (making up for the absence of Teoscar Hernandez) and superb work from a bullpen that is deeper than it has been in years.
The offence has been nowhere near as explosive as most expected it to be, but there isn’t a whisper of doubt that such production will surface soon enough.
“We know what this offence is capable of doing,” Phelps said. “The fact our record is what it is, with what we’ve dealt with so far ... we like the spot we’re in.
“We’re going to have guys coming back. We’re going to have guys starting to get hot. We know we’re going to win a lot more games with our offence than we’re not.”
So far, that has been the case precisely. Before Sunday’s game, the Jays were averaging 3.9 runs per game, 17th in the league and a hair below the MLB average of 4.0. It’s a stark difference from the bombing attack of 2021 that averaged 5.2 runs per game, third-best in all of baseball.
The absence of Hernandez probably shouldn’t be underestimated, yet, his teammates still compiled a 6-3 record during his first nine games on the injury list.
Instead of blowing out opponents — they have just one win by more than three runs — the Jays are knuckling down and winning tough games.
“The goal is to win as many games as possible and to win as many series as possible,” Jays field coordinator Gil Kim said. “Chunking it down into series-by-series, or day-by-day just helps you focus on what’s present right now.
“That’s really important when you have a season as long as what we have.”
Kim says the team takes its preparation seriously and the early results are paying off.
“Everybody in that clubhouse is prepared to go compete every night,” Kim said. “The players, they get there by sticking with our process every day and being mentally and physically prepared. And that starts from the moment we wake up to the moment we leave the ballpark.
“There’s a lot more that happens in the course of the day than just three hours of the game, although that’s the most important hours. We like to think that, once the game starts, we’re as prepared as we possibly can be and that gives an extra level of confidence to go out and compete.”