Estrada trade all aces so far for Blue Jays
PHILADELPHIA — It didn’t look like much at the time, but the deal that brought Marco Estrada to Toronto is looking more and more like one of the shrewdest transactions of the Alex Anthopoulos era.
Indeed, when the former Toronto GM sent Adam Lind to Milwaukee after the 2014 season for the unheralded swing man, there were a few raised eyebrows.
Estrada may have been an unknown quantity when he arrived, but he has proven to be one of the best pitchers in the American League as a Blue Jay. He made his 41st start as a Jay Wednesday, beating the Philadelphia Phillies 7-2. He now has an 18-10 record, an ERA of 2.88 and a WHIP of 1.025 with Toronto.
He held the Phillies in check on four hits in 62/3 innings, his 10th consecutive start allowing five hits or fewer. He improved his AL-best opponents batting average to .168, 13 points better than Cleveland’s Danny Salazar. After 13 starts this year, his season ERA sits at 2.58, fourth best in the league.
Against a struggling Phillies team, Estrada was all business. Phillies’ left-fielder Cody Asche was the only opponent with more than one hit and he drove in both runs, one with a solo homer and the other with a double.
Edwin Encarnacion continued his hot streak, belting his 17th home run of the season, walking twice and scoring three times. Ryan Goins drove in two runs with a triple, a single and a groundout. Josh Donaldson chimed in with his 16th homer of the season.
In addition to Anthopoulos’s winning trade, Blue Jays’ current management showed some smarts by re-upping him early in the free-agent sweepstakes last November.
Toronto broke open a tight game with three runs in the fourth inning and were never seriously threatened. They put it out of reach with three more in the eighth.