Blue Jays give Yanks the brush-off
Just two weeks ago the Blue Jays were headed for disaster. Or at least that’s what some nervy fans and pundits would have had you believe. Back then the Jays had sunk four games below .500 after losing five straight. Soon they’d be sitting in last place in their division. There was talk of whether they would be sellers at this year’s trade deadline.
But the Major League Baseball season, as it is so often said, is more marathon than sprint.
Since their longest losing streak of the season, the Jays have enjoyed their most successful stretch, winning four straight series, including the last three against division rivals. On Wednesday night the good times continued as the Jays completed a sweep of the New York Yankees with a solid, 7-0 victory in front of an announced crowd of 39,512.
The Jays have now won seven of their last eight games and 10 of the last 13, while playing their most complete baseball of the season.
“It’s still so early in the season, but we’re playing better baseball,” said manager John Gibbons. “I still don’t think we’ve hit our stride yet.”
While the offence broke out in the late innings against the soft side of the Yankees’ bullpen, Wednesday featured a stellar start from Aaron Sanchez, who took another step forward in his ongoing development as a front line starter, throwing 62⁄
3 scoreless innings to outduel Yankees ace Masahiro Tanaka.
The 23-year-old right-hander has now shrunk his ERA under 3.00, sneaking into the top 10 of American League starters. The former firstround draft pick had previously glimpsed this potential, but has never enjoyed a sustained period of success like he is now.
“He just keeps getting better and better,” Gibbons said.
He’s done so with improved command and a sharper curveball which, in combination, have led to him reducing his walks and increasing his strikeouts, while also affording him a better weapon with which to attack left-handed hitters. Last season Sanchez struggled against lefties, showing dramatic platoon splits. This year, however, he has been almost equally effective against both-handed hitters, evidenced by his stultifying effect on the Yankees’ lineup, which boasted seven left-handed hitters on Wednesday.
Sanchez is still a ground-ball pitcher who relies primarily upon his heavy, mid-to-high 90s sinker to induce groundouts. But the curveball gives him a true strikeout weapon, for which the Yankees’ hitters had little answer.
Sanchez was supported by a strong offence on Wednesday night as the Jays collected a dozen hits, including three from Darwin Barney, who now has nine hits in his last five games.
“Earlier in the year our pitching would be good and we weren’t scoring runs, or the other way around,” Barney said afterward. “No one in here really doubted that we were a well-rounded team and it’s starting to show a little bit. We got a big series coming up and we’ve got to keep it going and keep putting pressure on our division.”
The Jays’ bullpen also did its part on Wednesday, with newest recruit Jason Grilli — freshly arrived via trade from the Atlanta Braves — earning the first of the ’pen’s seven consecutive outs to end the game.
Grilli’s Jays career got off to an inauspicious start, however, when he committed a throwing error on an attempted pickoff at second base before he even threw a pitch. But after that opening misfire the 39-year-old former closer settled in to retire the only batter he faced, Carlos Beltran, who flew out to centre with the tying run on base.
“Any time you have inherited runners it’s nice to slam that door,” Grilli said afterward, adding that he was perhaps a little overexcited when he first got into the game.
The Jays have struggled this season to hold leads in the seventh and eighth innings, bridging the gap between the starting pitcher and closer Roberto Osuna. They’re hoping Grilli will bring some stability.
“That’s why we brought him over here,” Gibbons said. “He’s another veteran that’s been successful. Good start.”