Jays make Yankees series meaningful
May revival raises stakes with AL East rival’s arrival and .500 suddenly a win away
After two months of ebb and flow on ball diamonds across North America, the Blue Jays are now set to contest their biggest series of the season thus far — four games against the first-place Yankees starting Thursday.
On Wednesday, the Jays completed a three-game sweep of Joey Votto and the visiting Reds, defeating Cincinnati 5-4 to move within one win of the elusive .500 mark. Second baseman Devon Travis crushed a two-run homer in the seventh inning, snapping a 3-3 tie, and the Jays held on to give veteran Jason Grilli the victory on the first anniversary of his trade from the Braves.
“It would be nice to continue playing well right now. The timing would be perfect,” manager John Gibbons said. “We could have buried ourselves. A couple of guys went down and the guys that were filling in kept us afloat, did a nice job.”
The first time these teams met, at the beginning of May, the Jays were shell- shocked — not so much worried about battling their Bronx opponent as they were about righting the ship, finding out what had gone wrong with their vaunted offence.
“Big series,” Gibbons intoned when asked about the Yankee set. “They’re the front-runners. They’re playing good. All the teams in our division are basically the same teams year after year. You know everything about them; they know everything about you. You know who executes, who has a good day.”
But certain dynamics have changed for both teams as the Jays set their sights on .500. After that, they can start believing they are contenders once again.
For one, the Yankees are no longer the free-spending, make-it-rain organization they are always perceived as. The Bronx Bombers’ payroll is down $28.5 million from opening day 2016, now standing at just under $200 million. Meanwhile, the Jays were listed with an opening-day payroll of $163.4 million, an all-time franchise high, by the website Cot’s Baseball Contracts. They boast nine players earning more than $10 million, while the Yankees have eight.
But what’s most interesting in terms of changed perceptions is the positionplayer age dynamic. The Jays were always young and scrappy, while the Yankees were rich and famous. But now the Yankees’ regular batting order features five starters under the age of 28, while the Jays have only second baseman Devon Travis in that category.
It’s the Jays with the veteran lineup of sluggers, often seen as the hallmark of the Yankees.
“I thought they were a little bit underrated at spring training, the way people talked,” Gibbons said. “Last year, when they made all those changes, brought those young guys up, something changed. It injected some youth in there and some pretty good players. I think the question was always what their starting staff would do, but they’ve got good arms out there. You knew their bullpen would be good. It doesn’t surprise me because of what they did at the end of last year.”
The Yankees have a new look and new leaders on offence, just two years removed from the retirement of Derek Jeter.
Pundits in the Bronx are touting right fielder Aaron Judge as the next Jeter and leader of the Yankees. The 25-year-old hit 17 home runs in the first 50 games with 37 RBIs and an on-base plus slugging mark of 1.112.
Then there’s 24-year-old catcher Gary Sanchez, who almost earned rookie of the year despite playing just half the season in 2016. He began the current year with an injury, but has returned and is healthy again.
The other three Yankees regulars under 28 years old are second baseman Starlin Castro, shortstop Didi Gregorius and centre fielder Aaron Hicks.
In his second year after being acquired from the Twins, Hicks is another in a seemingly endless procession of secondary, or fading, players who slip into Yankee pinstripes and are somehow transformed.
Even Castro, acquired from the Cubs prior to the ’16 season, has seemed somewhat reborn. His numbers for the Cubs and Yankees are similar, but he once had a reputation as tough to manage, sometimes unfocused. Now Castro bats cleanup for the most famous team in baseball.
“There’s a mystique about the Yanks,” Gibbons agreed. “It’s a hard place to play. That place has crushed a few guys, too. Boston’s the same way, really. There’s got to be something about putting the pinstripes on. Everybody thinks baseball, and when they think baseball they think Yankees.”
But the Jays have turned it around themselves since last facing the Yankees. Troy Tulowitzki and Josh Donaldson are back and contributing. Roberto Osuna has become a reliable closer again, and the setup role in the bullpen has been sorted out. The Jays now have four of the rotation’s starting five back, and are filling in for Aaron Sanchez with Joe Biagini.
No question, this Jays team is more focused than it was the first time the teams met. But now, facing a tough AL East rival again, is a time when the Jays must begin to show if they are going to be contenders.
Even the most optimistic Jays fans were suggesting that reaching the .500 mark by the end of June would be a solid accomplishment. Instead, they have a chance to do it with a win Thursday.