Opportunity with Jays allows Hernandez to blossom
The Astros presented outfielder Teoscar Hernandez and righthanded reliever Tyler Clippard with 2017 World Series championship rings before their game against the Blue Jays on Monday. They posed with owner Jim Crane, general manager Jeff Luhnow and Astros manager A.J. Hinch before the national anthem.
In trades last season, the Astros sent Hernandez with outfielder Nori Aoki to the Blue Jays for Francisco Liriano and acquired Clippard from the White Sox.
The Blue Jays called up Hernandez on April 13, when star third baseman Josh Donaldson went on the disabled list, and Hernandez has shown the kind of impressive power that made him a lauded prospect for Houston.
After going 3-for-5 in Monday’s 6-3 Toronto win, Hernandez is batting .296 in June with five home runs and 10 RBIs. His OPS for the month is over .900
“He’s continued to develop at the major league level in a lot of ways that people hoped for,” Hinch said.
Hernandez played less than two innings for the Astros in 2017 because of a concussion he suffered from colliding with
Jose Altuve.
Hernandez, who leads the Blue Jays with 36 extra-base hits, likely would have been crowded out of Houston’s outfield this season. He has done the most with his chance to start for Toronto.
“He’s been able to find rhythm and timing and a little more consistency,” Hinch said. “There’s been a large belief system that he was going to be a good player if given the opportunities. It’s been fun to watch him flourish.” Said Blue Jays manager John
Gibbons: “He’s got a chance to be a star. When we picked him up, we heard he was raw talent. Then he came up in September (2017) for us and showed as much power as anyone I’d ever seen. Easy power.
“He hit a lot of home runs for us in September, but he was a free swinger. He was up there hacking. Then he started this year, and I saw more plate discipline, which was big for him. He’s been tremendous for us.”
Hinch did not express regret over trading away Hernandez for Liriano, who underperformed after his conversion from starter to reliever with the Astros last season.
“The potential was always there,” Hinch said of Hernandez. “There was a long held belief in our organization that he had all the tools to make it happen.”
Clippard, whom the Astros had left off their postseason roster, has a 3.13 ERA in a team-high 39 games pitched for the Blue Jays.
Bullpen gets busier, remains effective
The Astros’ bullpen has played the understudy to the starring starting rotation, but the team’s relievers have taken on increasing responsibility recently. Manager A.J. Hinch called to the bullpen 11 times in
the past weekend’s series against the Royals. Chris Devenski, Tony Sipp and Collin McHugh pitched consecutive
games.
Two weeks into June, it appears the bullpen is on pace for its busiest month of the season.
“They’ve been asked to do a lot lately, but it’s OK,” Hinch said before Monday’s game “There was a portion of the season where they weren’t asked to do a lot because the rotation was taking up all the innings. It’s flipped a little bit, but we’ll be fine.”
Although Ken Giles blew a game Friday night, the bullpen overall has pitched exceptionally well. Houston’s relievers entered Monday with the second-lowest ERA in the majors and have stranded 78.7 percent of inherited runners this season.
With Will Harris leaving
Teoscar Hernandez at first base in the seventh inning Monday, Astros relievers have stranded their last 16 inherited runners spanning 17 games. Harris allowed a walk and two-run homer after returning to the mound in the eighth.