Hyun Jin Ryu continues to be excellent as the Blue Jays hammer the Orioles

Things worth mentioning…

• Hyun Jin Ryu’s first couple of starts as a Blue Jay were a little bit shake, but it looks like that’s clearly in the rearview mirror now. Ryu was excellent on Monday in Baltimore, completely shutting down the Orioles’ offence (one that came into the game scoring the fifth-most runs-per-game in baseball, shockingly) over six innings. Ryu allowed just four hits and only one hard-hit ball, a single to Pedro Severino, while striking out three. Perhaps most importantly, Ryu didn’t issue a single walk, as command had been a problem for him in previous starts.
• It was a bit surprising that Ryu didn’t go further than six innings considering how nicely he was cruising. That brings us to Monday night’s What The Fuck, Charlie? moment. Ryu had only thrown 86 pitches through six and Montoyo opted to bring in Rafael Dolis to pitch the seventh and then Anthony Bass to pitch the eighth. Given the fact the Jays just played a doubleheader on Sunday and have another doubleheader on Thursday, you’d think that Montoyo would let Ryu fly to give the ‘pen a rest. After the game, Montoyo said that a long wait through the seventh inning was the reason he chose not to send Ryu back out.
• Bo Bichette’s injury is cause for legitimate concern about the Blue Jays’ lineup, but the team didn’t have an issue scoring runs on Monday. Alex Cobb came into the game with an ERA of 2.75 and an xERA of 6.03, indicating that his strong results were a little bit of bullshit. The Jays teed off on Cobb, smashing 10 hard-hit balls off of him over his six-and-two-thirds innings of work. They also got a little bit of help from the BABIP gods as even soft-hit balls in the infield managed to find holes. Batted ball luck isn’t something we’ve been seeing much of this season, so that was refreshing.

• The big star of the day offensively for the Jays was Randal Grichuk. In the third inning, Grichuk busted the game open when he crushed a three-run bomb to straightaway centre field. Grichuk would add another RBI single later in the game, too, for good measure. After a slow start to the season, Grichuk has quietly started to really come around at the plate as he now boasts a .902 OPS. Grichuk has apparently made an adjustment at the plate and it seems to be working. Having him continue to hit like this will go a long way in helping the Jays navigate Bichette’s absence.