What happened?

Things that were good

• Chris Rowley was certainly the storyline of the weekend. He became the 12th different pitcher to make a start for the Blue Jays this season — as opposed to the seven we saw in a very healthy 2016 season — and he became the first pitcher from West Point Military Academy to make an MLB start. The undrafted free agent signing who spent two years in the U.S. military between 2014 and 2015 turned a damn good start, allowing just one earned run over five-and-two-thirds, and did enough to get likely a few more looks down the stretch. He wasn’t on anybody’s radar at the beginning of the season, but some more starts like this one in which he comes in and consistently pounds the strike zone could help play him into a depth starter or bullpen role on the big club in 2018.
• Marcus Stroman had another great start, going eight innings while only allowing four hits. Unfortunately, he allowed four runs, none earned, because of some poor defence in the third inning. He was good enough to get a W, but baseball is baseball. Anyways, Stroman now has a 3.00 ERA, good for fourth in the American League. Stro Circus? Lmfao.
• J.A. Happ has looked a lot like 2016 J.A. Happ recently, which is great for the Jays and their unlikely pursuit of a last-minute run down the stretch. His ERA is now down to 3.63 on the season, and, after tossing six innings of one-run ball, Happ has his fourth quality start in his last five outings.
• The bullpen didn’t have a hell of a lot of work this weekend because the starters were great, but they were virtually perfect when called upon, tossing seven-and-two-thirds innings while allowing just one earned run. The guy who really stood out is Dominic Leone, who low-key has a 2.55 ERA on the season and is striking out 9.7 batters per nine. He had a great showing in relief of Rowley on Saturday, fanning three over an inning and a third of work.
• Pitching was the story of the weekend, but there were also some good offensive performances to talk about. Justin Smoak has been ridiculously consistent all season and that continued this weekend, Josh Donaldson has returned to MVP form at the plate, and Ryan Goins has continued to be inexplicably clutch with runners on base.
• Also, speaking of Goins, he had this to say about the terrible red Rogers brand synergy jerseys…

Things that weren’t good

• Russell Martin left Friday’s game with an injury and has been placed on the 10-day disabled list, leaving the Jays with their top three catchers on the shelf. They’re now rolling with Raffy Lopez and Mike Ohlman, which, uh, isn’t ideal! Hopefully Martin’s oblique injury isn’t major.
• Rob Refsnyder had one of the ugliest games I’ve ever seen on Friday. He made two errors in the third inning, leading to the four-run rally against Stroman, and he struck out four times in four at bats. It isn’t often one guy can singlehandedly gutter a game in baseball, but Refsnyder managed to do just that! Thankfully for him, Refsnyder had himself a solid conclusion to the series, going three-for-four on Saturday.

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