The Toronto Blue Jays had an off day on Thursday after completing a 13-day slate that started in New York City on April 4th and ended at home against the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday. A cancelled game in Baltimore last Friday gave the club some reprieve, but it was a tough slate of games against postseason-worthy opponents, and the club mustered a 6-6 record during the span.
One of the key talking points so far this season has been the Blue Jays’ bats struggling to find power out of the gate, with some of the top names going without a home run for the first few weeks of the season (Bo Bichette is still looking for his first knock). The Tuesday contest saw Toronto bat around one of the hottest pitchers to start the season in Spencer Schwellenbach, with Alan Roden and Anthony Santander giving the club their first multi-home run contest of the year. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. added his first home run of the campaign on Wednesday, and the Jays are riding high when it comes to their bats.
That momentum at the plate was put to the test on Friday, as the club welcomed the Seattle Mariners and their impressive pitching staff to the venue. Widely regarded as one of the top rotations in the league, the Mariners walked into the Rogers Centre with two pitchers boasting a sub-3.00 ERA and one just hovering above the mark with a 3.43 (Bryce Miller).
The Jays are slated to face two of the three this weekend, with Bryan Woo getting the nod tonight, while the club is set to face Logan Gilbert on Sunday to wrap up the series. While Luis Castillo and his 4.22 ERA trail Woo, Gilbert, and Bryce Miller, his 2022 postseason performance at the Rogers Centre still haunts Jays fans to this day. It was going to be a tall task for the Jays’ bats, who were already challenged by the Braves in Schwellenbach and the return of Spencer Strider, one of the most dominant pitchers in the game before he landed on the IL last year. The Blue Jays are no slouches in the pitching department either, boasting some solid arms of their own to start the year as well, so both teams had their work cut out for them.
Mariners Arms
PlayerPosWLERAGGSIPHRERHRBBSOERA+FIPWHIPH9HR9BB9SO9
Logan Gilbert
SP
1
1
2.38
4
4
22.2
11
6
6
3
4
32
149
2.42
0.662
4.4
1.2
1.6
12.7
Luis Castillo
SP
1
2
4.22
4
4
21.1
20
10
10
3
10
18
84
4.68
1.406
8.4
1.3
4.2
7.6
Bryce Miller
SP
1
2
3.43
4
4
21.0
18
8
8
1
10
21
103
3.04
1.333
7.7
0.4
4.3
9.0
Bryan Woo
SP
2
0
2.84
3
3
19.0
14
6
6
2
4
18
125
3.10
0.947
6.6
0.9
1.9
8.5
Luis Castillo
SP
0
0
7.71
2
2
7.0
12
7
6
0
7
5
48
4.57
2.714
15.4
0.0
9.0
6.4
Emerson Hancock
SP
0
1
12.71
2
2
5.2
12
8
8
2
1
4
29
6.70
2.294
19.1
3.2
1.6
6.4
Andrés Muñoz
CL
0
0
0.00
10
0
10.0
5
0
0
0
4
13
1.60
0.900
4.5
0.0
3.6
11.7
Gabe Speier*
RP
0
0
0.00
9
0
8.0
4
0
0
0
1
9
1.12
0.625
4.5
0.0
1.1
10.1
Collin Snider
RP
0
0
3.38
7
0
8.0
8
5
3
0
2
6
109
2.25
1.250
9.0
0.0
2.3
6.8
The Blue Jays started chipping away early at Woo, putting up three singles and a walk in the first two innings to give the Jays a 2-1 lead heading into the third inning. The Jays tacked another run in the third inning, with George Springer leading the charge with a double, and the bats continued to chip away at the Mariners starter. They were making hard contact but to no avail other than the two sac fly balls, with the baseball dying in the Rogers Centre air or being hit right to a Mariners glove.
“That’s just a good all-around win,” said manager John Schneider. “Defense, at-bats early, baserunning – kind of underrated things… it was really tight tonight.”
But the hard contact singles with launch angles no higher than 12 degrees were finding holes on the diamond, including Springer’s double. The Jays’ bats just kept passing the baton on to the next, racking up seven hits by the bottom of the fifth inning, six of which were singles. They fell on hard times after that, but by then, the damage was already done, and the Blue Jays’ arms held up their end of the bargain.
Woo wasn’t having a bad game by Major League standards – eight innings with seven hits, three runs, two walks, and four strikeouts – it’s that the Jays’ bats continued to find ways to string together hits when they needed to, and that’s even with leaving six men on base during those innings.
The Mariners’ right-hander had struck out at least five batters in each of his previous starts. Toronto was patient at the plate, with just four K’s allowed on the day and the two free passes are tied with Woo’s first start of the year when he allowed two walks to the Athletics. The top of the order all reached base at least once, while Santander’s sac fly was responsible for one of the runs driven in early. Springer’s wrist appears to have healed well,  with the right-handed bat going 2 for 3 on the day against the Mariners starter, while Will Wagner chipped in two hits of his own. Roden was the other sac fly earlier in the game.
Was it the most exciting day at the plate? No – but the club squeaked out a win, which is what matters the most. The Jays had different results against the Braves’ starters, with home runs coming in both previous contests, but Toronto’s bats found ways to support the pitching staff enough to win the games, a balance that teams who want to contend for the postseason need to find. Sometimes, pitching picks up the bats or vice versa, but lately, it seems to be going both ways and against teams that aren’t bottom dwellers.
The task doesn’t get any easier against Gilbert tomorrow, and gets even tougher on Sunday against Castillo. Knocking the ball around while getting contributions on the field (Barger and his three outfield assists), and another quality start from the rotation and shutdown innings from the pen are making this Blue Jays team more dangerous each passing day, even if it’s not as exciting as multi-home run affairs.
Besting Schwellenbach and Strider earlier this week is one thing, but to carry that into the weekend, where you are facing some of the top rotation arms in the league, speaks volumes.
Producing more singles than Taylor Swift before an album release, the Blue Jays’ bats are awakening in their own way as of late, and the club has now won four of their last five.