The Toronto Blue Jays are on a roll.
Coming into June 26’s game, the Blue Jays ended a seven-game losing streak the day prior, bringing their season record to 36-43. As you know, that game was postponed and resumed two months later because of rain, with the Jays eventually won it 4-1 to bring their record to 64-68.
George Springer technically hit his fourth home run in three games in this one, as he hit his seventh of the season in the top of the seventh. On June 25, he hit one home run and had two on June 27 in the first game of the New York Yankees series. Overall, Springer has 18 home runs this season and raised his batting average from .197 in this game up to .220.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Addison Barger each hit a double that scored a run in this game, with this being Barger’s second career double. Of course, this was actually his ninth career double on top of five home runs.
Diving into the stats…
Okay, let’s talk about all the weird stuff that happened in this game. It’s well known that former Blue Jays’ catcher Danny Jansen is the first player in MLB history to play in the same game for both teams. In fact, he was in an 0-1 count when the postponement happened, so he caught his at-bat. Weird.
Will Wagner and Leo Jiménez made their big league debuts on Monday afternoon despite being in the league for quite a bit, at least in the case of Jiménez. Wagner went 0-4 with two strikeouts, Jiménez struck out one in his four at bats.
The turnover of the Blue Jays lineup is immense. The starters for this game were Bo Bichette, Spencer Horwitz, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Justin Turner, George Springer, Davis Schneider, Danny Jansen, Isiah Kiner-Falefa, and Kevin Kiermaier. Two months later, Brian Serven, Horwitz, Guerrero Jr., Addison Barger, Springer, Schneider, Daulton Varsho, Will Wagner, and Leo Jiménez were the starting nine. In fact, there were 16 batters or scheduled batters for the Jays in this game.
Toronto also used a whole bunch of pitchers in what became a bullpen day. Yariel Rodríguez pitched the first inning two months ago, but Ryan Burr, Ryan Yarbrough, Zach Pop, Génesis Cabrera, Erik Swanson, and Chad Green all pitched in this game. Rodríguez is slated to start Tuesday’s game.
Funnily enough, since this game was technically on June 26, Erik Swanson gave up a home run in the big leagues and in Triple-A on the same day.
Another scenario like that happened just a few days ago in the Blue Jays’ minor league system, as Josh Kasevich hit a double in Double-A in what became a postponed game. The same day that game resumed (August 20), he hit a double in Triple-A.
Baseball can be really, really weird sometimes. Hopefully, the second game of the doubleheader that starts at 7:10 PM ET is just as weird. José Berríos has the start, and unfortunately won’t make his second career relief appearance.
It’s worth noting it’s currently raining in Boston as I write this, so who knows?
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