Sabtu, 27 April 2019

Blue Jays ‘creating havoc’ with distinct brand of baseball - Sportsnet.ca

He has been the bringer of Vlad tidings through two games, not filling the ballpark to capacity or even close to it, but bringing back a buzz Aaron Sanchez hasn’t felt since the two years here where all seemed possible.

Yet what is perhaps most oddly satisfying about the Toronto Blue Jays‘ two wins with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in tow is how routine the games have actually been. Sure, Brandon Drury’s walk-off home run on Friday was dramatic, but that was a win built largely on pitching and a pair of big hits. Saturday’s 7-1 win had a more cobbled-together feel to it: 12 hits for the Blue Jays, but no homers. Four doubles, eight singles.

The Blue Jays haven’t hit many homers, but going into the weekend they were hitting .304 with runners in scoring position – best in the Majors.

Toronto may have signed its lead-off hitter from the 2015 stretch drive – Ben Revere – to a minor-league contract Saturday, but this was a win accomplished by channeling their inner 2018 Tampa Bay Rays (just as I warned you they would) as opposed to the 2015 Jays.

The second inning was something we haven’t seen much of in these parts: Danny Jansen led off with a hustling double, went to third base when Alen Hanson singled down the right-field line after squaring to bunt twice and came home when Eric Sogard, whose ground-rule double opened the game and a two-run first inning, dropped a sacrifice bunt to bring in Jansen. Randal Grichuk then drove in Hanson with another opposite-field hit.

Even with Sanchez fighting his release point and issuing four walks in five innings, the 4-0 lead was enough. Grichuk and Drury had three hits each on a day when Teoscar Hernandez was the only starter held hitless. All he did was track down a Matt Chapman liner into the gap with a run in and two on in the fifth that Montoyo would later say was “the play of the game.”

It was Sanchez’s final pitch. Sam Gaviglio struck out three in three innings of scoreless relief before Daniel Hudson closed the book.

Sanchez was in a mood to talk about the Blue Jays offence. Sogard’s sacrifice bunt was the Blue Jays’ sixth this season. They had five all of last season.

“To me, that’s baseball,” Sanchez said after the Blue Jays moved to within a game of .500 in front of 22,254 at Rogers Centre. “You’re finally seeing baseball played the way it’s always been played. Launch angle … everybody trying to hit home runs … you saw guys bunting runners in and bunting runners over. Hitting and running. We’re creating havoc; it’s fun to do some things you haven’t seen done here in the past.”

Said Montoyo: “I told them from the beginning this is the type of team we will be.”

The Blue Jays have won eight of 11 and, with a win in Sunday’s series finale, can record a second three-game sweep of the Athletics within a week.

Sanchez returned to the mound after leaving his previous start with a split fingernail. The finger was fine; the velocity was comforting. Instead, it was an old, often common pitchers bugaboo: Rushing the body, leaving the arm dragging.

Guerrero moved up to the cleanup spot and went 1-for-4 with his first walk, and, while that may seem modest, consider these numbers: He saw 17 pitches, meaning through two games and nine plate appearances he has seen 36 pitches, an average of four pitches per trip to the plate.

No big deal, other than when general manager Ross Atkins was asked Friday about concrete statistical expectations for Guerrero, he focused on “twenty pitches per night on a regular basis.” So, it’s a start.

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Beyond that, Guerrero’s swinging strike on the second pitch he saw from A’s reliever Liam Hendricks in the seventh inning was his first swing and miss since his call-up. It was his 30th pitch seen; two pitches later, he had his first swinging strikeout on a nasty slider in the dirt. He expanded his zone in his next at bat and reached on a bouncer off the middle that ticked off the heel of shortstop Marcus Semien’s glove.

No wonder Sanchez didn’t need much time to pinpoint the part of Guerrero’s game that has left the most distinct early impression.

“The patience at the dish,” he said. “I think he knows that he’s going to get everybody’s best bullet. Today, (Brett) Anderson, who’s normally 90-91, he was getting it up to the dish at 93, 94. So he’s getting everyone’s best bullets, and he’s still putting up the numbers.”

Guerrero had a pair of plays Friday that demanded a balance of deftness and power. Saturday, he made his only play in the field to record the first out of the ninth, taking a little too much time to unload on a bouncer down the line off the bat of Mark Canha, sailing his throw a little wide but close enough to be saved by Justin Smoak’s reach.

Sanchez was able to spend time around Guerrero in spring training, but he hasn’t had a chance to see him play a great deal. Guerrero, after all, injured his oblique and missed the final three weeks.

“To be blessed to watch this kid play every night, and do something special, I’m looking forward to it,” Sanchez said. “The plays he made (Friday) weren’t lazy plays. He doesn’t seem like a teenager.

“Man, it’s brought that excitement back,” said Sanchez, whose earned-run average through six games (2.32) is the best it’s been through the first six starts of any season. “It feels like playoff baseball in here. It’s been fun.”

Fun. And different.



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April 28, 2019 at 08:16AM

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