In the absence of Vernon Wells, the Jays have come together offensively with no one player being expected to shoulder the load.
Based upon what we were led to believe heading into this season, the Blue Jays should be sweeping away the likes of the Kansas City Royals; as they did this past weekend.
It has been well documented that the Jays' woes this season can placed at the feet of the hitters, who as a group are in the bottom of third of the majors. Their power has disappeared and the clutch hits are still few and far between. But over this most recent streak (five wins in a row going into Tuesday and an American League-best 17-8 in May) the RBI have been coming from throughout the lineup. In this turnaround month no one has more than 11 RBI, with nine different players having seven-plus in the 25 games. In the absence of injured shortstop David Eckstein (scheduled to return Tuesday) and centrefielder Vernon Wells (out indefinitely with a wrist injury), the Jays have come together offensively with no one player being expected to shoulder the load. (Interestingly, the Jays are 11-5 since Wells was hurt.)
The team concept was never more apparent than Monday's series finale against Kansas City at the Rogers Centre. The Jays scored seven runs - something they had done only once before in the previous 38 games - thanks to the bottom of the order. The six through nine hitters combined to drive in five. It was a total team victory like we've rarely seen this season with the offence, pitching (what else is new?) and the defence all having a hand in the win.
Combine that with the revival of first baseman Lyle Overbay and right-fielder Alex Rios and master button-pushing by much-maligned manager John Gibbons and the Jays, who were buried in the basement in the A.L. East when this month began, find themselves on familiar terra firma in third place, four games behind the front-running Rays and three games south of the Red Sox in the wild-card race. They begin a nine-game, bi-coastal swing in Oakland Tuesday night that will take them to Anaheim to play the Angels before jetting east to play the Yankees.
TOUGH ROW TO HOE
Before we can all get warm and gooey, the Jays' three-game series against the Athletics and Angels, currently one-two in the A.L. West and both possessing better records than the northern birds, will be a good test to see if the Jays are ready to seriously challenge for the post-season. Putting the wood to weaker sisters like the Royals is one thing, but Oakland heads into the series on a four-game win streak of its own and will drop three pitchers - Greg Smith, Rich Harden and Dana Eveland - with ERA hovering around three. Left-handers Smith and Eveland both had their way with the Jays in April when the A's left Toronto with a three-game sweep. The Jays will counter with A.J. Burnett, Roy Halladay and Jesse Litsch, the hottest number-five starter in the majors. Something tells me that runs will be at a premium in this series.
STARTING TO HURT AGAIN
Maybe he was just never a guy that felt comfortable in blue, but Frank Thomas is back to his old ways since returning to the Bay Area with a big bushel of the Blue Jays' green. After hitting just .167 with three home runs and 11 RBI with Toronto, leading to his $8-million release after just 16 games, "The Big Hurt" is hitting .315 with the Athletics with four HR, 16 RBI and a .506 slugging percentage in 27 games.
AROUND THE NEST
*** With teams now locking up their young stars ahead of their free agent years, it will be interesting to see what the Blue Jays do with Shaun Marcum and Dustin McGowan. They have become key components in the Blue Jays' top shelf rotation.
*** The old adage is that you don't lose your place in the starting lineup because of injury, but how can the Jays not keep pencilling in Marco Scutaro at shortstop. Since filling in for Eckstein and John McDonald, both of whom went down in the same game back on May 6, Scutaro has hit .333 with nine RBI as the team has gone 12-7.
*** Although his .239 average isn't where they'd like it to be, the Blue Jays have to be thrilled with the progress that top prospect Travis Snider is making at double-A New Hampshire. Monday night he slammed his team-leading eighth home run, four of which have come in the past week, while driving in nine runs. On the flip side, 2005 first-round pick and Snider teammate Ricky Romero continues to spin his wheels. Through 10 starts this season, the 23-year old left-hander is 2-3, with a 5.86 ERA and is averaging 14.8 base runners per nine innings pitched. Luckily, with the pitching staff so solid at the major league level, there's no real urgency to rush Romero up the minor league ladder.
