TORONTO — "That," Josh Donaldson says, "was a bomb."
He’s talking about the seventh inning home run off the bat of Edwin Encarnacion in Friday night’s 6-0 Toronto Blue Jays victory over the Detroit Tigers. The one that broke the game wide open. The one that travelled 446 feet at 109 mph into the second deck. The one that was about as vintage of an Encarnacion homer as you’re going to see—dead centre, loud off the bat, no doubt about it.
It was just the latest blast in what has been an incredibly productive six weeks for Encarnacion, who not that long ago was having a sub-par season by his standards. He managed just three home runs in April, and finished May with a .240/.313/.447 slash line. But in 34 games since the beginning of June he’s been one of the best hitters in baseball, batting .314/.430/.711 with 13 home runs and an even 25:25 strikeout to walk ratio.
"It’s pretty unbelievable watching him do what he does," says Blue Jays starter J.A. Happ. "You just kind of sit back in awe sometimes. I’m glad he’s on our side, no doubt about that."
"He’s definitely up there as far as power. I feel like he’s shown that," adds Donaldson. "It’s not even something that I have to say. The guy has hit 35-plus homers numerous times. I think that kind of speaks for itself."
Encarnacion is now hitting .267/.359/.544 with 23 home runs through his 88 games this season. His 80 runs batted in are tied with Joe Carter for the third-most prior to the all-star break in franchise history, trailing Carlos Delgado (97) and Vernon Wells (84). Blue Jays manager John Gibbons was on the coaching staff when Delgado set that record during a prolific 2003 season when he’d finish with 42 homers and 145 driven in.
"I never thought I’d see anything even close to that," Gibbons says. "Eddy, he’s having a heck of a year—he really is. He crushed that ball today."
He sure did. Standing in against Tigers reliever Bobby Parnell, Encarnacion was looking for a first-pitch slider and got it, an 85-mph pitch on the inner half that he just glanced, fouling it straight back behind him.
Encarnacion twisted around from his follow-through in anger, clearly upset with himself for missing the pitch despite predicting exactly what Parnell was going to throw. He looked out to centre field with that classic irritated look on his face, talking to himself and shaking his head as he put a hand on his hip. Everyone in the ballpark knows when Encarnacion’s just missed one.
And, who knows, maybe that frustration gave him a little extra oomph to throw at the next pitch, because when Parnell came back with a 96-mph fastball on the outer half, Encarnacion turned it around in a hurry. He was still talking to himself as he ran to first base, getting ready to put up the wing, while in centre field Cameron Maybin simply turned around and watched the ball fly.
"Yeah, I was looking for a slider the first pitch, but then I just cut down my swing," Encarnacion said. "I’m always trying to have a plan when I go to the plate with men on base and in scoring position. They’ve been pitching me really hard. But I tried to make an adjustment and it’s been working."
That’s not the easiest thing to do. If you’ve watched a Blue Jays game or two over the last few years, you’ll know that Encarnacion swings all-out every time he takes a rip. There are no excuse-me swings, no poking it the other way, no slap singles. It’s all or nothing.
And when you have a swing like that, and you’ve been looking for a specific pitch, and the pitcher throws a completely different pitch than the one you were looking for, well, it’s not that easy to adjust. But one of the things Encarnacion does best is react to pitches he’s not looking for and sending them over the wall.
"I’ve seen him do that sometimes when he’s sitting off-speed, sometimes when he’s sitting fastball. The fact of the matter is, he’s a good hitter," Donaldson says. "There’s probably not too many pitch sequences he hasn’t seen. It’s not like he’s going to be super unfamiliar with how guys are pitching to him. He’s able to adjust."
The other aspect of Encarnacion’s plate approach this year that has stuck out to his teammates and coaches has been the slugger’s use of all fields. Generally thought of as a pull hitter, Encarnacion has been hitting plenty of balls back up the middle and even to right-centre during his hot streak.
He’ll always pull the ball with authority; he’s a power hitter who plays half his games at Rogers Centre, after all. But Encarnacion’s willingness to hit the ball to other areas when the situation warrants is making him even harder to pitch to than he already is.
"He’s a strong human being," Donaldson says. "He shouldn’t shy away from hitting the ball to centre field, because he has enough power to do that. I mean, we just watched him hit a ball into the flight deck."
Of course, Blue Jays fans have seen this all before. With three more home runs, Encarnacion will tie Wells for fourth on the club’s all-time leaderboard with 223. His next double will be the 300th of his career. He’ll more than likely hit his 300th home run this season as well, something only 138 people in the history of the game have ever done.
That’s all to say that highly productive campaigns are far from unusual for the 33-year-old Dominican. But there’s still always something so extraordinary about these tears he goes on. No one’s supposed to make it look this easy.
And if he keeps hitting the way he has over the last month and a half, 2016 could go down as his best year yet, which would be ideal timing for the pending free agent. As far as Encarnacion’s concerned, the best is yet to come.
"I’ve been feeling great at the plate," Encarnacion said. "Every day that goes by, I just feel better and better."
That’s a scary thought for those who have to pitch to him.