BALTIMORE, MD. — This time last year, Michael Saunders’ season had already been over for a month. An unfortunate misstep on a protruding sprinkler head during spring training shredded his knee and left him with a deep bone bruise on his tibial plateau that simply wouldn’t heal. He played all of nine games and spent the majority of his year in Dunedin, Fla., rehabbing his injury. He tried and tried to get healthy; he tried and tried to be on the field for his new team; he tried and tried and tried and came up short.
That was his introduction to Blue Jays fans. And it almost became his entire impression when, this February, at the beginning of his second spring training with the Blue Jays, the team tried to trade him. Michael Saunders, Los Angeles Angel, was very nearly a reality. As was Jay Bruce, Toronto Blue Jay. Alas, the transaction fell apart as it neared the finish line, one team or another getting cold feet, depending who you ask. All anyone agrees on is the Blue Jays were more than willing to pull the trigger.
And here we are, 18 months and 70 games into Saunders’ turbulent tenure with the Blue Jays, and he’s one of the best-hitting regulars in all of baseball. His .999 OPS is higher than Mike Trout’s, higher than Bryce Harper’s, higher than any other outfielder in the game. His 15 home runs—three of them hit Friday night in a 13-3 Blue Jays rout of the Baltimore Orioles—give him three more on the season than Jose Bautista, who’s been to the plate almost 40 more times and has won two home run titles in his career. Outside of David Ortiz, Saunders has a legitimate case for being the most productive hitter in all of baseball, as his weighted runs created plus surged to 167 following Friday night’s trio of long balls.
And Saunders nearly had a fourth, as he smoked a 2-2 fastball 330 feet to left field in the third inning, where it fell right in front of the outfield wall marker that reads “333.” Five more feet and Saunders would have made history.
“Michael’s in a nice little groove. He’s having a hell of a year for us,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “And he’s using the whole field, too. He’s not just hitting his home runs pull side. He’s driving some balls out the other way. Just a great effort by him.”
Saunders has been, in no uncertain terms, a revelation. Against lefties, against righties, against shifts, against deep outfields, against inside heat, against outside breaking balls—Saunders has hit through everything. And the three long balls he hit Friday were all different, as well.
His first was off a two-seamer on the outer half from Orioles starter Mike Wright, which Saunders stayed with and drove 395 feet the opposite way. The second was on a Ubaldo Jimenez splitter—which Saunders fouled off three straight erratic pitches to get to—that came out of the hand at 81 mph and left the bat at 99 mph as Saunders hammered it into the opposite field bleachers once again.
And the third was on a full count Jimenez slider that broke down and in at the bottom of the zone but Saunders still managed to golf 370 feet over Camden’s tall right-field fence. The Blue Jays dugout erupted as the ball left the park and hats rained down in front of it as Toronto fans giddily celebrated the Canadian’s hat trick.
“I think ultimately hitting’s about getting a good pitch to hit and putting a good swing on it. And I felt like that’s what I did tonight,” Saunders said. “I think I’m just on time with the fastball right now and then adjusting off of that.”
Meanwhile, Aaron Sanchez didn’t have his best night, but didn’t have his worst, either, as he fought his way through six innings against an Orioles lineup that hammered him for four home runs five games ago. He allowed a run in the first and loaded the bases with no one out, but composed himself to strike out the next two batters and induce a weak groundball to escape the jam.
“The key to that game is Sanchez getting out of the first inning with one run,” Gibbons said. “He’s still a young kid learning the big leagues. And having outings like that, you gain confidence. You can say, ‘Hey, I’m in a jam here but I can still work my way out of it.’”
He ran into trouble again in the third, when the first two batters of the inning singled before Chris Davis lined a ball 97 mph directly into the glove of Ryan Goins at short. Mark Trumbo singled after that to drive in a run and put runners on the corners for Jonathan Schoop, who sent a dangerous flare into short right field.
But Blue Jays second baseman Darwin Barney raced out to snag the ball, making an incredibly difficult, over-his-head catch before pivoting and firing home while he backpedalled, nabbing Manny Machado trying to score.
“That’s huge,” Sanchez said. “It couldn’t come at a better time for me and for the team. In games like today, you score early, momentum’s on our side, the biggest thing you try to do is just to keep that momentum.”
Sanchez settled in from there, retiring nine in a row after a leadoff double in the fourth as he pitched with an ever-increasing lead. He backed off his curveball, which wasn’t at its best on Friday, and focused more on his fastball and change-up as he kept Orioles hitters off-balance.
“That’s a good hitting team over there and they were hunting the heater all night,” Sanchez said. “I was trying to get their eyes moving forwards and backwards. And even at times when I felt like I missed, I was able to come back and make a pitch.”
But, ultimately, this night was about Saunders, the Victoria, B.C., native whose Blue Jays career couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start, almost came to an end this spring, and now has evolved to a point where he’s hitting the ball unlike he ever has in his career.
“I’m just happy to be here,” said Saunders, who became the fourth Canadian to hit three home runs in an MLB game, joining Larry Walker, Justin Morneau and Joey Votto. “To do this with the Blue Jays uniform on is pretty special for me.”