The Jays won three of four against the visiting Detroit Tigers over the weekend, to cap off the first half of the season with a 51-40 record—something the team has done only four times, and hasn’t done since 1992. Toronto has had a particularly hot start to July, winning eight of 10 games since Canada Day. With five Jays—count ’em, five—heading to the All-Star Game in San Diego this week, there is much for fans to be excited about as the team heads into the second half of the season. The series win over Detroit highlighted some points. Here are your takeaways.
The bats are just fine
Remember when everyone was freaking about how Blue Jays just can’t hit anymore, and some people kept saying “Relax, they’ll hit”? Well, the relaxed people were right. Hitting is not a problem for the Jays. Josh Donaldson smacked his 23rd home run of the season in Sunday’s 6–1 win. (He became just the sixth player in AL history to hit 20 home runs with 80 runs scored before the all-star break.) Troy Tulowitzki is batting .313 since returning from the DL last month. Canadian All-Star Michael Saunders has .923 OPS. Kevin Pillar has a seven-game hit streak going. Devon Travis, Darwin Barney and Ezequiel Carrera are all doing their part. And we haven’t even mentioned Edwin Encarnacion, who leads the American League with 80 RBI, or Jose Bautista, who is still on the DL. So yeah, the Jays can hit just fine.
R.A. Dickey is key
Look, no one likes the knuckleball. It’s awkward and unpredictable. It’s confusing. It’s a metaphor for life. But if you’re still complaining about R.A. Dickey, or whining about what could have been with Noah Syndergaard, please just mutter quietly to yourself. On Sunday, Dickey tossed seven innings and gave up one run on five hits, striking out five with just two walks. It was his third straight start with seven innings pitched. And he’s held opponents to two or fewer runs nine times this season. The knuckler is a central part of a group that features All-Stars Marco Estrada and Aaron Sanchez, interspersed with the likes of J.A. Happ and Marcus Stroman. That Jays rotation currently leads the American League with a 3.64 ERA and in innings pitched with 579.1. A big consumer of those innings is Dickey, who has pitched 116.2 so far this season. And yet, every time he gives up a single some idiot in a bar opines something about how the Jays should “Get rid of that bum” because you “Can’t trust the knuckleball.” Of course it’s unpredictable, idiot at the bar. That’s why it exists. Just drink your beer and shut up.
This woman is amazing
Kitty Cohen is a 103-year-old Jays fan who sent a handwritten letter to John Gibbons in spring training and asked if she could run the bases. After practising at her nursing home, Cohen had her wish come true at the Rogers Centre on Saturday. With the help of a walker, Cohen touched ’em all as Gibbons went around the bases with her. Nicely done, Kitty.
Déjà vu
Before Sunday’s game, several Blue Jays you might remember sat in the dugout. Devon White, Ed Sprague and Kelly Gruber were there. So were Joe Carter and Robbie Alomar. Cito Gaston took his old spot on the bench, and the press gathered around him. They were there along with George Bell, Otto Velez and John McDonald to be honoured for key moments in Blue Jays history. I stood off to the side, thinking about how cool the scene would have been to my-ten-year-old self, circa 1993. Just then, Kelly Gruber finished signing a fan’s baseball and went to take his seat back on the bench next to Ed Sprague—but as he went to pass me, he stuck out his hand and said, “Hi, I’m Kelly.”
A day earlier I’d played a game with my recreational softball team, the Kelly’s Grubers. (We scored nine runs in the bottom of the seventh for a come-from-behind walk off in the pouring rain, but I digress.) So, understandably, I was very confused as I stood in the dugout and Kelly Gruber introduced himself as though I didn’t know who he was. It was my own Field of Dreams moment. How did Kelly Gruber get here? Was this 1993? Was I on the team now? All these thoughts that went through my mind, while Gruber and I engaged in some small talk about how the Jays are doing, the fact that he’s a big fan of Josh Donaldson, and how a barber had recently cut his hair too short and he didn’t think fans would recognize him anymore. He said that there was a familiar buzz in the Dome, and that he could feel that the fans were really getting behind this team. Gruber could sense that something special was building in Toronto.
The Jays have the best fan attendance in the American League, averaging 39,274 people a game. (The team averaged 34,505 last year.) That’s still about 10,000 less per a game than what Toronto averaged back in the early 1990s when more than 4 million came our to the ballpark for three straight seasons. But still, it’s something. Kelly Gruber—who later walked out of centrefield to be introduced to the crowd—is right. Something is being built, and the people are coming.
So here’s to you Blue Jays fans. To 103 year-old Kitty Cohen, and to all the drunk idiots who think Dickey should be traded and that the Jays need to hit more, and to the calm, sensible rest of you… Go the Distance.