The Minnesota Twins arrived in Toronto with a one-game lead over the Toronto Blue Jays and possession of the second AL Wild Card spot. They left having suffered a four-game sweep at the hands of the Blue Jays for the first time in franchise history, and they now sit three games behind Toronto, with Texas and Baltimore also now between them and a spot in the post-season.
This series marked our first look at the post–trade deadline Blue Jays in their entirety. We (and the Twins) found out they’re pretty good:
Watching David Price pitch in a Blue Jays uniform feels as wonderful as you thought it would
On Monday, David Price started for the Toronto Blue Jays.
[Pause for effect.]
It will be years before we know the true cost of having Price pitch in Toronto for the remainder of the 2015 season, but for now, watching him take the mound in front of a sold-out crowd and dominate against an AL Wild Card rival, it’s best just to enjoy the moment. Pitching eight strong innings of three-hit ball and allowing only one run, Price reminded Jays fans what it’s like to have a true ace to take the ball every five days, and it’s a feeling many are hoping to get used to.
Encarnacion might be going on a run again
In his last seven games, Edwin Encarnacion is batting .440 with two home runs, eight RBI, and an OPS of 1.373. Encarnacion has gone on tears like these before, but he’s heating up at just the right time with two series coming up against the division-leading Yankees.
Encarnacion’s also hitting the ball further than he has all season: His home run on Wednesday was among the ten deepest drives this MLB season.
Drew Hutchison has mastered the art of having his team score a lot of runs on days when he pitches
Hutchison has now allowed 81 runs in 118 innings and carries an ERA of 5.42, good for 88th amongst qualified pitchers. Yet his 10-2 record gives him a win percentage of 0.833, tied with Zack Greinke (ERA: 1.41) for second in all of baseball.
How to square these conflicting stats? Hutchison leads the league in run support, averaging seven runs per game across his 22 starts this year. This was as visible as ever on Wednesday night when Hutchison allowed seven runs in five innings, still notching the win with the Blue Jays scoring nine.
(In Hutchison’s defence, only three of the seven runs on Wednesday were earned, and he has been better than his ERA might indicate; his FIP of 4.02 is in line with his career numbers and suggests bad luck could be playing a role.)
Revere settles in
After going 0-for-13 at the plate in his first four games as a Blue Jay, Ben Revere put up consecutive strong performances, going 2-for-3 on Wednesday and 3-for-4 on Thursday, while scoring four runs over two games.
Seeing Revere succeed in the ninth spot and find a way to get on base for the big bats at the top of the lineup has given us another glimpse of just how daunting this offence has become for opposing pitchers.
Appealing a suspension is a good way to control how many games you actually end up missing
After being saddled with a three-game suspension for hitting Alcides Escobar in Sunday’s finale against Kansas City, Aaron Sanchez appealed, allowing him to pitch enough innings that he was due for two days of rest. He then dropped his appeal and committed to missing the next three games in the knowledge he would have sat through two of them anyway.
Sanchez, for his part, wants to make clear that dropping his suspension is not an admission of guilt, saying, “I still would like to talk to someone about it,” but adding: “It’s behind me now. … I’ll move on and focus on winning a championship with this team.”
