TORONTO — John Gibbons praises the character of this Toronto Blue Jays team often enough that it shouldn’t be taken as an empty platitude any longer, shouldn’t be dismissed as a common bromide a manager offers about his players.
The way he continually tells questioners that there’s something different about this iteration of his team underscores the point, and you can sense a genuine admiration for his players when he says he’s proud of them, which he’s done regularly this season, even after tough losses.
Quite obviously there’s something beyond talent that Gibbons really likes about the 39-35 Blue Jays, and how he sees that determination and tenacity manifested out on the field.
“There’s no quit,” says the manager, who on Monday picked up his 500th career win. “One thing about baseball, nobody quits, but you play a game every day, guys get tired and banged up, it happens sometimes that you lose your intensity.
“With this group — this group doesn’t do that. That’s the difference.”
Approaching the midway point of the season this Blue Jays team has certainly been through a lot already, starting with the freak injuries to Michael Saunders and Marcus Stroman during spring training, to the bullpen struggles that have let an alarming number of games slip away.
Key rookies struggled and were demoted, injuries led to players being used out of position and at several points there were real concerns the whole endeavour could go sideways. That they haven’t speaks to the character Gibbons so often mentions, and while significant flaws remain, this Blue Jays team seems to have the type of fortitude in adversity others lacked.
“That’s what they’re made of,” he says.
More tests loom, especially with the Blue Jays rotation in flux as Aaron Sanchez remains on the disabled list. The team had initially considered skipping the open fifth spot Saturday, something made possible due to Thursday’s off-day, but with Drew Hutchison throwing a season-high 109 pitches in five innings Monday and Marco Estrada throwing 118 and 129 pitches in consecutive outings, that’s out.
Initial indications pointed to Felix Doubront filling in, but prospect Matt Boyd was scratched from his scheduled start at triple-A Buffalo on Thursday and that lines him up for a call up.
The 24-year-old left-hander had made just two starts for the Bisons after tearing through the Eastern League with double-A New Hampshire, but the Blue Jays also brought him to Montreal for the pre-season games against the Reds, giving him an inning (two walks, one strikeout) to experience pitching before a large and raucous crowd.
Another possibility is that the Blue Jays bring up both left-handers to give the rotation extra rest, or perhaps skip someone, especially with a stretch of 17 straight games leading into the all-star break starting Friday against Texas.
Either way, adding another lefty versus the Rangers makes sense given that they have a .682 OPS versus southpaws, 12th in the American League.
The three games with Texas come before a four-game set with the Boston Red Sox, following on the heels of six grinding games against the Baltimore Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays. The Blue Jays went 3-3 over that stretch, including Wednesday’s 1-0, 12-inning victory at Tropicana Field, that showed off some their toughness.
“This is AL East baseball, these are important games for us and we’re out there giving it everything we have and the other team, you’ve got to tip your cap sometimes, those guys did a good job, too,” says third baseman Josh Donaldson after the win. “Same with Baltimore, just kept grinding, and kept grinding and it’s been different kinds of games each day it feels like. That’s what is also a sign of a good team, you can win multiple ways. We feel like this month we’ve really been turning a corner and hopefully it’s lining up positively for us.”
The Blue Jays’ oft-maligned bullpen performed well in that one, although both Bo Schultz and Brett Cecil had to make difficult escapes from jams before Steve Delabar convincingly locked things down. The emergence of another starter would allow Sanchez to return from his lat strain as a reliever, cutting down his absence in the process, and perhaps allow GM Alex Anthopoulos to focus his resources on acquiring rotation help via trade prior to the July 31 trade deadline.
Anthopoulos has been working the phones hard trying to make something happen, but hasn’t been able to find a partner yet. That means for the time being, the Blue Jays will need to continue to rely on themselves to get the job done, something they’ve done under a variety of trying circumstances.
“You really have to keep your composure,” Donaldson says of playing through challenges, “keep your focus about you and really harness the energy that’s the dugout and on the field to continue to focus on your job that you need to accomplish.”
So far this season, the Blue Jays have done a good job of playing in precisely such fashion. That doesn’t guarantee them anything, but it should take them further than they’ve gone in the years before.