ARLINGTON, Texas – The Toronto Blue Jays extended their win streak to four games, and they’re bringing their brooms to the series finale in Texas Sunday afternoon. The Blue Jays – who have yet to sweep a three-game series this season – can sweep away the Rangers four straight with a Fathers’ Day win.
Here are three things that stood out to me about the Jays’ latest win:
NOT SO DEEP IN THE HEAT OF TEXAS
The Blue Jays had been on a bit of a run in which their starting pitchers had been getting deep into games on a regular basis – three games in a row in which they didn’t have to go to the bullpen until the eighth inning (given how this season has gone, yes, that’s a bit of a run), but on a hot day in Texas that streak came to an end as R.A. Dickey was removed with two out in the sixth.
Dickey didn’t appear to be terribly pleased when he saw John Gibbons coming out to get him after Leonys Martin had beaten out a double-play ball to keep the sixth inning alive and cash the Rangers’ first run, especially when Gibbons signaled for reliever Neil Wagner before even getting to the mound.
You can’t blame Dickey for wanting to stick around, seeing how he’d faced five batters in the bottom of the sixth and gotten two weak pop-ups and three ground balls. Dickey had done his job, but both those pop-ups fell in for bloop hits and one of the grounders got through, so instead of five outs there were two men on, one run in and two out.
Dickey had thrown 107 pitches on a 90-degree (Fahrenheit) day and the tying run was coming to the plate in Ian Kinsler. With the Blue Jays’ bullpen having combined to throw only four innings over the last three games, Gibbons decided not to push the issue with Dickey and handed the game to the relief corps and as it has been all season, the job was done.
BIG-TIME BULLPEN
Coming into this season, if there was an area of concern about your Toronto Blue Jays it was the bullpen. But as this frustrating, disappointing year has sputtered along, the ‘pen has been the team’s greatest strength.
The relievers combined for 3.1 shutout innings behind Dickey in Saturday’s win, running their current scoreless innings streak to 7.1 (though it’s been 12.1 innings since they’ve allowed an earned run). More importantly, the relief work just added to what’s been a great record for the Blue Jays this season – the Jays are now 23-0 when leading after seven innings, the only team in the bigs without a loss in those circumstances.
Oh, and Brett Cecil contributed to this one by retiring all four batters he faced. That runs Cecil’s streak to 24 consecutive hitters retired, which is just three outs away from a virtual combined perfect game.
HO HUM
Adam Lind got the Blue Jays’ scoring started in the bottom of the first, providing all they would need with a two-out, two-run home run off the foul pole in right field.
Lind would later single and score ahead of Colby Rasmus’ two-run shot in the fourth and wind up going 2 for 4, which is just another day at the office for him lately.
From May 11 on, a span of 26 contests, Lind has now had 15 multi-hit games, which is ridiculous in its awesemnity. Over that period, in 121 plate appearances, he’s hitting .402. I feel like that’s impressive enough on its own that I don’t have to give you the full slash line, but I guess I should anyway. So since May 11, Lind is hitting .402/.430/.643. In the process, he’s raised his slash line .105/.025/.178 – that’s good stuff, and it also shows you that he was getting on-base at a pretty good clip even while he was struggling to get hits.