TORONTO – The Blue Jays have been on a phenomenal run since general manager Alex Anthopoulos started making deals in the week leading up to the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline, with the sweep of the Yankees in The Bronx making it 11 wins in 12 games since Troy Tulowitzki reported for duty.
In that short span, the Blue Jays have not only knocked six and a half games off the Yankees’ now-very-surmountable lead in the AL East, they’ve done it by laying waste to three teams that were ahead of them in the standings.
Did those trades transform a mediocre team into a juggernaut? Can the additions of Tulowitzki, David Price, Ben Revere, LaTroy Hawkins and Mark Lowe have had that massive an effect as to turn a team that had spent most of the summer hanging around the .500 mark into the unstoppable force we’ve seen over the last two weeks?
Well, no.
What the changes have done, though, was fix a team that was already really good but underperforming and make it great.
Prior to all the changes, the Blue Jays were treading water around the break-even mark while leading the American League in run differential, having outscored their opposition by 94 runs over the first 101 games while sitting at 50-51. They weren’t winning as many as they were losing, never mind a lot more, but they were right in every game. Think back and try to remember games this season that the Blue Jays didn’t have a chance to win late – you won’t be able to come up with many, because there have only been a handful.
In fact, there have only been eight games all season in which the Blue Jays couldn’t get at least the tying run to the on-deck circle in the eighth inning or later. Contrast that to the Blue Jays’ opponents, to whom that has happened 32 times.
What this means is that the Blue Jays have been right there in almost every single game. If they haven’t won, they’ve had a chance to at least tie it up in the very late going.
The Blue Jays have lost 52 times this season. In 15 of those losses, they’ve had the tying run or winning run on base in the ninth inning or later. In another 15 of those losses, they’ve had the tying run at the plate in the ninth inning or later. That’s 30 of the 52 losses — almost 60 per cent — that they were a well-timed ninth-inning hit away from at least tying, if not winning.
To go a little bit further, there were another six losses in which the Blue Jays managed to get the tying run on-deck in the ninth inning or later.
Digest those numbers and maybe an 11-1 run isn’t all that outlandish now that Anthopoulos has bolstered the team with those deadline additions. If you do the math, the Blue Jays were that close to being 65-36 or even 80-21, as crazy as that would be.
When a team loses a close game, its greatest flaws are often exposed. The blown saves – the Blue Jays are still tied for the league lead with 17 – were huge. The Blue Jays have lost 14 times in games in which the bullpen has blown a save. Below-average defence at shortstop and left field were lightning rods as well, as the ball always seemed to find Jose Reyes, Chris Colabello or Ezequiel Carrera in big spots in close games.
Those areas of weakness have not only been addressed, but overhauled over the course of the last two weeks.
The Blue Jays now have the best shortstop in the game in Tulowitzki, who is a massive upgrade defensively over Reyes while also being a better bat. They have a real big-league left fielder in Revere, who has already made a couple of catches his predecessors never would have, always throws to the right base and doesn’t make anyone sweat out the routine plays. And the bullpen, which only had one and a half reliable relievers in it as recently as three weeks ago, is now one of the best in the game with the additions of Hawkins and Lowe as well as the return of Aaron Sanchez, who has now thrown seven straight no-hit innings in relief.
The Blue Jays ‘pen can now compete with the likes of the Kansas City Royals as far as shutting down a team from even the sixth inning on. Brett Cecil has caught fire, with 15 consecutive scoreless outings and Liam Hendriks has only given up one hit since the all-star break (and only three runs since May 27), and they’re not even in the top four of this now-incredible relief corps.
Oh, and there’s David Price, too.
Yes, there are still a couple of soft spots on this roster — Ryan Goins is the fourth outfielder, which is an issue, and there’s an almost-terrifying lack of depth in the starting rotation, which is already sending out a badly-struggling Drew Hutchison every five days — but the glaring, day-to-day flaws are gone. And that means that a lot of games that were one- or two-run losses earlier in this season will now be two- or three-run victories, which has been the case over the past dozen games.
It’s no fluke that the Blue Jays are playing their best baseball of the season right now — they’re certainly not this good, but they’re really, really good — and if they can stay healthy, they could very well wind up running away with the division title.