TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays kept the good times going by taking down the Colorado Rockies once again at Rogers Centre, as the waves of positivity continue to splash through Blue Jays nation.
Here are three things that stood out to me about Tuesday night’s win:
LUCKY NUMBER SEVEN
The Blue Jays scored early and often, and rolled to yet another easy victory — their seventh in a row. Over the course of this longest win streak in almost five years, the Blue Jays have barely had to break a sweat in five of the victories. They’ve outscored the opposition by a ridiculous 41-11 count over the seven games, allowing a total of six runs over the last six.
Since Chien-Ming Wang’s Blue Jays debut, a 7-5 win over the White Sox that started this streak, Toronto starters have allowed a grand total of four earned runs in 40.2 innings, which is pretty impressive to say the least and which has gone an awfully long way towards helping the team win seven straight.
What was once set to be a long, slow climb back to the .500 mark has turned out to be anything but, as the Blue Jays have closed to within two games of the break-even mark and, insanely enough, just 4.5 games out of a playoff spot. They’ve gone 11-4 so far in June.
NAME THE BUILDING AFTER HIM
Esmil Rogers made his fourth start as a Blue Jay and dominated the team that signed him, developed him and brought him to the big leagues with his best outing yet.
Rogers showed off a filthy sinker and used it to great effect, taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning and allowing two earned runs on four hits over 6.2 frames with just one walk against five strikeouts.
It had to feel good for Rogers, who posted an ugly 6.77 ERA and even scarier 1.819 WHIP while bouncing from the rotation to the bullpen and back over parts of four seasons with Colorado, to come out and stick it up the Rockies’, ummm, rockies the way he did. To do it while flirting with a no-hitter must have made it even better.
Especially given the bad news on Brandon Morrow, who suffered a setback in his rehab start in Dunedin Monday night, it would be nice if the Blue Jays have really found something in Rogers.
MIGHTY MAICER
Maicer Izturis didn’t make a terrific first impression on Blue Jays fans — or even a marginally good one — but he really seems to have turned things around as the Jays have heated up in June.
Izturis homered back-to-back with J.P. Arencibia in the sixth inning, putting the finishing touches on the win, as part of a 1-for-4 day.
It hasn’t really been a long resurgence, but over the last eight games, Izturis has started to dig out of it, having hit .333/.333/.485, raising his overall batting average 22 points. He’s also picked up his defensive game as well, and has looked good with the glove (until his brain cramp boot in the seventh inning Tuesday) despite getting a lot of time at shortstop lately. It’s a far cry from the train wreck-style glovework he was providing on many occasions in April.
Izturis has come as advertised as a handler of the bat, though, having struck out just 17 times in 196 at-bats for a sterling 8.2 per cent strikeout rate. Amazingly (as we delve deeper into the nerd stats), Izturis has managed just a .229 batting average on balls in play this season — which is well below-average — despite a career-high line drive rate of 23 per cent. That’s not supposed to happen, and those things are likely to even out over time. Maybe they’re starting to.
