TORONTO — For Toronto Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo it wasn’t the 18 hits, the 11 runs or the Clayton Richard quality start that stood out. It wasn’t the five players with multi-hit games or the four who contributed three knocks or more. It wasn’t Cavan Biggio’s second four-RBI game of the series, Randal Grichuk’s four run-scoring singles, or Freddy Galvis coming up with three extra-base hits in a game for the first time in his career.
None of the above. As he watched his team thump the Kansas City Royals 11-4 the moment that Montoyo liked most was this one:
That’s his right fielder Grichuk, his first baseman Rowdy Tellez and his second baseman Biggio all sprinting after a foul pop-up in the top of the ninth inning with a seven-run lead.
They really didn’t have to. It was the baseball equivalent of garbage time. The inning was only being played because MLB doesn’t feature a mercy rule and stipulates that a game contested in weather as gorgeous as Monday’s at Rogers Centre must feature 27 outs made by the losing team. Toronto’s fielders could’ve watched the ball sail into the seats and no one would’ve mentioned a thing. Instead, they went after it.
“That’s the kind of team we have here,” Montoyo said. “It’s funny, I was proud of that moment when it happened. It’s 11-4. And they’re all going all-out to try to catch that foul ball.”
It’s those little things that shine through for a developmentally minded manager as he watches his team explode offensively for 18 hits in the Canada Day sun. More important to Montoyo than what the Blue Jays did Monday is how they did it. Take Biggio’s second-inning plate appearance as another example.
The Blue Jays were up four and Biggio had a pair of runners in scoring position with two out. As he does, Biggio laid off the first pitch he saw, a tough change-up just beneath the zone. Coming into the game, Biggio had taken a first-pitch ball in more than half of his 123 plate appearances, a fairly remarkable feat for a player getting his first taste of major-league pitching. Then he laid off two more close pitches to put himself in a 3-0 count.
Two days prior, Biggio had worked a 3-0 count against Royals starter Homer Bailey with two out and a runner on. Montoyo gave him the green light. This is what happened:
Weak groundball to second. Not what you want. But Montoyo trusts his players to make the proper adjustments. So, as Biggio peered in for a sign in the same spot two days later, Montoyo gave him the green light again. And here’s the result:
“So many guys are just are going to say, ‘Oh, I’m just going to take it this time,’” Montoyo said. “But he was ready to hit, hit a double, two runs score. I just like how the kid plays.”
There was certainly plenty for Montoyo to like Monday, as the Blue Jays scored in each of the first four innings, including a five-run outburst in the second led by back-to-back home runs off the bats of Teoscar Hernandez and Galvis. Poor Glenn Sparkmann, once a Rule 5 pick of the very Blue Jays who were beating his brains in, was forced to wear it as his team tried to at least get three innings out of him. He got those nine outs, eventually. But not before surrendering nine hits and eight runs.
And the hits, they were loud. Seven of them came off bats at 97 mph or harder. Hernandez and Guerrero each put balls in play at 110. Brian Flynn, the Royals left-hander who mercifully relieved Sparkman in the fourth, didn’t do much better at suppressing hard contact, as he allowed rockets of 107 mph from Tellez and 108 mph from Hernandez. The difference was the lasers the Blue Jays shot off Flynn were generally hit toward defenders rather than open expanses of turf, which allowed the Royals to finally hold Toronto scoreless in the fifth.
But the Blue Jays resumed scoring in the sixth as Grichuk laced a 111-mph single to centre, the hardest-hit ball of the game. The only player in Toronto’s lineup who didn’t come up with a hit was the rookie catcher Danny Jansen who went 0-for-4. But his significant contributions showed up on the other side of the ball, as he helped Richard through his second straight quality start.
“Janno’s been calling terrific games. I’ve been pretty much just relying on what he’s putting down and not having to think too much,” Richard said. “A lot of times, for myself, if I get caught thinking as opposed to just focusing on executing pitches, I get in trouble. So, being able to lean on him throughout the game-planning part of it, that’s been huge.”
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A lopsided contest between two rebuilding clubs, Monday’s affair was not a game that will be enshrined in Cooperstown. But it did serve of a handy reminder that for as bad as this Blue Jays season has been, things could be so, so much worse. The Royals dropped three of four in Toronto this weekend, by a combined score of 30-18. Toronto may still lose 100 games this season. But the Royals may lose 110. The Baltimore Orioles, currently 24-59, will almost certainly hit that grim mark for a second consecutive year.
And when the Blue Jays are having days like this — when Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s drawing a couple walks in the two-hole, Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s extending his six-week hot streak with three hits and a walk, and Biggio’s raising his OPS to .837 through his first 128 plate appearances as a big-leaguer — you can see the foundation of future, more-competitive Blue Jays clubs. Toronto’s now scored six runs or more in 10 of its last 12 games.
A lack of high upside arms in the organization remains an issue, obviously. Everyone knows that. But the Blue Jays have some talented young hitters around the diamond right now, and are at least further along in their rebuild than teams like Kansas City, Baltimore, and the 27-52 Detroit Tigers. The task now is to keep pushing it forward, with the upcoming trade deadline the next juncture at which the club can acquire pitching.
In the meantime, Montoyo’s focused on continuing to foster a style of play from his young players that he hopes to see them carry through their careers. And when he’s watching smart, effortful plays on display in a blowout like Monday’s, he can only be encouraged.
“It started with Gurriel. When he came back, he got hot. And then the rest followed,” Montoyo said. “The approach at the plate right now has been outstanding. It’s been great.”
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