TORONTO – After two months of baseball, the Toronto Blue Jays have a healthy roster and wins in 14 of their last 20 games. At the same time, they’re below .500 and in need a continued surge to solidify their status as contenders.
For the New York Yankees, the first two months of the season have gone much more smoothly. A team that was old and slow as recently as last year arrives in Toronto leading the AL East with a 30-20 record thanks in large part to their emerging talent. If they were at all uncertain about the readiness of their youth entering the year, those concerns have since given way to optimism.
“They were under-rated in spring training,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “I only say that because last year, when they (traded veterans including Carlos Beltran, Ivan Nova, Andrew Miller and Aroldis Chapman) and brought those young guys up, something changed. They injected some youth in there—some pretty good players.”
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Players like right fielder Aaron Judge, whose 17 home runs lead MLB, and Gary Sanchez, already one of the best offensive catchers in baseball. Plus a pair of young starters: Luis Severino, who has a 2.93 ERA with 69 strikeouts in 61.1 innings, and Michael Pineda, who has a 3.32 ERA with 66 strikeouts in 59.2 innings.
The Yankees haven’t lucked their way to the top of the AL East, either. Injuries to the Blue Jays and Red Sox have surely eased their path to the top, but New York has legitimately played well for 50 games.
They have a pythagorean record of 30-20 because they’ve outscored the opposition by a considerable margin (268-212). If you look a level deeper at FanGraphs’ expected win-loss records, the Yankees have been the second-best team in baseball, trailing only the Dodgers.
Fortunately for the Blue Jays, they welcome the Yankees to Toronto at a time that they’re making their 8-17 April a distant memory.
“It was a really rough month,” Gibbons said. “That’s no exaggeration. We could have buried ourselves.”
Instead, the Blue Jays played better in most phases of the game on their way to an 18-10 May capped off by a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds.
April | May | |
---|---|---|
AVG | .228 | .263 |
OBP | .295 | .332 |
SLG | .350 | .477 |
HR | 22 | 49 |
Runs/Game | 3.56 | 5.29 |
Rotation ERA | 3.77 | 4.73 |
Rotation IP | 140.2 | 144.2 |
Bullpen ERA | 4.70 | 3.06 |
Bullpen IP | 90 | 103 |
“It was a fun month for sure,” said second baseman Devon Travis, who had a 1.009 OPS in May. “Looking forward to keeping that going.”
A month ago, that kind of optimism seemed misplaced. Now, their goal seems more realistic because they’re finally healthy. The return of Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki lengthened the Blue Jays’ lineup and, by extension, improved their bench. Even the precautionary off days for Donaldson and Tulowitzki will soon become less frequent, according to Gibbons.
Just as importantly, Mike Bolsinger’s respectable 5.1 innings of work Wednesday marked a turning point for the Blue Jays. With Francisco Liriano set to re-join the rotation Friday, Bolsinger’s no longer needed as a starter, and a rotation that faltered in May regains a sense of normalcy. Only Joe Biagini counts as a fill-in at this stage, and he looks like a viable starter after pitching a career-best six innings Sunday.
In other words, it might be the ideal time to face a team as tough as the Yankees.
“There’s no doubt we’re playing good baseball,” Gibbons said. “We anticipate it’ll be a tough four games. They’re frontrunners.
“It’d be nice to continue playing well right now. The timing would be perfect.”
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