On what would have been Tom Cheek’s 75th birthday, the Blue Jays very fittingly had things go their way for the first time in a while.
The Jays broke out of their offensive doldrums and evened up their series in Baltimore, and they did it by turning around a couple of troubling trends.
The first step was getting out of the first inning unscathed. In each of the last four games, the Blue Jays’ starting pitcher had given up at least one home run in the first inning, and had allowed exactly two runs. Drew Hutchison ended that streak by allowing naught but a Steve Pearce single in the bottom of the first, getting through home run threats Adam Jones and Chris Davis by inducing a harmless ground ball from each.
The next step was actually scoring first, something the Blue Jays hadn’t done since their 8-2 win in Detroit back on June 4th. That would be eight straight games in which the Jays’ opponents crossed home plate before they did – if they ever did at all (there were three shutouts in there, after all). Friday night, after holding the Orioles off the scoreboard in the first, the Blue Jays struck in the second when Juan Francisco went deep with Brett Lawrie’s walk aboard. The two-run homer was Francisco’s second hit in 17 at-bats, but also his second hit in a row. The Big Juan has just 11 hits over his last 22 games, for a dismal .183 batting average, but nine of those 11 hits have gone for extra bases – five doubles and four home runs.
Drew Hutchison took it from there, delivering seven innings of walk-free six-hit shutout. He continued to be a road warrior – the outing dropping Hutchison’s road ERA to 1.79 and his road WHIP to 0.945. Contrast that to his home ERA of 8.72 and WHIP of 1.892. That seems to be something straight out of the unexplainablistic and more likely a coincidence than anything else. Those numbers should normalize over the course of the season, one would think.
What stands out more about Hutchison’s work in rainy Maryland is the fact that he did it on the regulation four days’ rest. Having missed last season recovering from Tommy John surgery, it stood out that going into Friday night’s game, Hutchison’s ERA was 2.31 higher and his WHIP almost half a runner per inning worse when pitching on four days’ rest rather than having extra time between starts. That could be put off to the young righty still getting over the effects of the surgery, so a terrific start on regular rest was awfully good to see.
The final step in snapping their three-game losing streak was something we saw a whole bunch when the Jays were hot, and something we haven’t seen in a week. That would be the Blue Jays having some breaks go their way.
In the top of the eighth, after a 21-minute rain delay, the Blue Jays got two huge breaks to get themselves some breathing room in what was a 2-0 game. With Anthony Gose having led off the frame with a walk, Jose Reyes hit a ground ball up the middle. Orioles’ pitcher (as opposed to Canadian country music icon) Tommy Hunter reached out and got just a piece of it, deflecting the ball towards second baseman Jonathan Schoop. But Gose crossed right in front of Schoop just as the ball was arriving and it went through the defender’s legs into short right field for an error, putting Blue Jays on the corners with nobody out. Break number one. Break number two came almost immediately after, as Hunter threw a wild pitch to score Gose. Jose Bautista followed with a bloop single to cash another insurance run.
Dustin McGowan finished things up, getting the final five outs to secure the save – his first in the major leagues. McGowan, who has gone through so much in really trying to kick-start his major-league career, seems to have found a home as a high-leverage late-inning reliever. Since being moved to the bullpen, McGowan has allowed just one run on six hits in 13 1/3 innings, with one walk and eight strikeouts. That’s a sparkling 0.68 ERA with a silly WHIP of 0.525.
He was forced into action early because Brett Cecil had to leave with two on and one out in the eighth, having suffered what appears to be a mild groin pull, but the dominating presence of McGowan along with a very strong Aaron Loup, a soon-to-return Sergio Santos and an improving Steve Delabar means that the Blue Jays could likely survive a Cecil stint on the disabled list, if it should come to that.