TORONTO – A series-opening victory over the Chicago White Sox on Thursday night also marked an end to the first half of the season for the Toronto Blue Jays, who at 45-36 sit atop the American League East, two games up on the Baltimore Orioles, three ahead of the New York Yankees.
You know, just like everyone predicted.
All things considered, the 2014 campaign certainly has gone remarkably well so far for the Blue Jays, but things only get more cut-throat from this point on, and the heaviest lifting remains.
The first 81 games won’t mean a thing if they don’t effectively build on them over the next 81.
“I see us competing for nine innings better than we did last year,” said manager John Gibbons. “Even through our tough year last year, those guys showed up to play every day, there’s no question about that, but I notice a little difference in the later innings, even if we’re down, it’s got a little different feeling than it had. They’ve come together as a group, they know each other, they’ve played a little bit with each other for a year and a half now, and I think that’s made a big difference.
“We’ve generally overall been pretty healthy and we’ve played some pretty good baseball. We deserve to be where we’re at, to tell you the truth.”
The test now comes in keeping it going and to that end, a 7-0 thumping of the White Sox behind 7.2 shutout innings from J.A. Happ was a good sign, since making some hay in this four-game series against the AL Central cellar-dwellers is crucial.
Once Chicago leaves, the Blue Jays face a series of tough tests all the way to the all-star break, starting with two at home against the NL Central leading Milwaukee Brewers, then four against the AL West leading Oakland Athletics, three against the wild-card leading Los Angeles Angels and finally three versus the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field, where bad things always seem to happen to the Blue Jays.
Putting three of four in the bank this weekend is pretty much the minimum, although they’ve done a nice job of not getting too far ahead of themselves.
“We aren’t paying attention to what anybody says, we know what we’re capable of, we know what we’re here for and it shows a lot having two of the big guns out in Brett Lawrie and Jose Bautista, everyone has to step in and do their job, and it’s been happening throughout the whole season,” said catcher Dioner Navarro. “When the top of the lineup doesn’t do anything, the bottom part does something, we’re pitching, we put it together pretty good in May, we hit a wall at the beginning of this month but there are still a lot of games to play.”
Happ – rocked for eight runs, seven earned, Sunday in Cincinnati – set the tone with a crisp first inning, the Blue Jays went up 2-0 in the bottom half on Adam Lind’s RBI double and a throwing error by Moises Sierra (who still does inexplicable things, like instead of hitting a cut-off man, throwing the ball to no one and having it dribble to the Blue Jays dugout), and they kept adding from there.
Jose Reyes hit an RBI triple in the second, Lind brought home two more with a groundball single up the middle in the fourth, Edwin Encarnacion further padded the margin with an RBI double in the seventh and Melky Cabrera added a run-scoring groundout in the eighth.
Happ made the most of it by mowing down the White Sox, who barely threatened a small rally, let alone a major inning. Pitching “a little bit angry” over his last outing, he allowed only four hits and two walks while striking out eight, but better still he pitched ahead, was in the zone, and at 124 pitches very efficient, at least by his standards.
“The feel,” Happ said when asked which qualities about the Blue Jays he liked most. “Winning games is huge, that helps everything, there’s a looseness that was not here last year, and obviously the record was the reason why.
“We’re doing little things, staying in most of these ballgames, if we can keep doing that I think we like our chances.”
The Blue Jays need similar efforts from their left-hander on a more consistent basis, not on the bad-start/good-start pattern he’s been on over his past six outings. And as the Blue Jays head into the pivotal period ahead of the trade deadline, they’ll have to accurately assess whether there’s more in there from Happ and others on the roster, or if what they’ve already seen is what they’re going to get.
While the talk around the team has focused on acquiring a starting pitcher, their need for either a second baseman or a third baseman, especially with Lawrie sidelined by a broken finger, is equally, if not more acute.
An argument could be made that another arm for the bullpen, preferably left-handed to support Aaron Loup and the injured Brett Cecil, might be just as impactful.
Their bench and depth can use augmenting, as well, especially given the current roster composition, which will be problematic over the next three games when the Blue Jays face three left-handed starters and don’t have enough right-handed complements to counter them.
Still, the Blue Jays have shown the ability to overcome obstacles, survive injuries and beat both quality teams and elite starters over the past three months.
That’s why when asked what has most impressed him about the Blue Jays, Reyes replied, “Everything.”
“Compared to last year, we do a lot of stuff a lot better,” he continued. “Playing good defence, starting pitching’s been good, our bullpen’s been good, we’ve been consistently hitting the baseball very good, too. We want through some stretches where we didn’t score too many runs, but that’s going to happen sometimes, we like our chances right now.”
The Blue Jays should, as they’ve put themselves in position to make this season a special one, but they’re only halfway there, and the easy part is behind them.