TORONTO — Differences in roster construction aside, Jeff Hoffman sees some similarities between his Toronto Blue Jays and the powerhouse Philadelphia Phillies teams he played on the previous two seasons.
“From a clubhouse-meshing standpoint, this is right there,” the closer said Sunday before closing out a 3-2 win over the Los Angeles Angels to cap a 7-0 homestand. “It's the same type of feels every single day, showing up expecting to win, having fun while doing it. Everybody's in a good spot. Everybody's wanting to hang out away from the field, on the field. It's a good group. And as we go through stretches like this, just like we did in bad stretches and stuff like that, it solidifies those type of bonds.”
The wild, everyday-someone-else flow of their current surge continued during their season-high eighth straight win.
Joey Loperfido, recalled from triple-A Buffalo as Andres Gimenez hit the injured list with a sprained left ankle, delivered an RBI single in the fourth inning, while Ryan Burr, reinstated from the IL to refresh a beleaguered bullpen, providing four outs of clean leverage relief.
“A lot of it stems from the staff in Buffalo and Casey (Candaele) being the manager that he is,” Loperfido said of the way call-ups hit the ground running, “making sure guys are mentally, physically and play-wise ready to come up here and … contribute right away.”
Davis Schneider added a decisive go-ahead RBI single in the sixth after another everything-is-turning-up-Blue-Jays-moment earlier in the inning, when Alejandro Kirk hit a foul popper toward the home dugout.
Catcher Logan O’Hoppe chased down the tough-but-playable ball but at the last moment, he tripped on the foot of charging third baseman Chad Stevens, and didn’t make the grab. Kirk then singled, allowing Bo Bichette, who led off with a walk, to score on Schneider’s single.
Twists of fate big and small like that one, along with contributions from all corners, have marked their wider 26-10 run, which has propelled them atop the American League East. A crowd of 40,114 roared as Kevin Gausman allowed two runs over 5.2 innings while throwing a season-high 107 pitches, when Bichette scored in the sixth and again when Addison Barger made a diving stab on Jo Adell’s liner to third for the final out.
“Caught a break for sure and you have to take advantage of opportunities,” said manager John Schneider. “Whether it's getting an extra pitch for Kirkie, taking an extra base, all that kind of stuff, you never really know when the turning point is going to be and it ended up being what won it for us.”
The Blue Jays (52-38) are now 11-2 heading into a three-game series at the Chicago White Sox starting Monday that caps an incredibly taxing stretch of 16 games in 16 days that’s placed an enormous burden across the entire roster, particularly the pitching staff.
"We're playing so good, it kind of gives you that extra adrenaline to go out there and give it all for the boys,” said Gausman. “That's really all we're trying to do right now.”
Hoffman echoed that sentiment.
“It doesn't hurt that we're winning,” said the right-hander, who saved three of the four wins during last week’s sweep of the New York Yankees, part of a stretch of four outings in five days. “Like, it's hard to go through a stretch of this many games in a row when you're not winning. So winning the games takes a little bit off, makes it easier to show up the next day, makes it easier to want to get after it again, finish the sweep, that kind of thing.
“We all do a great job preparing in the weight room, preparing in the training room. There's not enough credit for what they do in the training room to make sure that we're in a position that we can go out on the field and do our job. The group meshing that I talked about is just as much about the meshing between the training staff and us, the coaching staff and us, strength-staff and us, because it's all one big spiderweb and it's been great.”
An integral part of that web is the way the farm system has provided a stream of pitching that’s held other threads together.
Braydon Fisher, for instance, pitched for the fifth time in seven days in Saturday’s 4-3 win in 11 innings, and is now up to 24 appearances and 26 innings. Mason Fluharty made 37 appearances before he was optioned after hitting a wall, Paxton Schultz, who is currently on the IL, covered 23.2 innings in 12 games while Lazaro Estrada debuted Saturday with four outstanding innings before getting optioned to make room for Burr.
Their contributions have been so vital that pitching coach Pete Walker has been texting Justin Lehr, the club’s minor-league pitching director, Rick Meinhold, their pitching development co-ordinator, and other staff members “marvelling at what we're doing down there right now.”
“They've done an unbelievable job preparing guys,” said Walker. “We've had great conversations this spring, really the last year and a half, but this group has done a great job with running game, pitch arsenal, fine-tuning things and it's showing up. Every guy that's come up here from triple-A so far has done a really, really fantastic job.”
Key in that regard is a focus on gaining and retaining count-leverage and building attack plans from there central to Lehr’s vision for development. Walker likes the way “we're hammering” the point in the minors and the importance of winning key counts, especially at 1-1, was part of a recent refresher conversation at the big-league level, too.
“I couldn't be more proud of the direction we're headed in down there and what we're doing from a pitching standpoint,” said Walker. “We're getting back to pitching as opposed to off-season-facility-driven velocity and spin, just guys chucking it as hard as they can. If you watched Estrada (Saturday), he was dialed in, locating his fastball and if you can locate your heater, you've got a real good chance to have some success up here.”
Also factoring into the successful transitions is the current Blue Jays environment, which Fisher said made him feel accepted immediately after his May 7 promotion.
“I got a lot of, 'Hey, you're a big-leaguer now,' before I even threw a pitch,” he said. “That makes it a lot easier, just the guys being so accepting in the clubhouse so when you get out on the field, it makes it the game you've always played.”
John Schneider, noting how much of the Blue Jays have dug into their 40-man roster, believes the level of comfort players are finding once they arrive is essential, as “it allows guys to come in and do what we're asking them to do.”
“Going back to very early in spring training, where I said, just everyone be you, what defines you is what we're looking for,” he added.
All of it ties into the way Hoffman believes the team has meshed to create a greater whole.
“There's a better chance that you're going out and you're playing for somebody else, you're not just playing for yourself when you've got a group that cares about each other,” he said. “Everybody has a good understanding of what their roles are and it's fun going out and watching guys attack what they're asked to do. They know before the game starts this is what I'm going to do, here's how I'm going to impact it. I'm going to turn it over, the next guy's going to do it and we're going to win. That's fun to be a part of.”
