TORONTO – At the beginning of the week, George Springer felt like his swing was at long last coming together, and a home run against Ryan Weathers, his first since March 30, offered some positive reinforcement.
Up to that point, his numbers since coming off the injured list April 29 looked like those belonging to someone playing with a broken left big toe – 9-for-48 with a double and two RBIs in 13 games – which, of course, he was. On that fifth-inning drive off the New York Yankees lefty, on a 95.3 m.p.h. fastball he sent 403 feet, he felt like he’d found a “mechanical groove” but cautioned that “there's a long way to go.”
“I really like my at-bats. I've been hitting the ball. I haven't been hitting it as hard as I would like to be. But the process of where I'm hitting the ball – up the middle but back on the left side a little bit – has been good,” the Toronto Blue Jays DH continued. “Mechanically, getting back into the flow of my swing every day, it's starting to show up. Obviously, I'd like the scoreboard to say something different. But I feel like I've started to control my strike zone a little bit more.”
Springer followed with hits in each game since, including a tone-setting leadoff homer against Paul Skenes that ran his hit streak to six games in a 5-2 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Down 0-2 in the count, he turned on an upper-rail fastball at 97.8 m.p.h. from the NL Cy Young Award winner and sent it 396 feet to left for his third homer this week, more than doubling his previous total. Along with a double in the fifth, it was another day of quality contact from Springer, who, along with opening the scoring, also demonstrated the type of approach against Skenes that manager John Schneider was preaching.
“You've got to get him out-over as much as you can and pick not a pitch, but an area of the plate, and try to grind him down as much as you can,” Schneider said before the game. “You've got to take advantage when you get guys on. ... But this is like a hard-hat day. ... You've got to be ready to hit. He's not going to pitch around you. He's going to be in the zone with some pretty good stuff.”
The Blue Jays followed suit, building opportunities in the second, fourth and fifth innings before breaking through with a three-spot in the sixth on an RBI double by Jesus Sanchez, a run-scoring single from Ernie Clement and, after Skenes came out, Andres Gimenez’s double-play ball that scored Sanchez for a 4-1 lead.
“George setting the tone was key,” said Schneider, who added later that he sees Springer being more athletic and into his legs in the batter’s box. “That's where you see the power come with George, and that's what he was so good at last year. He's been very aware of that the last week, something that him and (hitting coach David Popkins) had picked up on.”
The collective Blue Jays effort led to an uncharacteristically poor line for Skenes – four runs on nine hits and a walk with two strikeouts in five-plus innings – and made it four straight wins, also beating Cam Schlittler, Carlos Rodon and Bubba Chandler during this run.
They’re now 25-27 and will try for a sweep of the Pirates on Sunday when Dylan Cease starts against Mitch Keller.
Springer, meanwhile, will try to extend his hit streak and his return to form, which he described as a "byproduct of everything” while he tries to work around a toe that’s still broken.
“I'm not going to make an excuse about it – I chose to play,” he said. “At the end of the day, I know what I have to do, and I know what I'm dealing with from a foot perspective. But the further we get away from the injury, the more I feel like I'm going to be able to impact the ball.”
Over the past week, during which he’s 8-for-25 (.320) with three homers, two doubles, five RBIs, four runs and two walks, he’s done precisely that.
“For me, he's swinging just a little bit more normal,” said Daulton Varsho. “He's getting after it, like not really hesitating to put as much pressure on that toe. He understands that for his swing to work, it has to be full go, so he finally was like, OK, I'm just going to let it go, and whatever happens, happens. That's the best thing for him and playing with a lot of things going on (physically), that's pretty impressive.”
Outfield Crunch: With Nathan Lukes (hamstring) already in rehab games and Addison Barger (elbow) due to resume baseball activity Sunday, the Blue Jays will soon be facing a roster crunch in the outfield.
Last time, when Barger was coming off the injured list for the first time, Yohendrick Pinango ended up being the odd man out despite an impressive but short stint on the roster, as the club opted to maintain their handedness balance.
The Blue Jays are looking at things differently this time.
“Yeah,” said John Schneider. “Like, yeah, we want to stay balanced, and we want to stay versatile and flexible. And you kind of look at what everyone's doing, you know what I mean? Performance is performance in real time. So a little bit different now than I think last time. We'll make that call whenever we (need to) make that call.”
Pinango added two more hits Saturday, is now batting .313/.353/.422 with a homer and 10 RBIs in 22 games and continues to impress, with George Springer saying that “he gives you a Grade A at-bat every time.”
“He doesn't look overmatched a lot. He seems to slow things down,” Springer added. “But I love the way he swings. His intent is awesome.”
Springer is far from the only one, but barring injury, if Pinango stays, that means the first move once Lukes is ready is likely to be either Lenyn Sosa or Davis Schneider.
Both help balance out the left-handed hitters on the roster, but neither has been especially productive against southpaw pitchers, Schneider carrying a .497 OPS but a hefty .354 OBP and team-leading 4.52 pitches per plate appearance, while Sosa’s OPS is .503 with a .202 OBP and a 3.40 pitches per plate appearance.
Dropping one of them means more at-bats for at least one of the left-handed hitting platoon outfielders (Pinango, Lukes, Jesus Sanchez) against lefties.
“That's what we're working through,” said Schneider. “Do you want the platoon advantage versatility to manoeuvre in-game, or do you say, hey, we're going to go with guys that are swinging well right now?”
Corbin Cooks: Patrick Corbin watched the way the Pirates attacked Kevin Gausman in Friday’s series opener and expected it to be somewhat similar for him Saturday. So he was ready to use their aggressiveness against them and did exactly that over six innings of one-run ball to outduel Paul Skenes.
“Generally, that's going to be a team game plan, just how they approach things,” said Corbin, who allowed only five hits while striking out seven. “Obviously, they might be a little different towards me, but I thought overall they were just swinging early. That was just one thing I picked up. So, not that you want to fall behind or not go to a certain pitch, but just quality early, getting into counts to where they have to be aggressive, and that was the mindset.”
