Blue Jays strike late to best Yankees as search for identity continues

NEW YORK – As the Toronto Blue Jays continue trying to work through their ongoing slump, they are also, to a certain extent, trying to work out who they collectively are at the plate.

Back in 2021 and 2022, when runs were plentiful and the homers came in bunches, their identity as a lineup seeking to do – and very capable of – consistent damage was clear. That began to shift in 2023 and became further muddled in the quicksand that was 2024.

Who are they now?

That’s the real question, one that 26 games into the new season after Friday night’s win over the New York Yankees, with a new hitting coach, several new players and some worryingly familiar struggles, is still far too early to definitively answer.

Dogged at-bats and adapting approach to the game situation are at the bedrock of what David Popkins, the new hitting coach, has been preaching. In turn, that should lead to slug, which even after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went deep for the second time this season, remains scarce.

For the time being, there needs to be some trust in the process, since, "I know first-hand if you start searching for that power, things get a lot worse,” said Bo Bichette. “I think if our identity is as a team that competes every day and has good at-bats and gets on base and just makes it tough on the pitcher, that bodes well for us. There are a bunch of guys in here that I know can get hot with power, so I don't think that's something we should be worried about. We should be worried about making sure that we're tough outs every single pitch.”

The Blue Jays did a pretty good job of that in the first 3½ weeks of the season through last weekend, when they dropped two of three to the visiting Mariners but went 3-for-19 and 5-for-21 with runners in scoring position in the two losses.

But the three-game sweep they suffered in Houston before arriving to the Bronx was different, as they managed just nine hits in total and took only eight at-bats with a runner in scoring position, none in the middle contest.

Under different circumstances, the losses could be brushed off as a rough series, but on the heels of the Mariners losses, amid a season-long grind, after two consecutive years of declining offence, it’s simply harder to turn the page when it all feels so familiar.

The Blue Jays hit a club record 262 homers in 2021, dropped all the way to 156 last year and with 14 so far this year, have the second-fewest in the majors. And without instant offence, all other shortcomings can become magnified.

“It's easier to hunt for power when you're locked in, but home runs are mistakes. Pitchers throw home runs. We don't hit them,” said Bichette.

“Typically power comes for me when I'm having competitive at-bats, just trying to hit the ball hard, trying to hit line drives and then I take advantage of mistakes. I feel like I can have a few this year, but definitely that's something that I think we're probably all battling in here, is just sticking to the process, keep having good at-bats, hitting the ball hard and realizing that power will come.”

Added Guerrero: “We're taking good at-bats. We're grinding, the entire lineup, and eventually, we're going to get through it. But if we can continue to take good at-bats, it's going to happen.”

Until it does, the pressure of quality at-bats stacked together is all-the-more essential.

Guerrero’s laser beam to left-centre leading off the sixth may have opened the scoring, but the Yankees tied it in the seventh when Anthony Volpe opened the inning with a double and scored on Oswaldo Cabrera’s base hit through a drawn-in infield.

Then in the eighth, Mason Fluharty came on with the bases empty and one out, gave up a bloop double to Cody Bellinger that fell in between three Blue Jays defenders, walked Jazz Chisholm Jr., hit Volpe and then gave up a go-ahead sacrifice fly to Austin Wells. Addison Barger caught the ball but yanked his throw to the plate.

But the Blue Jays didn’t let up, as struggling Yankees closer Devin Williams gave up a leadoff single to George Springer, hit Andres Gimenez and after a crowd of 46,081 began chanting “We want Weaver” – a reference to elite set-up man Luke Weaver – gave up a two-run double to Alejandro Kirk that restored the lead at 3-2.

“It feels great,” Kirk, who also threw out two baserunners trying to steal second in the sixth inning, said through interpreter Hector Lerbon. “I needed it. The team needed it.”

Their first hit with a runner in scoring position this week was quickly followed by a second as Barger padded the lead with a single off Mark Leiter Jr., and closer Jeff Hoffman, facing the top of the Yankees lineup, closed out the win for his sixth save.

“When you're playing every day, you can get into a little bit of a rut,” said manager John Schneider. “You can say good arms – yes, we have faced good arms and it kind of gets a little bit contagious, either way. There are some guys that are grinding a little bit, and there are guys that are swinging it and it takes a game like this to hopefully come out of it. Everyone did their part – Vlad with the homer, Kirky with the big knock, Barg chips in, the baserunning was good, pitching was good. Hopefully that gets us on a little bit of a roll.”

It's not that easy, of course, and the Blue Jays have scored four runs or less in 18 of their 26 games thus far, underlining how strong pitching and defence remain the pivotal ingredients in their formula for winning while the lineup gets sorted. 

While the home runs will eventually come in waves, “as an offence, you want to be multi-dimensional, you want to have the other team know you can score in more ways than a home run,” said Springer. “And what we've done is shown we can. We've been able to put innings together, get guys over, get guys in, have these really good at-bats that count as you get further into the year, especially when you're facing elite arms like our team has been for a while.”

Gimenez believes the Blue Jays need more results before determining who they are at the plate, but adds, “we know what we are capable of.”

“I feel like we have a pretty good and balanced lineup. A couple guys in the lineup can hit 30-plus homers and some other guys like me, we run the bases well, so we try to play the small game,” he continued. “We compete and that's what matters. We're a lineup that's going to compete no matter what.”

For now, that’s what the Blue Jays have, with the aim of growing the mantra into something more.