What a difference a week makes. Last Monday morning, we had lost our previous two games to the rather dreadful Angels, and the season’s over folks were out in force. Since then, 5 wins, 1 loss (and the loss was a 12 inning game that we really should have won). It’s funny how quickly things can change in baseball.
What’s changed?
The pitching has been amazing, we’ve given up 9 runs in the last 6 games. Our starters have gone back to being the best in the AL.
It seems like every night I change my mind about who I’d like to see start a potential Wild Card game. Marco Estrada always seems to come up big, but he doesn’t seem quite the same as he was earlier in the year. J.A. Happ has 20 wins (maybe 21 after today) and has been very consistent. And we score for him. Marcus Stroman hasn’t given up more than 3 earned runs in a start this month, has a 3.00 ERA this month and also seem to get up big in big games. Aaron Sanchez likely has the best ‘stuff’ of the four. And he’s had as good a season as any of the four.
That ignores the fact that Francisco Liriano was terrific on Friday.
And our offense is getting some timely hits. Jose Bautista is looking like Jose Bautista, which is making me question which of Jose or Edwin I’d most like re-signed. If you could convince Jose that he would be better off playing first and DHing and if you could get him for $20-25 million per, maybe two years with maybe two more club or mutual option years after that, I would be happy to have him back.
Edwin’s been very consistent, I’d love to have him back too. He likely would be looking for more money. Having them both back would cause a tie up of the DH and first base spots. I’d like DH to be open to give guys a day off, here and there.
And Josh Donaldson, fairly quietly, has had a terrific week, with a .350/.458/.750 line over the last 5 games and a .306/.447/.583 line over the past two weeks.
My biggest question, lately, is who should be the left fielder each night. None of Michael Saunders, Melvin Upton or Ezequiel Carrera has hit much in the second half. Ezequiel has been better over the last couple of weeks, .286/.348/.333 but he doesn’t fill me with confidence when I see him at that plate. That squeeze bunt was pretty impressive though. Upton’s been terrible, but that was one clutch walk last night. Saunders shows the odd moment of looking like an MLB hitter (.231/.333/.538 over the past week), but really just the odd moment. I keep hoping he’ll remember what he was doing in the first half.
Saunders gets the spot tonight.
Tonight’s lineup vs Yankees (7:07 pm start) pres. by @MajesticOnField.
— Blue Jays (@BlueJays) September 26, 2016
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