Thoughts on a weekend sweep

The Vlad Day long weekend turned into a sweep and to the Blue Jays back to .500.

It is funny that Vladimir Guerrero wasn’t the star of his debut weekend. He seemed to be having fun. It seems like the team’s efforts to make him a good teammate have worked. He’s smiling, happy and seems to be the head cheerleader.

His defense seemed fine, he made the plays that came his way. He showed off his arm.

I could do without Charlie putting in a pinch runner for him, especially when the game could be going into extra innings and it might be nice to have his bat later. I don’t think he is so slow he couldn’t score from second on a hit to the outfield. He’s not Smoak slow.

I really can’t wait until he squares up a pitch or two. He’s been close a few times.

The is the odd thing about Charlie that bothers me. Yesterday’s game, Trent Thornton battles his way through 5 innings. The game is close, there are 4 innings left, if the game doesn’t go to extras (and since it is 1-1 when Thornton comes out, Charlie ought consider that it could go to extras.

He brings in Daniel Hudson. Hudson has a good inning, gets out of it with just 13 pitches. I thought he could go another inning.

But no, Joe Biagini starts the next inning. Dan and Buck tell us that Charlie wants him to be a multi-inning reliever. He pitches a good inning, 15 pitches. He’s gotta go another inning but no.

In comes Ryan Tepera. I know he’s likely to be a 1-inning guy, but Gibbons used him for 2 on occasion. But it took him 19 pitches to get through his inning.

In comes Ken Giles. He has a good inning, gets out the 9th with just 10 pitches. We are kind of limited after him, Sam Gaviglio threw 3 innings the day before.

Next inning, Thomas Pannone comes in. I always think that if you use enough relievers you are going to find on that just doesn’t have it that day. Pannone was the one. Actually his first inning went well, but his second inning wasn’t. 2 runs scored, and bases loaded. In comes Elvis Luciano. He hit a batter, scoring a run and then got out of the inning.

Amazingly we came back in the bottom of the inning, but maybe we could plan for the chance that the game goes to extras.

Who figured the offensive stars of the weekend would be Eric Sogard and Brandon Drury?

Sogard went 6 for 11 with 2 homers, 2 doubles, 3 walks and had a sac bunt. I never expected Sogard to channel Barry Bonds for his first week as a Blue Jay. An OPS of 1.210 for his first 10 games is more than a surprise. I would have considered it impossible. If it happened in OOTP I would like stop playing thinking that there is something wrong with the game. I can’t imagine this will continue, but I’d ride it out until it ends if I was running things.

Drury went 6 for 12 with a double, 2 home runs and 1 walk. Not bad for someone I was hoping would be optioned a couple of weeks ago. After Thursday’s game his batting line was .179/.225/.321, now it is .219/.265/.417.

While I never expected Sogard to have a few days like that, I did hold out hope that Drury would figure things out. It would be nice if he could keep this up.