Reacts: Jays fans still aren’t confident in team pitching

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Each week, we send out questions to the most plugged-in Toronto Blue Jays fans, and fans across the country. Sign up here to join Reacts.

According to the most recent SB Nation Reacts survey, 94 percent of Blue Jays fans are confident the team is headed in the right direction. That’s down a tick from 95 percent last week.

For any team to find success they need to have faith in their pitching staff. Roughly one-third of Blue Jays fans said they are confident in the team’s pitchers. Since the team is at the top of the division in ERA with a full staff worth of guys on the IL, maybe we are worrying about the wrong part of the team.

Already this year there have been some exceptional pitching performances around the league. In the time span of less than a week, two no-hitters were thrown. They were the 306th and 307th no-hitters thrown in the league’s history and the seventh and eighth thrown since the start of the 2019 season.

Despite the growing regularity of the outstanding performances, a vast majority of MLB fans believe pitching a no-hitter is still a historic accomplishment.

In both Joe Musgrove’s game for the San Diego Padres and Carlos Rodón’s for the Chicago White Sox, only one runner reached base. In both instances, the lone man on base reached after getting hit by a pitch.

According to fans nationally, allowing someone to reach by HBP in a no-hitter is the least acceptable way to get a runner on base. 40 percent of fans said the most acceptable way to allow someone to reach was by an error, while 30 percent said a walk.

While the two most recent performances only saw one runner reach, some pitchers have completed the milestone despite allowing multiple people on throughout the game.

However, a plurality of fans, 39 percent, don’t believe a no-hitter is diminished unless a pitcher allows at least five hitters to get to first. 26 percent of fans think the accomplishment is lessened after only a second runner gets on.

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