Look, the Jays were just fine 10 days ago. 24-16, chasing the Pirates and Braves, Kikuchi was having a great month, the division was looking smooth. And then splat. Only a drubbing of the Rays is evidence for the 'good' column here. John Schneider just had to give everybody a serious talking to about how awful the Blue Jays have been playing, and when you have to give people like Vlad Jr., Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman a talking to, you know something's been fouled up down the line.
I don't fault people like Bo, Vlad, Chapman, Kiermaier and Varsho, as the heart of the lineup, and the defensemen, haven't really been the problem. This lineup only has 2 guys hitting under .250, and one of them is Daulton Varsho, who's making up for it on defense. I think the biggest disappointment on this team, though, might be Alejandro Kirk, who looked like such a sure thing last year. Then again, Alek Manoah also looked like a sure thing last year, and right now he's 1-5 with a 5.53 ERA, which I was not expecting whatsoever given how he was looking.
I think it's more likely that this is just a rough stretch for the Jays. All these losses have come at the expense of division rivals like the Yankees, Rays and Orioles. To be honest, this is what division series' should be doing, leveling the less serious competitors in competitive divisions. I wish it would have been less of a shock that the division stacked this way this month, but that's what happens when you have less division series'. Needless to say, the Jays are currently in last, and have to play several consecutive great teams coming up, including the Twins, Brewers, Mets, Astros, the Twins again, the O's and then Texas. This is the roughest stretch of their schedule, they're gonna lose some games. At the end of June they get some easier matches.
And at the same time, there's still people to watch even if the play wasn't was it was earlier. Kevin Gausman still has 81 strikeouts on the year, and even as people are beginning to hit him, he's still as tough as he's been in the last few years. Chris Bassitt also had a nice run of starts, and while he's trying to get back to where he was, he's still 5-3 with 52 Ks. Whit Merrifield has 14 stolen bases and is hitting .286. Vlad Jr. has 34 RBIs already. This is still a good team, they've just got a tough schedule this year. They're still capable of a ton, and have a ton of depth even with everyone working out alright.
Maybe we'll see the Jays begin to fight back against these really good teams. You never know when they'll spring to life.
Coming Tomorrow- A standout for a team that had a similar dry spell and have now come back from it.
It's interesting to think how much of an impact the division of a team can really impact the season. Not even say the Jays, but in broad strokes, you can have an extreme of 10 games difference against a single team (13 in division, 3 if interleague). If instead of being in a .600 win percentage division, you were in one at .400, that's an 8 win difference which can easily be the difference between making the playoffs, or having home field advantage. Once in the playoffs...anything can happen.
ReplyDeleteOh - and the last 15 games of the Jays season being 3 vs Boston, 6 vs each NY and TB....even if the Jays are 7-8 games out of a playoff spot, it'll be their chance to control their destiny...or watch it slip away.