CLEVELAND – In case you missed it: Theoscar Hernandez is back. Ryan Boruki, too. Julian Meriwether goes to Triple A, where Hyun Jin Ryu has just returned to the mound. And Gosuke Kato is a New York met.
Kevin Gaussman is still spinning. Ross Stripling, not so much. Violation of the fight came to life for a moment. Then he calmed down again. Alejandro Kirk is getting hot. Bo Bichette continues to hit the ball hard. George Springer is still George Springer. And the Toronto Blue Jays split Saturday against the Cleveland Guardians, winning the first game by five and losing the second by six.
It was all within a 12-hour workday at Progressive Field, where the Blue Jays will return on Sunday, seeking a split in the series to limit this long, grueling 30-day, 31-day period you’re so fed up with. to listen.
“At least yesterday we were on vacation and we found out early. So it helps, “said Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo. “And now we just have to give it our all [Sunday.] And then we have a regular, normal day off on Monday. “
The first game of the day was good for the Blue Jays, as Gaussman went through his last big outing on a day when he was not feeling well, continuing to push more and more award winner Sai Young, whom he replaced in the rotation of Toronto in distant memory. And the Toronto attack finally showed signs of getting out of the mood at the start of the season, thriving in a match with Cy Young 2020 winner Shane Bieber of all.
With two outs in the second inning, the Blue Jays rallied in four runs, their best for a time, with Matt Chapman doubled, Santiago Espinal left, Kirk left, Raimel Tapia single and Springer doubled to clear the bases. And the same segment of the order came together again in the fourth, putting together five singles in the range of six strikers to get three more and chase Bieber out of the game.
The Blue Jays were in everything Bieber threw, scoring seven balls at over 100 miles per hour against the 2021 star, who entered the AL’s eighth best ERA match (2.45). Of course, generating hard contact wasn’t a problem for Toronto this season – sequencing is. The Blue Jays started the day with the fifth highest MLB heavy hit frequency and the second highest average exit speed, but this is the lowest average value of strikes with runners in the position for points.
So, a 4-for-10 with runners in the scoring position, as they did in Game 1, made a significant difference. Of course, opportunities were still missed. The Blue Jays left 10 runners at the base. But the double-headed opening was a good example of how timely knocking here and there could tell the difference between the 3.78 runs Toronto had on average during the day and the eight on Saturday afternoons.
“I thought they did a really good job against a really good pitcher in Bieber. He worked several times, got on base and had some key hits with the boys in goal position. That made the difference, “Gaussman said. “It’s nice to see the crime break out. It’s such a powerful lineup that they’re always one or two swings away from a real change in the game. ”
And that was without Hernandez, who was activated after three weeks of work at IL due to a tense inclination, but missed the first game of the day. The return of the two-time Silver Slugger should be influential for a band that has struggled to create big hits so far. Every time Tapia or Zach Collins – acquired during spring training to play bench roles – have come as Toronto’s pure strikers in crucial positions over the past few weeks, it’s a reminder of how much they miss Blue Jace Hernandez.
“No baseball player wants to be hurt – especially when your team is not doing well,” Hernandez said. “But it’s happening, it’s part of baseball. And I’m just looking forward to coming back. “
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Hernandez was initially expected to need only two rehearsal games with the Dunedin Blue Jays single this week before rejoining the Cleveland Premier League club. And with three hits – two doubles and one Homer – for eight appearances on Tuesday and Wednesday, everything seems to be going according to plan. But Hernandez stayed in Florida for another setup on Thursday, again Homering, took a walk and stole a base while playing nine innings at the outfield.
Hernandez asked Blue Jace for this extra game after feeling a little tight in his first two. He may have fired laser beams around the yard in his 20s and some A-balls, but his middle section and the time on the plate still didn’t feel exactly what he wanted.
“The last day I felt regular – as I felt in a normal season,” said Hernandez. “I made sure I felt 100 percent. I don’t want to go back to IL. “
“My time is not 100 percent. It’s not the same when you face those in the minor leagues. When you come back here and face the big leagues, they have a good canopy. But it’s inside, approaching. And I don’t think it will take me long to get it back. “
Such was the case last season when Hernandez missed three weeks with Covid-19 and returned with a single in each of his first three games back from Illiapid. He regained his strength only about a week later when he took refuge in Houston. A few days later, he began a series of four consecutive games with multiple hits, including a day for two Homer in Atlanta.
And then he was out of the competition. Hernandez missed just three games for the rest of the season – on the paternity list for the birth of his second child – and finished the year at .296 / .346 / .524, winning a second consecutive Silver Slugger award in the process.
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“It just shows you that you still have time to have a great year,” Hernandez said. “But my goal right now is to try not to go back to IL. So I don’t think about numbers or anything like that. I’m just thinking of staying on the field and being there for my team. “
And he returned to his usual cleaning spot for the second game of Saturday’s festivities, occupying the right field where he had to fight winds of 40-50 km / h blowing from Lake Erie and turning every flying ball into an adventure.
“It was a bad day. It’s quite windy outside, “Gaussman said. “You could see that every pop fly is a big question mark about where it’s actually going to end up and who’s going to catch it in the end.”
These conditions hurt Stripling, who, like Gaussman before him, was not as fresh as his last few times, allowing four runs in five hits and a walk for four innings. It was the third time in his last four starts that Stripling faced exactly 18 fighters, which speaks of Toronto’s reluctance to allow an opposition group to face him for the third time.
This puts pressure on Stripling to quickly win outs early in his relegation if he wants to stay in the matches for long, which was a problem on Saturday as Cleveland put seven strikers on the board in a 26-point first inning.
To be honest, Stripling deserved better. His night started with two balls before being burned by Jose Ramirez and Owen Miller for consecutive doubles – Hernandez had a chance to pull Ramirez’s ball to the right, but played it incorrectly in the wind – after a pair of shifts that landed outside the zone. Miller would probably be caught on a less windy night, but he was taken just beyond the reach of Lourdes Guriel Jr. on the left.
Ramirez’s double wore .160 xBA; Miller, 0.050. But the balls fell. And that extended the inning for Franmil Reyes, who was caught watching a well-placed quick ball, and Andres Gimenes, who made a not-so-well-placed switch in the opposite direction for a single that scored.
The second inning went more smoothly, but Stripling gave a bomb in the third to Reyes, who crushed a raised fast cannon 391 feet above the wall on the left. Stripling’s fourth inning was his smoothest and most effective – he happened to be at the bottom of Cleveland’s order on his second trip. Which means it’s the end of his line, whether it’s the second inning or the sixth.
“It’s a heavy ball for Theo, where it hits you straight and the wind will either knock it down or maybe it won’t knock it down and it ends up over his head,” Stripling said. “And then the next one, the ball was hit like 88 by the bat, it felt like it was in the air for life, and the wind just took it to the perfect place where Lourdes couldn’t reach it.”
The wind also hit Stripling’s things from his hand. During his start, he looked up at the video board after passes and saw fast balls marked as sliders and swallowed with changeups. This is not a good day to look at Stripling TrackMan data and make judgments. Even its curve was off because the wind pushed it toward the slab before it had a chance to break.
“When I came back and watched the trip, Franmel Homer was really the only idea I could say: ‘It was just a terrible mistake I was punished for,’ Stripling said. “I’m not beaten for thinking I didn’t throw the ball or anything like that. I think it was a mixture of conditions, a good shot, a little bad luck, just baseball is baseball. “
And baseball is baseball, the Blue Jace attack, which brought eight points against veteran winner Sai Young in the first game, was …
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