Series Recap: Blue Jays vs Yankees (April 12th - 14th)

The Jays came into this series with a ton of question marks. Most pressing was the fact that the offence had yet to click. The first game seemed to continue the trend of strong starting pitching with little support. By the time the series was over, we were treated to two more terrific starts from JA Happ and Marcus Stroman, and the offence was showing signs of life.

The Good

• MARCUS STROMAN - After getting off to a strong start to Thursday’s game, Stroman took a bit of a stumlbe. In the 4th inning, he hit A-Rod with a pitch, gave up a single, and might have been robbed of an escape rope after a botched play by Ryan Goins. He threw 33 pitches in the inning, which forced Pat Venditte to start warming up. And then things changed. Stroman took his game to another level, finishing the night by retiring the last 11 batters he faced. It only took 21 pitches to retire the side in the 6th, 7th, and 8th. In all, he threw 8.0 innings of two-run ball, despite one rough inning. This is another example of his ability to exceed all expectations. Rather than roll over, he rose to the occasion. In short, he looked like an ace.

• THE HAPPENING - J.A. Happ is not here to replace David Price. For some reason, a small group of fans saw Happ as the front office’s answer to losing Price. That might not be why he is here, but don’t tell him that. After two starts, Happ has looked every bit as valuable as Price. While that likely won’t stay true over the course of an entire season, he does look like a strong #4/#5 man. In his two starts this season, Happ has pitched 12 innings with a 2.25 ERA. He gave up 10 baserunners against the Yankees, but managed to limit the damage to only 1 earned run. That is something that we didn’t see from him circa 2014. In years past, he would have imploded and left a mess for the bullpen. If he can continue to give anywhere near the production that he has in his first two starts, then his $36M contract will be a steal.

• JOSH DONALDSON - We are watching a special player here. Donaldson went 4/11 in the series with a home run, double, and three RBIs. For the season, he has a 10-game hit streak and 5 home runs. While his numbers pop off the page, it’s the way that he accumulates them that is most impressive. After Thursday’s game started to get away in the 4th, Donaldson came to the plate with two runners on. He promptly smashed a home run to deep centre field to give the Jays the lead. We have seen this from him before. It seems like he always comes through in the big situations (ignoring Game 6 of the ALCS, of course). After 10 games, he looks to be back in MVP form.

• OFFENSIVE BOOST - The offence is starting to heat up. While it was essentially dormant through the first eight games of the season, the last two games of this series suggest that the bats are about to come to life. As was already mentioned, Donaldson continued to be strong in this series. Moreover, Tulowitzki might have broken out of his slow start with a solo home run. Beyond the home runs, the team also saw contributions from Goins (two doubles, one single) and Saunders (three doubles). We can still expect more from Colabello, Martin, and Pillar, but as long as the other six keep firing, the offence will be in good shape.

The Bad

• DREW STOREN - He only pitched once in the series, but it was enough to continue the rough first first impression. On Wednesday, Storen gave up a solo shot to Marx Teixeira to keep it a close game. Fortunately the offence bailed him out. So far this season, he has given up hard contact. More concerning is his drop in velocity. While Storen was never a particularly hard thrower, he has lost 2 MPH this season. Nevertheless, he still has a very small sample size of 3.1 IP with plenty of time to turn things around.

• COLABABIP - One of last season’s biggest surprises was Chris Colabello. A career AAAA player, Colabello finally managed to stay on an MLB roster for an extended period. He made the most of it. Over 360 plate appearances, he posted a .321/.367/.520 slash line, establishing himself as a hitting machine. One big reason for his success was his .411 BABIP, which was 112 points higher than the league average. He was lucky last year, which is why significant regression is almost guaranteed. Following Thursday’s game, he has a slash line of .052/.100/.052 with a BABIP of .076. He is essentially experiencing the reverse of last season. By the third game of this series, he was moved to 7th in the order. Expect that BABIP to eventually come closer league average, and his line to improve, even if not to the level that it was at last year. In the meantime, he is definitely struggling.

• SONNET - Have you noticed the big yellow Sonnet ad behind home plate? I have never heard of Sonnet, and the ad doesn’t give any indication as to what it is. So here is their website. Still nothing. At least they have grabbed some attention.

The Ugly

• JAMES HOYE - When fans start pinning losses on the officiating, it usually means that they can’t come up with better excuses for their own players. Yet, on Tuesday night, a fair bit of the Jays’ struggles could be attributed to James Hoye. Have a look at his strikezone. Those graphs might actually portray an optimistic view, as there was not much rectangular about what Hoye was seeing. He began the game with a tight zone, but at least it was consistent. By the later innings, though, all consistency was out the window and players were left scratching their heads. Hoye is going to work many more games this season. Hopefully Tuesday’s will be a small blip on the radar.

Final Notes

• BRETT CECIL - It was an up-and-down week for Cecil. As such, it isn’t really fair to label him “Good” or “Bad.” He pitched in the first two games of the series, and drew completely opposite results in each. On Tuesday, he went 0.2 innings while giving up two hits, one walk, and one earned run. That put the game out of reach. He went right back to work on Wednesday, redeeming himself with a perfect 16 pitch inning in what was still a close game. John Gibbons’ approach seemed appropriate in that situation. Rather than let Cecil feel sorry for himself after Tuesday’s struggles, he was thrown back into the fire and got the job done. That is a smart way to build confidence in one of baseball’s premier left-handed relievers. It took Cecil 26 appearances before he hit his hot streak last season. If it only takes him five this year, then they will be well worth it.

• INJURY REPORT - There is nothing new to add since the last series. Donaldson is back playing at 3B, and Saunders looks fine in the outfield. Franklin Morales is still on the DL. The only noteworthy piece of injury news actually has to do with last season. Apparently Kevin Pillar played with a broken hand at the end of the year. As Jeff Blair points out, it did not seem to affect his production.

• LOOKING AHEAD - The Jays (5-5) are heading out on the road to face a pair of division rivals. Their first stop will be against the Red Sox (4-4) in a wrap-around series with various start times. Dickey starts on Friday against Rick Porcello (7:10pm ET), Estrada goes on Saturday against David Price (4:05pm ET), Sanchez faces Steven Wright on Sunday (1:35pm ET), and Happ gets an early morning start against Clay Buchholz on Monday (11:05am ET). If the Jays can keep a .500 record over the next six games, then they should be able to make up some ground against the Athletics and White Sox.