Blue Jays rout Yankees to increase division lead
The pitching matchup enticed fans: veteran ace David Price of the Blue Jays, he of the 2.15 ERA since coming to Toronto, against phenom Luis Severino of the Yankees, he of the 2.04 ERA in his first six starts. First place in the AL East hanging in the balance.
And then it started, and the story, once again, was the Toronto offense, in an 11-5 win Friday night that extended the Blue Jays' lead in the AL East to 2.5 games.
Two batters in, a Ben Revere double and a Josh Donaldson homer, Toronto led 2-0. Troy Tulowitzki chipped in an RBI single. Justin Smoak added a two-run homer to make it 5-0.
And the first inning hadn't even ended yet.
“You drop five in the first, that makes you feel a lot different,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said after the onslaught ended. “But we've been known to do that.”
He's not exaggerating. The Blue Jays entered Friday night with 760 runs scored, and 23 games to go. Last season's solid offensive team scored 723 over a full season.
The Blue Jays not only entered the night leading MLB in runs scored, but no other team save the Yankees was within 100 runs of them, and the Yankees just barely at 671. No one in the NL tops the Rockies' 629.
And this isn't simply a great offense by this year's standards, either. The Blue Jays entered the night with a 115 OPS+ as a team—think a full season of at-bats at roughly Barry Larkin's career production—which has only been topped by two teams, the 2011 and 2013 Red Sox, since 2007. Both of those teams finished at 116, as did the 2007 Yankees. This Blue Jays team doesn't look like it'll break a sweat beating that mark, either.
So all those supposed truths about baseball being 90 percent pitching or half-mental don't mean much against the Toronto onslaught. This team is clubbing its way to an AL East crown.
And that was before Friday night's output. Russell Martin lined a single through the middle to chase Severino. Edwin Encarnacion blasted a long home run against reliever Chris Martin. On came another reliever, Andrew Bailey. Martin homered off of him.
It made a night in which Price, too, was less stellar than he's been into a relatively stress-free win over the last remaining hurdle between the Blue Jays and an AL East crown.
“It's got to be number one,” Price said, when asked where this offense ranked among the teams he's played for. “From Detroit to anywhere else, it's hard to fathom that you're going to an offense that's better. But that's what happened. This is the number one offense in baseball, and it's fun to watch.”
There's hitting to spare. They've done it without Troy Tulowitzki really finding that next gear yet, just a .683 OPS since coming to the Blue Jays. They have so many hitters, Chris Colabello is at .332/.379/.534, and he's effectively their extra bat, one of seven Blue Jays who've reached double figures in home runs. And if speed is more your thing, there's Revere at the top and Kevin Pillar at the bottom of the lineup, first-to-third rabbit bookends.
“We definitely feed off of one another for sure,” Martin said. “Our lineup has a lot of depth. I don't think the opposing pitchers feel like they have any breathing room. It's just quality at-bats, one after the other, all the time, and we capitalize on mistakes.”
Not surprisingly, the Blue Jays reached double figures in runs for the 23rd time this season. That's 16.4 percent of the time. Put another way, in the best pitchers' season in recent memory, the Blue Jays are averaging a 10 run-plus outburst about once a week.
“It doesn't surprise you,” Gibbons said. “You never really feel out of a game. We've done it so many times. I can't remember a team that I've been involved with in any capacity that has done that. There are some pretty good hitters in that lineup, to say the least.”
So even when the Yankees climbed back into it, Didi Gregorius launching a three-run homer to close the gap to 9-5 in the sixth, the Blue Jays came right back, with a Justin Smoak double. Then Martin clubbed another home run, and the rout was back on.
When it was over, Martin held court for reporters in the center of the clubhouse, wearing a personalized Blue Jays jersey bathrobe, one of a team set provided by Price. He looked as relaxed as could be.
“You just want to join the party,” Martin said of the Blue Jays hitting experience. “You just want to go out there, have a good at-bat, and keep the line moving.”