While Buck and Pat couldn’t quite determine whether or not AT&T Park smelled like Garlic Fries, the Blue Jays rode another strong starting pitching performance to victory on Tuesday night. Troy Tulowitzki provided the bulk of the offense, hitting a solo home run, RBI double, and a sacrifice fly, while JA Happ continued his hot start to the 2016 season, pitching 8 2/3 innings of shutout baseball against a Giants team that has struggled to score runs of late. While Happ doesn’t appear to be following the same pitch mix that led to his second half improvements in 2015, he continues to find success. Much to the enjoyment of fans, he is also working at a much quicker pace when on the mound.
Top Play of the Game By WPA
Tulowitzki’s second inning home run off Matt Cain provided the only offence the Blue Jays could muster through the first six innings of the game and the top play of the game by WPA. Tulo’s home run into the left field bleachers increased the chances of a Blue Jays’ win by 12.5 percentage points.
Bottom Play of the Game By WPA
The Blue Jays made good use of their strong infield defence when Denard Span grounded into a double play during the bottom of the sixth inning. With one out and runners on first and second, the Giants were mounting their first legitimate scoring threat of the game when Ryan Goins and Troy Tulowitzki turned a gif-worthy double play to stop the threat and decrease the Giants’ chances to win the game by 15.5 percentage points.
Best Rotation in Baseball?
After another strong start by JA Happ, a Blue Jays’ rotation that was viewed as a potential achilles heel in 2016 has been one of the best in baseball. Through the first 34 games of the season, the rotation ranked 5th in baseball with a 3.26 ERA. Given the offence’s failure to hit like they are capable of, and the bullpen’s inability to hold the razor thin leads they have inherited, the Jays have their starters to thank for their ability to play .500 baseball through the season’s first five weeks. No one expects the starters to keep up the pace they have set early on, but if we have underestimated the gains Marco Estrada and JA Happ have made, or the potential of Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez, the Jays won’t have to worry very much about the starting pitching. At least until August when Stro and Sanchy hit their innings limits.
Stymied Again
The Blue Jays offence has made a habit of being shut down by some very surprising opposing starters in the past two weeks. Ross Stripling, AJ Griffin, and now Matt Cain are just a few of the soft throwing, back end starters that have been able to keep what should be an extremely dangerous Blue Jays’ offence at bay. Coming into play tonight, Matt Cain had an ERA of 7.84 and a 6.1 K/9 through six starts. While Cain is the type of pitcher that the Blue Jays offence should be able to tee off on, Cain was able to hold the Blue Jays to two runs while striking out seven over eight innings. It’s too early to think the offence isn’t going to figure it out, but it is a bit puzzling to see this specific type of pitcher giving Jays hitters fits.
Up Next
The Blue Jays finish their three game set with San Francisco tomorrow with Marcus Stroman (4-0, 3.60 ERA) taking on Madison Bumgarner (4-2, 3.14) in the premier pitching matchup of the series. The 12:45 PM local start time (3:45 PM EST) will make life a little bit easier for Jays fans located in the same time zone their favorite team. After dropping two of three to the Dodgers over the weekend, a series sweep would put the Blue Jays two games above .500 heading into a four game weekend series in Texas that begins on Thursday.
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