Recently, there’s been a lot of Blue Jays wins. It seems that those wins have also coincided with quite a bit of excitement. Whether it’s been late game hitting heroics, or a superb starting pitcher performance, every game has had something. This win saw homers from Edwin Encarnacion and Devon Travis, but little else of much excitement. Nevertheless, it’s certainly nice to win. With this win, Toronto’s team has now won 8 of their last 9 games, and 11 of their last 14. As well, 8 of those last 11 wins have come against AL East teams. As such, the Jays now find themselves 2.5 games back of the top of the division.
Top Play of the Game by WPA
Surprise, surprise: tonight’s top play of the game came on Edwin Encarnacion’s first inning homer off of David Price. Donaldson was on base for the homer (as he tends to be), allowing the Jays to reclaim the lead from the Red Sox after they’d scored one in the first. After a few more insurance runs, the Jays went on to hold that lead for the rest of the game.
Bottom Play of the Game by WPA
Tonight’s bottom play of the game came in the sixth inning, when Red Sox 3B Travis Shaw grounded out to R.A. Dickey. At the time, David Ortiz was at third base and a Hanley Ramirez fly out represented the only out of the inning. All Shaw needed to do was get the ball out of the infield, but alas, he could not.
Dickey’s Boston Troubles
Despite allowing five walks in comparison to four strikeouts, R.A. Dickey squeaked out a win today. It was actually his first of the season against the Red Sox. Thus far, he’s had some mixed success against the team. In each of his last three starts against Boston, Dickey has had more walks than strikeouts. Then, in the one start in which he had more strikeouts than walks, he gave up seven runs on eight hits. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Edwin’s Improvements
With his homer today, Edwin Encarnacion now has hits in his last six games. In addition to today’s performance, among them is another homer, and three doubles. Edwin didn’t exactly have the greatest start to the season, putting up a sub .700 OPS in the month of April. Much of the issue had to do with his paltry 6.7 BB% and 25.8 K%. In the month of May, he improved to the tune of a 10.1 BB% and 20.2 K%. Of course, that’s still a ways away from his superb patience in 2015. It’s even further away from the days in which he had a higher walk rate than strikeout rate, and was one of only a handful of players to have accomplished that. On the plus side, he’s gotten better recently, but it’s not the Edwin Encarnacion that we’re used to.
Up Next
The Jays have two more games to come against Boston in this series. With Stroman on the mound in the next game and Estrada the game after, both are entirely winnable. If the Jays can muster wins in the two contests, they’ll likely find themselves 0.5 games out of first place in the east. That’s a position that they haven’t found themselves in since the first week of the season. “The Resurgent Jays” kind of has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?
Lead Photo: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports