Great Months in Jays history

Monday, August 31 2015 @ 01:51 AM EDT

This has been an amazing month (with one day to go).  Have the Jays ever been this hot?

Doing a bit of checking as I cannot recall a month this nuts.  So best months in key years... W-L, Runs for-Against

• 1977-1982: Last place every year and earned it most of those years.  I cover some of the nightmares below.
  
• 1983: May 18-9 130-90 - this was the Jays first non-basement year
  
• 1984: May 19-6 106-87 - wow, lots of luck to get that record, but no one noticed after the Tigers started 35-5 (18-2 in April, 120-63)
  
• 1985: May 17-8 140-105, seeing a trend here.. May's were a lot of fun in the mid-80's
  
• 1986: Aug 18-10 164-124; 3 very good months (550+) 3 sub 500 months too that year.
  
• 1987: Sept 19-9 154-104...just imagine if they didn't go 0-4 the last 4 games then 0-3 in Oct.
• 1988: Sept 20-7 135-98, 2-0 in Oct 16-6...quite the run but too little too late
• 1989: Aug 20-9 132-91, stayed hot the rest of the year to get to the playoffs (17-11)
• 1990,91: no month stood out
• 1992: April 16-7 101-90; Sept 18-9 138-75
  
• 1993: June 19-9 151-111; Sept 17-8 140-93 a Pythag of just 91 wins vs the 95 they had
  
• 1994-1997 ; less said the better but 1996 didn't see a single winning month
• 1998: Sept 17-8 128-98; Aug 17-10 170-126 - who would've thought dumping expensive players and the manager being revealed as having as much honesty as a politician would've resulted in such good results
• 1999: July 19-7 149-116 then sub 450 in both Aug & Sept
• 2000/2001: depressing
  
• 2002: Sept 19-8 150-111
• 2003: May: 21-8  193-116; Sept 19-7 137-96 same year had 2 months in the 300's for winning percentage.  Weird year.
• 2004/5:meh
  
• 2006: Sept 17-10 123-94 I think we were all getting hopeful then
• 2007: no month over 540, just one sub 500... opposite of 2003 a very consistent year
• 2008: May 20-10 119-94
• 2009: April 15-9 142-112 then 4 straight sub 500 months.  Sigh.  Bye-bye JPR
  
• 2010: May 19-10 164-117 then a 9-17 month, all others were 500+. Gaston's swan song.
• 2011/12: meh
• 2013: June 17-9 129-87, only month over 500 that year
  
• 2014: May 21-9 165-124, another year with a few horrible months
• 2015: August: 21-5 168-79 with a game to go.  Wow.  18-9 in June 156-96

Of note: 1981 June 0-10 22-67 is the worst month in Jays history.  That strike couldn't come early enough for that team. For full months it might be 1979 May: 5-23 91-143 or 1978 Sept 4-21 62-126

So the closest I see is May 2003 with a 21-8 record and 193-116 runs scored.  A 77 run spread.  Myers & Delgado led the offense with 1000+ OPS (as did Howie Clark & Jayson Werth in limited action) The team as a whole hit 298/358/500.  Kelvin Escobar was amazing with a sub 2 ERA that month, Cory Liddle was sub 3, Roy Halladay was himself, 9 saves for Cliff Politte, Mark Hendrickson was the lucky one with a 3-0 record despite a 4.46 ERA. 3.78 team ERA that month.  Impressive but this month is at 99 depending on Monday's game vs Cleveland.  A win and we have our first +100 month ever I suspect in Jays history.

With one game to go some Jay stats...

• Encarnacion: 402/458/927 - that 927 is his slugging percentage, not his OPS.
• Colabello: 415/422/756 - this is our bench guy...good way to make other teams pitchers wet themselves...he cannot crack our everyday lineup.
• Donaldson: 327/408/723 - MVP, MVP, MVP...keep that chant going
• Bautista: 287/374/653 - weakest of the Jays Fantastic Four this month, all over 1000 for OPS
• Goins: 303/439/439 - over 400 for OBP from Goins?  That is when it is time for other clubs to just wrap up and go home.
• Revere: 316/371/347 - OK, not a bad leadoff choice
• Smoak: 206/247/441 - Taken over by Dave Kingman on offense this month...luckily not on defense.
• 3 guys with 10+ HR this month in Donaldson, Encarnacion, and Bautista but no one else has 5.
• 4 over 10 for BB in Goins, Donaldson, Bautista, Tulowitzki, with Encarnacion, Martin, and Revere at 9 each
• Stolen Bases: the weak slot for this team no one has more than 2 - Bautista, Donaldson, Pillar.  9 total for the entire team with just 1 caught stealing (Martin).  No need to steal if you are cranking it.
• 10 doubles for Encarnacion to go with his 11 HR
• 30+ hits for Encarnacion, Donaldson, and Revere while Bautisa could join them sitting at 29.
• 4 guys with 20 runs scored, Donaldson at 29 leads
  
• RBI's see 30+ for Donaldson & Encarnacion then Bautista at 20 and Smoak at 17

Pitching...

• ERA sub 2 for Cecil, Osuna (both sub 1), Hawkins, Sanchez, Price.  In the 2's for Estrada, Hutchison, Schultz, a 3.12 for Hendricks the rest have issues (Dickey, Buehrle, Lowe & Loup)
• 41 K's for Price, Estrada, Hutch, and Dickey in the 20's.
• Osuna has a 1-14 BB-SO ratio this month while Cecil, Loup & Lowe haven't walked anyone. 
  
• 4-0 records for Price, Hutchison, and Dickey, while Osuna got 10 saves in 10 chances.

Phew.  What a month indeed.  All of us who've been here since the World Series years needed that.

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