The Gruesome Entrails

Wednesday, July 17 2024 @ 04:00 PM EDT

Contributed by: Magpie

And you may ask yourself,
"Well, how did I get here?"

Cast your mind back, back, back... to one month ago. The 16th of June, to be precise (also known as Bloomsday to Joyceans like myself.)

The Blue Jays were beginning to show tentative signs of what passes for life this season. They had appeared - or so we thought, in our innocence - to have bottomed out in late May, after losing three in a row to the Tigers, the last in especially gruesome fashion. The team was in last place with a 23-29 record.

Then they started winning. They went 12-7 over the next 19 games, which may not sound like all that much, but win at that rate for six months and you will win 100 games. They crawled back to within a game of .500 at 35-36, with 25 games left before the All-Star Break. Another month of decent play - 15-10 would have been just swell - and the second half might actually get interesting.

They hadn't been hitting at all, even while they were fighting their way back in the general direction of respectability, and changes were being made. Cavan Biggio and Daniel Vogelbach were sent packing. Spencer Horwitz replaced Biggio, and immediately started hitting. And finally, two of the team's most important players got hot. The team had been scoring a pitiful 3.84 runs per game during their run of decent play in late May and early June. Horwitz, Geuerrero, and Springer (with help from Kiner-Falefa before he hurt his knee) carried the offence pretty much by themselves and the team scored 4.48 runs per game over those 25 contests before the Break. A league average offense! Progress!

Player               G    PA    AB    R    H  2B  3B  HR  RBI  BB   SO  GDP  SB  CS  BAVG   OBP   SLG    OPS 
                                                                                    
Isiah Kiner-Falefa  12    51    45   13   18   1   0   3   6    0    6    1   0   0  .400  .451  .622   1.073  
Spencer Horwitz     24    90    75   10   24   4   0   4   8   10   12    2   0   0  .320  .422  .533    .956   
George Springer     25   100    90   12   27   7   1   5  19    8   18    6   1   0  .300  .364  .567    .930   
Vladimir Guerrero   24   105   100   16   30   8   0   7  25    2   14    4   0   0  .300  .314  .590    .904   
Alejandro Kirk      14    53    45    6   14   4   0   0   8    5    8    1   0   0  .311  .359  .400    .759  
Ernie Clement       20    71    69    6   19   4   0   3  12    1    6    2   1   2  .275  .282  .464    .746  
Justin Turner       19    81    64   10   16   3   0   1   8   13   17    3   0   0  .250  .395  .344    .739  
Davis Schneider     22    65    59    6   11   1   0   2   3    6   24    0   0   0  .186  .262  .305    .567  
Kevin Kiermaier     21    60    57    8   10   1   0   2   9    3   20    1   1   0  .175  .217  .298    .515  
Daulton Varsho      21    78    69    6   10   1   3   0   3    8   28    0   2   1  .145  .234  .246    .480 
Danny Jansen        16    54    48    5    7   1   0   1   1    5   16    1   0   0  .146  .241  .229    .470  
Bo Bichette         12    51    45    7    6   3   0   0   2    5   18    1   1   0  .133  .216  .200    .416 
                                                                                    
Addison Barger      13    37    35    3    5   2   0   0   2    1   10    0   0   0  .143  .167  .200    .367
Leo Jimenez          8    27    22    4    8   2   0   0   1    3    6    2   0   0  .364  .482  .455    .936
Steward Berroa       5     4     4    0    0   0   0   0   0    0    0    0   0   1  .000  .000  .000    .000
Brian Serven         1     3     3    0    1   0   0   0   0    0    0    0   0   0  .333  .333  .333    .668   
Orelvis Martinez     1     3     3    0    1   0   0   0   0    0    1    0   0   0  .333  .333  .333    .668   
   
   
  
                                                                                  

Alas, the team which regarded its basic strength as run prevention would give it all back, and then some, on the other side of the ball.

The Jays had gone on their modest 12-7 run despite their lamentable offence entirely on the back of their pitching, especially from the starters. Alek Manoah's injury turned one spot into a bullpen day for a few weeks, but the other four starters picked up the slack and the bullpen held it together. During this period, Erik Swanson was sent to AAA and Jordan Romano went on the IL, but everyone else (with the exception of Zach Pop, as always) was just fine. Even Nate Pearson! Even Tim Mayza, almost. 

 In those 19 games, the Jays allowed just 3.42 runs per game. 

Player            G  GS  W  L  SV    IP    H    R  ER  BB  SO  HR  ERA    BF   BAVG   OBP    SLG    OPS
                                                                        
Kevin Gausman     4   4  2  2   0   26.2   23  10  10   3  22   4  3.38   104  .228  .250   .436   .686
Chris Bassitt     4   4  2  0   0   23     22   4   4   7  26   0  1.57   102  .244  .327   .267   .593
Jose Berrios      4   4  1  1   0   24.2   25  10  10   4  12   4  3.65   100  .266  .300   .404   .704
Yusei Kikuchi     3   3  2  1   0   16.1   16   7   6   6  15   2  3.31    69  .267  .328   .417   .745
Alek Manoah       1   1  0  0   0    1.2    1   0   0   0   3   0  0.00     6  .167  .167   .333   .500
                                                                       
Bowden Francis    3   1  1  0   0   11.1   12   4   4   1   7   2  3.18    47  .267  .298   .467   .765
Trevor Richards   7   2  1  0   0   11      5   2   2   3   8   0  1.64    41  .135  .200   .162   .362
Nate Pearson      9   0  0  0   1    1.1    7   4   3   2  12   2  2.61    40  .189  .225   .351   .576
Zach Pop         10   0  0  1   0    7.2    6   6   6   4   6   1  7.04    32  .214  .313   .393   .705
Yimi Garcisa      8   0  2  0   3    8      7   5   5   1  12   2  5.63    32  .233  .281   .467   .748
Genesis Cabrera   7   0  1  1   1    8      6   5   4   2   5   0  4.50    30  .222  .300   .259   .559
Brendon Little    6   0  0  0   0    7.1    7   2   2   1   5   1  2.45    29  .250  .276   .357   .633
Chad Green        8   0  0  1   0    7.2    3   1   1   2   5   1  1.17    27  .120  .185   .240   .425
Tim Mayza         7   0  0  0   0    5.2    5   3   2   2   2   1  3.18    24  .238  .292   .381   .673
Ryan Burr         2   0  0  0   0    3.1    2   1   1   1   3   1  2.70    13  .167  .231   .500   .731
Jordan Romano     1   0  0  0   0    1      1   0   0   0   1   1  9.00     4  .250  .250  1.000  1.250
Erik Swanson      1   0  0  0   0     .1    2   1   1   0   0   1 27.00     3  .667  .667  1.667  2.334


That is, of course, pretty much what you have to do when you're only scoring just 3.84 times, and no team in the majors has managed to prevent runs at such an exceptional rate this season. But for a moment, the Blue Jays were doing it.

It was all much too good to last, and in the final game against Cleveland, Yimi Garcia's elbow gave out.  Within two weeks, the team's four best relievers from the previous season were all out of the picture - two were on the IL, and two had been removed from the roster because of general incompetence. What was left was in no way able to pick up the slack when three starters - Berrios, Kikuchi, Gausman - chose this particular stretch of the season to go bad.

Here is how they pitched in those 25 games.

Date                G    GS   W    L   SV    IP    H     R    ER   BB  SO  HR HBP    ERA    BF   BAVG   OBP   SLG     OPS
                                                                            
Kevin Gausman       5    5    2    3    0    29    30   20    18   11  29   6   1    5.59  133   .248  .316  .446    .762
Chris Bassitt       5    5    2    1    0    29    31   12    11   13  25   1   1    3.41  128   .272  .352  .342    .694
Yusei Kikuchi       6    6    0    3    0    28.2  36   24    24    7  41   9   1    7.53  128   .300  .344  .558    .902
Jose Berrios        5    5    2    2    0    27    27   21    21   11  22   7   6    7.00  124   .257  .358  .476    .834
Yariel Rodriguez    4    4    1    2    0    18     9    8     7   10  20   1   0    3.50   71   .150  .268  .283    .551
                                                                            
Trevor Richards    12    0    1    1    0    14.2  12   11     8    4  14   2   0    4.91   61   .211  .262  .351    .613
Bowden Francis      8    0    0    0    0    12.2  13    9     7    6  10   2   0    4.97   58   .255  .328  .412    .739
Chad Green         11    0    1    1    4    10.2  10    3     3    5  12   2   1    2.53   47   .250  .340  .450    .790
Genesis Cabrera    11    0    0    0    1     9.2   7    1     1    3   8   1   1    0.93   40   .194  .275  .361    .636
Zach Pop           12    0    0    2    0     9.2  12   10     8    7   6   3   1    7.45   49   .293  .408  .537    .945
Nate Pearson       10    0    0    0    0     9.2  16   10    10    3  16   4   0    9.31   47   .364  .404  .773   1.177
Brendon Little     11    0    0    1    0     9.1   7    4     4    4   8   2   0    3.86   39   .212  .297  .394    .691
Tim Mayza           5    0    0    0    0     3.1  11    9     9    2   1   0   0   24.30   23   .550  .565  .700   1.265
Ryan Burr           4    0    0    0    0     4     3    2     1    1   4   0   0    2.25   16   .200  .250  .267    .517
Jose Cuas           3    0    0    0    0     2     3    3     3    1   2   1   2   13.50   12   .333  .500  .667   1.167
Brandon Eisert      1    0    0    0    0     2     1    0     0    3   0   0   0    0.00    8   .200  .500  .200    .700


Over those 25 games, the Blue Jays allowed 147 runs - that's 5.88 per game - which is about as bad as it's possible to be. And that's all she wrote.

65 comments


https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=2024071713471573