Super Spreader Series Preview: Toronto Blue Jays (2-1) vs Texas Rangers (1-2)
Yankees Are Frauds Edition
The first series of the season is in the bag, and the Toronto Blue Jays have to be feeling pretty good about themselves after taking two of three games from the (debatably) best team in the American League. Especially when one victory had New York starting a top three pitcher in the game, and the other had the Jays starting strikeout-averse rookie T.J. Zeuch against the absolute Murderer’s Row that is the Yankees lineup.
Granted, that lineup did not look especially Murder-y this series, but still!
WHAT HAPPENED
GAME 1
The Jays had just about the hardest possible opponent on opening day, facing off against Gerrit Cole, one of the best in baseball, as well as a lineup whose hitters range from “pretty good” to “good on an existentially terrifying level”. Thankfully, the Jays had their own ace going in Hyun-Jin Ryu, and their own excellent lineup, albeit a lineup minus one (1) George Springer.
As it happened, the Baby Jays drew first blood. After Cole set down Marcus Semien, Cavan Biggio, and Bo Bichette, Teoscar Hernández kicked off the second by shooting a ground ball past shortstop Gleyber Torres (who maybe shouldn’t have let that by him). Vladimir Guerrero Jr. moved him to second with a line drive single to centre field (the hardest hit of the day, with an exit velocity of 114.1 mph)while Lourdes Gurriel Jr. drove him in with a sharp grounder up the middle, giving the Jays their first run and lead of the season.
That lead wouldn’t last though. In the bottom of the very same inning, Ryu got Giancarlo Stanton to pop out, but Torres deposited a loopy fly ball single between Bichette and Gurriel. Ryu struck out Gio Urshela for out number two, but Gary Sánchez annihilated a low 4-seam fastball that caught just enough of the plate, eventually landing in the left field stands and putting the Yankees out in front 2-1.
Afterwards, both pitchers shut their respective opponents down, with no change in the scoring until the top of the sixth, when Teoscar Hernández absolutely destroyed a hanging slider for a solo home run, knotting the game up at two.
A subsequent walk to Guerrero knocked Cole out of the game, turning things over to the Yankees bullpen, which had been without Aroldis Chapman, who had been suspended for being a Grade-A asshole.
As it turns out, they probably didn’t need him. The combination of Chad Green, Jonathan Loaisiga, and Darren O’Day shut the Jays down through the ninth. On the other end, Ryu was excellent through five and a third before passing things over to the bullpen. Likewise, Toronto’s relief corps of Tyler Chatwood, David Phelps, Rafael Dolis, and Jordan Romano shut out the Yankees through the ninth, overcoming a bit more walks than you’d like to see and some shaky outings from Phelps and Romano thanks to both some big strikeouts and some excellent infield defence.
Tied at two after nine, the ball game went into extra innings, where the “runner on second” rule came into effect, or as I like to call it, the “fuck Colombia specifically” rule. The Jays’ leadoff hitter, Randal Grichuk, drove a Nick Nelson fastball to deep right field to score pinch-runner Jonathan Davis. Nelson shut down Jansen (who, frustratingly enough, attempted to drop a bunt, and continued to attempt it after two strikes, resulting in a strikeout), Semien, and Bichette. However, the Yankees were unable to drive in the tying run against Julian Merryweather, who struck out all three of Aaron Hicks, Stanton, and Torres to win the Jays their first game of the young season, 3-2.
GAME 2
In the following game, Toronto started Ross Stripling and an identical lineup to game one to face Corey Kluber, the former Cleveland ace who hopes to put together a comeback after a couple of lost, injury-riddled seasons.
This time it would be the Yankees who struck first, as a Gio Urshela single, Clint Frazier double, and D.J. LeMahieu single put New York in front 1-0 in the bottom of the second. The Jays would tie it up in the top of the third after walks to Danny Jansen and Semien, who tried to steal second base while Biggio was hitting. While Biggio struck out, the throw to second from Sánchez sailed into the outfield, scoring Jansen.
In the top of the fourth, the Jays had an opportunity to take the lead after Guerrero and Gurriel strung back-to-back singles together, and after Rowdy Tellez struck out, Grichuk walked to load the bases. However, Danny Jansen grounded into a force out. Gary Sánchez would immediately make the Jays pay once again, hitting another left field home run to put the Yankees up 2-1. A strikeout of Urshela, a walk to Frazier, and a base hit to LeMahieu later, and Stripling was out of the game after only 3 ⅓. Tyler Chatwood replaced him and would concede back to back base hits to Aaron Hicks and Aaron Judge to put the Yankees up 3-1. He would settle down after that and get Stanton to pop out and strike out Torres to end the inning.
Marcus Semien hit a leadoff home run in the fifth inning to cut the deficit to 3-2.
After a solid bottom of the fifth inning from Ryan Borucki, the Jays once again handed the ball off to Rafael Dolis in the sixth. Unfortunately, Dolis had a pretty terrible outing, walking three hitters. An uncharacteristically visibly frustrated Dolis was unable to close out the inning. Tim Mayza made his first appearance since September 2019 and gave up a base hit to, off all people, Blue Jays Legend Jay Bruce, making it 5-1 Yankees. Mayza at least ended up having a nice outing overall, getting Sánchez to ground out and striking out both Urshela and Frazier to start the bottom of the seventh.
He passed it off to the wandering Joel Payamps, who also had a nice 1 ⅓ innings in his Blue Jays debut. However, Payamps rising far and beyond his waiver wire origins did not have an inspirational effect on the Jays’ offence, who had to contend with Loaisiga, Lucas Luetge, O’Day, and Green. They only managed one more run on a Marcus Semien ground out off of Luetge in the seventh to leave the score at 5-3 Yankees.
GAME 3
In Game 3, the Blue Jays threw 25-year-old sinkerballing rookie T.J. Zeuch out there to start opposite Yankees starter and noted shitheel Domingo Germán, fresh off a suspension for domestic violence and making his first start since September 2019. This also marked the season debut of fan-favourite catcher Alejandro Kirk, though he didn’t figure much in the end, going 0-for-3 with a walk. Joe Panik also got the start at designated hitter over Rowdy Tellez, who is scuffling a bit to start the season, hitless in his first eight plate appearances.
Loathe as I am to admit it, Germán looked pretty good to start the game, including a nice swinging strikeout of Teoscar Hernández. However, the Jays got his ass good in the second inning, when Vladdy led things off with a solo home run to the opposite field after a truly awful pitch sequence from Germán.
Lourdes Gurriel followed Guerrero with a single before Germán left a meatball right where Randal Grichuk could drive it into the left field stands, leaving the score at 3-0 Blue Jays. Germán would only go three innings before turning things over to Michael King, who would hold shut out Toronto over the last six innings in an impressive long relief outing.
For his part, you couldn’t ask for much more from T.J. Zeuch than what he gave in his four innings of work. He only struck out one hitter (Clint Frazier to end the bottom of the second), but also only allowed three hits and a walk, though he did also allow a few hard-hit balls that probably would’ve been more productive in a just world than they ended up being.
After the fourth, Zeuch was replaced by Trent Thornton, who had a bit of trouble in his inning and a third, owing to both his shaky command and a flukey bloop double from Frazier, who ended up scoring on a Brett Gardner ground out. He was succeeded by Ryan Borucki (who threw a strong ⅔ of an inning and David Phelps, who looked much better than in his first outing, striking out two in one inning. Ditto for Jordan Romano, who threw a solid eighth inning. Finally, Julian Merryweather came in to close it out, striking out Gary Sánchez on back-to-back 100 and 99 mph high fastballs to finalize the game and series wins for the Blue Jays.
POINTS OF INTEREST
Defence
Fielding was always going to be a major point of contention for the Jays, and while there wasn’t as much to talk about with regards to the outfield, the infield had some takeaways, both positive and negative. To get the bad out of the way, third baseman Cavan Biggio and shortstop Bo Bichette had some shaky throws to first base, necessitating Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to make a few more sure-handed picks than he probably should’ve been expected to. On the plus side, those were some pretty nice scoops from Vladdy at first! And despite their occasional shakiness, Biggio and Bichette did turn some really nice plays, to say nothing of Marcus Semien looking every bit the shortstop-turned second baseman that he is.
Julian Merryweather
The back end of the bullpen in general has looked solid, barring some bad or shaky outings from Jordan Romano, Rafael Dolis, and David Phelps. I can’t speak for Merryweather, so I can’t say how badly he wants to be a starting pitcher. If he does though, I think he single-handedly made a pretty definitive case for keeping him in the back end of the bullpen, striking out four of the six Yankees he faced with some truly disgusting stuff.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Is Good
Guerrero has been looking really nice, with a slash line of .333/.500/.667. He’s been the best consistent offensive performer in the series, and as I mentioned, he’s not looked bad at all at first base. As I said before, it’s way too early to declare that Vladdy’s gonna be great all season. I would have to be truly stupid to say that definitively after only twelve at-bats.
That said, Vladdy’s gonna be great all season. LOCK IT IN, NERDS.
ROSTER UPDATES
As payment for his solid outing on Saturday, Joel Payamps was optioned to the alternate site (so, Dunedin? I guess?). He’ll stick around at the site, and probably in Triple-A whenever the minor league season starts, and he’s likely to bounce up and down between the Jays and the minors as the big league team’s needs dictate.
In a corresponding move, the Jays selected the contract of left-handed starting pitcher Tommy Milone, who will wear a very nice uniform number. The veteran’s strongest attributes are a moderate ability to limit hard contact and a low walk rate, though he still gives up a lot of hits and doesn’t strike out many batters.
He’ll hope to be more so as his time in 2020 with the Baltimore Orioles (3.99 ERA/3.99 xFIP/3.85 SIERA), and less so like his horrendous but brief 2020 stint with Atlanta (14.90 ERA/5.34 xFIP/4.84 SIERA). While Milone’s role with the Blue Jays has not been established, for now, he appears to be occupying a spot in the bullpen as a long reliever, and will potentially start a game if need be.
To free up a spot on the 40-man roster, Kirby Yates was moved to the 60-day injured list.
Pain.
The recently DFA’d duo of catcher Reese McGuire and utility man Breyvic Valera passed through waivers and were outrighted to the alternate site. The two of them were originally left off the opening day roster while not having any options, prompting the beginning of the DFA process.
McGuire will join Riley Adams and the newly-acquired Juan Graterol in the Buffalo Bisons’ catching tandem. Meanwhile, Valera will join a Bisons infield that will also likely include Santiago Espinal, Richard Ureña, Kevin Smith, Cullen Large, Logan Warmoth, and Tyler White.
While neither McGuire nor Valera were world-beaters in their brief major league tenures, they’re certainly nice pieces to stick in Triple-A, even if you’d rather not get to the point where it’s actually necessary to call them back up.
Now that we have the happenings in the way, it’s time to look ahead to the Jays’ next series in Arlington, where the Jays will hope to beat up on a truly awful team while hopefully not getting COVID in the process!
SCHEDULE/PROBABLE PITCHERS
Monday, April 5 (4 p.m. EST/2 p.m. MST): Steven Matz vs. Mike Foltynewicz
Tuesday, April 6 (8 p.m. EST/6 p.m. MST): Tanner Roark vs. Dane Dunning
Wednesday, April 7 (2 p.m. EST/ 12 p.m. MST): Hyun-Jin Ryu (last outing: 5 ⅓ innings pitched, 21 batters faced, 5 K, 1 BB, 2 hard hits) vs. Kyle Gibson (last outing: ⅓ innings pitched, 8 batters faced, 1 K, 4 BB, 1 hard hit)
THE NARRATIVE
The Texas Rangers are going to be a bad baseball team in 2021, and I wouldn’t be surprised if they prove to be the worst team in the American League once the dust clears in 2021. While they added pieces such as outfielder David Dahl, first baseman Nate Lowe, and starting pitchers Mike Foltynewicz, Dane Dunning, and Kohei Arihara to compliment Joey Gallo, Nick Solak, Kyle Gibson, and Isaiah Kiner-Falefa (none of whom I would really consider to be “great” beyond probably Gallo), they shed their best starter in Lance Lynn, as well as Shin-Soo Choo and franchise mainstay Elvis Andrus. Longtime Ranger Rougned Odor has also been let go, which is probably addition by subtraction.
Regardless, the Rangers are truly bad on paper, and they didn’t do much to remedy that image in their three-game series against the Kansas City Royals. While they did hit well, a fair bit of their pitching got taken out to the woodshed, with Kyle Gibson getting the worst of it on an opening day (incidentally, the Jays will face Gibson on Wednesday) that saw them lose 14-10 to the Royals. If the Jays, who are coming off an encouraging series victory over the Yankees, want to prove that they’re in the upper echelon of the American League, the Rangers are the type of team that they need to beat the ever-loving shit out of.
One of the most aggravating things about the Rangers though, beyond their lack of any clear identity, horrendous on-field product, and just their existence in general, is the fact that they will be accepting full attendance in Globe Life Park for their home opener against the Jays. It would’ve been naive to accept anything short of the stupidest decision imaginable from Texan lawmakers and businesses, but it’s still galling to see just how eager capitalists are to potentially sacrifice up to 48,114 human lives just so they can wring some more bucks out of a likely horrendous on-field product. That’s not exclusive to baseball teams of course, but this is a particularly absurd example.
And no, after seeing how well other stadiums are doing at getting people to adhere to whatever mask regulations there may be, I am not at all confident that any such regulation in fucking Arlington, Texas of all places will be followed.
But hey, am I going to judge anyone for wandering into a super spreader event for the pleasure of watching a historically inept baseball team that’s going to finish with 68 wins at the absolute most this season? Well, yes, because I’d hope that they would be at least a bit capable of critical thinking. However, he main blame for this fucking mess ultimately falls on the Rangers, who have proven unequivocally how little they care for the lives of their fans and employees. Fuck this garbage organization. I hope the Jays score 100 off of them each game.
Let me know if I’m being too mean to such a storied ball club though.
Good commentary! You summed up everything really well!