Blue Jays Player of the Week: Edwin Encarnacion

This past week was a tale of two teams for the Blue Jays as they went 3-3. In those three wins, the Jays were looking every bit the championship calibre team but in those three losses, they appeared to be in bizarro world. The typically excellent Roberto Osuna and Aaron Sanchez were blowing games, the defense was shoddy and mental mistakes abounded. All three losses should have been wins, especially the two against Boston. Somehow the Red Sox have been bringing out the worst in the Jays of late. This week was much more typical of the Jays pre-Troy Tulowitzki: brilliance at times and baffling struggles at others. 

The Blue Jays scored 31 runs and allowed 16. It is no easy task to lose three games with a run differential of +15. In spite of this week’s struggles, the Jays are virtually assured of a post-season berth. They could go 0-13 and still have a 93% chance at a spot. Looking ahead, the Jays have had success against the Yankees lately and all season long (11-5). The Jays are 5-8 against Tampa but have not played them since Toronto’s deadline acquisitions. Against Baltimore the Jays are 9-6 this season. It’s hard to imagine the Jays not going at least .500 through the last 13 games.

As a group offensively, the Jays had a 113 wRC+ and scored 5.16 runs/game this week. In 8 ABs, Dioner Navarro was highly effective collecting a double, a home run and three singles. Justin Smoak had a home run, a double, a single and a walk in 9 ABs. Unfortunately none of his hits came the two times when he represented the winning run in the bottom of the 9th. Ryan Goins had a triple, 6 singles and 4 walks in 19 ABs. Jose Bautista had a double, a home run, two singles and 7 walks in 20 ABs.  Edwin Encarnacion led the pack with 2 home runs, 6 singles and 3 walks in 19 ABs.

The relievers had an ERA of 3.77 and a FIP of 2.52. Brett Cecil continued his streak of appearances without an earned run against. He threw 2 IP and struck out 5 with 1 walk/hit against. However, he did make a fielding error which allowed a run to score. Liam Hendriks threw 2.1 IP scoreless with 5 Ks and 2 walks/hits.

The starters posted an ERA of 1.85 and a 3.12 FIP. Marco Estrada turned in another excellent start going 8 IP, allowing 5 walks/hits and striking out 4. Marcus Stroman gave up 1 earned over 7 innings, striking out 3 with 7 walk/hits. David Price went 7 innings allowing one earned, striking out 9 with 9 walk/hits against.

Edwin Encarnacion gets the player of the week nod by a hair over Marco Estrada. As you can see in this article’s picture, Edwin was not pleased with the team’s effort this week.

With regret, Razzie dishonour goes to Aaron Sanchez who allowed crucial runners to score in two of the Jays losses. He allowed 9 walks/hits and 3 earned runs in 2.1 innings. His even younger compatriot Osuna wasn’t far behind in this category.

Next: Blue Jays/Yankees Series Preview

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