Blue Jays: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly vs. Miami

The Blue Jays finally got to their 2020 home field this week for a two game mini-series with the Miami Marlins.

We saw a bit of everything in the series between the Toronto Blue Jays and Miami Marlins earlier this week. There was great hitting, poor defence, and questionable managing, all which led to a series split.  Here is a look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly in the series.

The Good
Before getting into the players, I’ll have to say perseverance may be the best thing we saw in this series.  In the first game of the series, the Blue Jays blew a three run lead in the ninth inning with closer Anthony Bass on the mound. This was the first hiccup we saw from the new closer and he promises to bounce back.

Many times you see a team blow a lead in the last inning, lose focus and lose. But, that was not the case on Tuesday night as the team the dug in and won it in extra innings.  On Wednesday night, the team fell behind 8-0 early in the game and it would have been easy to mail in the game.  However, they fought back with seven home runs and a season high 18 hits to tie the game and force extra innings.  They eventually lost, but these types of games are what can bring teams together and they have to take a lot of positives out of this series.

I’ll state the obvious, Bo Bichette had a two game series to remember.  Bichette went 6 for 9 and raised his average to .352, and included two home runs and a pair of stolen bases in the series.  Bichette is taking over as the face of the franchise and leader on the ball club.

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Hyun Jin Ryu has now put together two consecutive strong starts and is showing why the Blue Jays gave him a four year contract worth $80 million.  In the first game of the set, he pitched a season high six innings while striking out seven, allowing just four base runners while surrendering just one run.  Over his last two starts Ryu has pitched 11 innings, allowing just one run on three hits and striking out 15.

The Bad
Vladimir Guerrero Jr’s defence on Wednesday night hurt the team badly.  In the third inning with two out, VGJ struggled picking up a ground ball which allowed Magneuris Sierra to reach base.  The out would have been the third out of the inning, instead four runs would come in to score.  Two innings later, while taking a throw from shortstop, VGJ just lost focus and failed to catch a routine throw to first base that led to another unearned run in the inning.

A brain cramp in the third inning happened when Danny Jansen threw a pick off down to second base with a runner on third base.  The errant throw allowed Eddy Alvarez to score from third base.  The question remains whether Jansen gave a signal for this play, as Cavan Biggio didn’t break for second base to cover.  Either way, this is a very low percentage high risk play, which looked bad and was costly.

The Ugly
While there were a few moments I could pick as the ugly moment including having Joe Panik as DH, leaving Panik in to hit in the ninth and others, the ugliest would be Brandon Drury in extra innings on Wednesday night.

With the new rule of starting an extra inning with a runner on second base, the Blue Jays had the shift on and Drury was the only one on his side of the infield.  The Marlins elected to lay down a sacrifice bunt towards Drury.  Instead of playing the ball he went to the base which allowed the runner to get to third and the hitter to reach first as well.

After the game, Charlie Montoyo who usually protects his players, couldn’t do it for Drury and stated he was also confused what he was doing.

The Blue Jays had Thursday off before hosting the Tampa Bay Rays for a weekend series in Buffalo.  Are you starting to see a turn around in the Blue Jays offence?