Blue Jays: Top Five Moments Of The 2020 Season

Another long awaited debut

(5) Nate Pearson makes his MLB debut (7/29/20)

After key minor league graduations from Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Cavan Biggio in 2019, the Jays put the cherry on top in 2020, calling up the best power pitching prospect in baseball, Nate Pearson. In his debut, Pearson tossed five scoreless innings against the great Max Scherzer and the Nationals.

Nate Pearson’s repertoire includes a flaming fastball that sits in the upper 90s, a hard change-up in the upper 80s, and a wipeout slider in the mid to upper 80s. When coupling his repertoire with his athletic 6 ft 6, 250 lb frame, it’s hard not to envision Pearson as a dominant starter in the big leagues at some point in the near future. He has shredded minor league hitters and it’s only a matter of time before Pearson comes into his own and starts mowing down major league hitters on a consistent basis.

Despite a pretty solid debut, Nate Pearson’s velocity and overall command was underwhelming in his first season. This is likely attributable to the elbow injury that would land him on the IL after his first four starts. He was throwing an easy 101mph in summer camp so his underlying injury when he was called up would be the only reasonable justification for his underwhelming velocity to start the season. By the time the playoffs came around, his average was back up in the upper 90s. In his lone playoff appearance, he was in complete control with his fastball, striking out five in 2.0 innings and not allowing a single baserunner.

Fans shouldn’t be overly concerned with the lack of an attractive stat line from Pearson this season. In his lone four starts, it was clear that he was battling through injury and one could hardly gauge the long term success of a player based on such a small sample size. Nate Pearson is here to stay and Blue Jays fans should be excited.

The comeback kids

(4) Blue Jays 10 run inning to complete comeback vs. Yankees (9/7/20)

Besides the Rays and one short series vs. the Braves, the Blue Jays got the benefit of an easy schedule in July and August. Despite an above .500 record going into the final month, many fans were looking ahead to September to test the true nature of the Blue Jays’ winning ways. In the final 30 games of the season, 20 were against the juggernaut Yankees and the other 10 included difficult matchups such as Jacob DeGrom and the Mets.

With all that said, it was a breath of fresh air to see the Jays absolutely dominate against the Yankees in the first game between the two clubs on September 7th. After a rare tough start from Hyun Jin Ryu that included five runs over five innings, the Jays wound up in a 6-2 deficit in their hitting half of the 6th inning.

In came the circling wagons. The Blue Jays loaded the bases for Rowdy Tellez with one out. The following ensued from that point on: (i) Luke Voit’s error on Tellez’s chopper moves everyone up 90 ft (6-3 NYY), (ii) Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hits a chopper past Voit to score two (6-5 NYY), (iii) after a Guerrero Jr. steal of second, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. rips a single to left to tie it up (6-6), (iv) Shaw hits a go ahead single (8-6 TOR), (v) Jansen puts the cherry on top with a grand slam to left (12-6 TOR).

In a game that featured Toronto’s most productive inning since 2010, the Jays wound up winning 12-7. Considering that this game was against a division rival in a meaningful September game, one could make the argument that this game featured one of the most entertaining offensive innings in Blue Jays history.

It ain’t over ’til it’s over

(3) Blue Jays overcome 1st inning 7-0 deficit against Phillies (8/20/20)

This offensive burst from the Blue Jays was different from the Yankees one above, in that the Jays were down by seven runs in the 1st inning this time. The fact that this was a 7-inning game as part of a doubleheader made this climb even steeper.

Furthermore, this win came during a turning point in the Blue Jays’ season. After teetering around .500 for the first few weeks of 2020, the Jays went on an explosive win streak, winning six in a row for the first time since 2016. The aforementioned comeback was the 5th game of this win streak, making the ride even more of a high for Jays fans at the time.

On that hot summer day in late August, Trent Thornton and Jacob Waguespack combined for seven runs in the first inning and it looked like one of those games that you’d turn off right away. Again… in came the circling wagons. For the remaining 6.0 innings, the Jays bullpen would allow just one run while the Blue Jays would score nine, resulting in a 9-8 victory. It began with a (i) Teoscar Hernandez 2-run shot in the bottom half of the first, followed by a (ii) 7-run, 6th inning that featured a Gurriel Jr. 3-run homer and a Tellez solo blast.

This was probably the most exciting week of Blue Jays baseball (up to that point) since their 2016 playoff run and it gave Blue Jays fans an idea of just how good this young core could be on a consistent basis.

Riding a hot streak

(2) First 6 game win streak since 2016 (8/21/20)

Since I went over this one above, I will keep it short and sweet. The Blue Jays were not expected to be an above .500 team and their 7-11 start only added to that sentiment early on in the season. Moreover, it felt like even in a 60 game sprint with an expanded postseason bracket, Jays fans were about to be treated to yet another losing season.

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The baseball gods had something different to say. Between the 17th and 21st of August, the Jays would ride out a 6-game winning streak to move their record to 13-11. Given the brevity of the 2020 season, this was just about as quick of a turnaround as a team could possibly go through. After 18 games the Jays looked like a losing club and after 24 games, they looked like one of the better ball clubs in the AL. That kind of turn around inside of one week was sheer excitement for the Toronto faithful after a disappointing start to the schedule.

(1) Hyun Jin Ryu leads Blue Jays back to the playoffs (9/24/20)

Going into the latter half of September, the Jays began to slump badly. In the 10 games leading up to their eventual postseason clinching game, the Blue Jays were 3-7 with a 6-game losing streak sandwiched in there. The Mariners, Angels, Orioles and even Tigers were within a few games of passing the Blue Jays for the final playoff spot. It was looking like the Jays postseason hopes were too good to be true for such a young and undeveloped core.

In comes ace Hyun Jin Ryu. After a very rough couple of weeks of Blue Jays starting pitching, Ryu turned in the best start of the season in their most important game since October of 2016. Ryu tossed a scoreless 7.0 innings with only seven men reaching base. For most teams, this pitching line may seem rather mundane, but with manager Charlie Montoyo’s conservative managing style, it had been a long time since a Blue Jays starter got into the 7th inning. In fact, it had been more than a full calendar year since a Jays pitcher had done so.

With all the doubts and head shakers going into 2020, it was even more special for Jays fans to see this club clinch a postseason berth. It all came full circle with new Blue Jay, Hyun Jin Ryu’s dominant performance.