Blue Jays: Good, Bad and Ugly in Kansas City

The Blue Jays lost a tight game on Sunday where the bats couldn’t get going, and with the loss they dropped the series three games to one.  Here is a look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly from the weekend series with the Kansas City Royals.

The Good
The Blue Jays had a pair of starting pitchers that shut down the Royals offence.  For the third time this year Steven Matz looked like an ace on the mound.  Saturday he started the first game of a double header and pitched six strong innings, allowing just two hits and one run to improve his record on the season to 3-0.  He currently is the owner of a 1.47 ERA and 0.82 WHIP on the season through 18.1 innings pitched.

The finale was pitched by Robbie Ray and while he wasn’t dominating, he battled throughout the entire start.  He consistently found himself in jams, but was able to fight his way through it.  Ray allowed 10 base runners over five innings, but every time was able to get out of it without allowing a run.

I think many fans feel completely confident right now that when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. steps up to the plate that he is going to do something special.  He seems to be seeing the pitch perfectly and is rarely getting fooled.  This weekend he went 5 for 13 (.385) with two walks, while clubbing two home runs.  You know you are having a good start to the season when you hit .385 on the weekend and your average goes down.

Rowdy Tellez continues to come out of his early season funk.  During the series he went 4 for 11 (.364) and struck just once while playing solid defence at first base.

The Bad
Bo Bichette had a really rough weekend at the plate and his hot streak has gone away.  He did have the misfortune of having a couple hard hit balls go straight at players, but he seemed very frustrated at the plate, which can cause a slump to go longer.  The young shortstop collected just one hit in 15 at bats (.067).  On the bright side his defence did look a lot better and tried to make things happen when he stole third base during the finale.

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Anthony Kay has been given the opportunity to see if he can snag a spot in the rotation with the early struggles in the back end, but he did not help himself out when he got his first start of the season on Thursday.  Kay allowed six hits and five runs (four earned) over 3.1 IP.  Kay will get another chance as he is the likely starter on Wednesday.

The hitting in general has been the Achilles heel this year for the Blue Jays.  This weekend as a team they posted a .214 batting average and collected only six extra-base hits.  Early injuries are starting to hamper the lineup and I can speak for almost all Toronto fans when I say I can’t wait to see George Springer to come back.

The Ugly
Randal Grichuk has completely cooled off from his hot start to the season as he has gone just 2 for his last 14.  It hit an all-time low on Sunday when he went 0 for 4 at the plate with four strikeouts.  Grichuk had struck out just eight times through the first 12 games of the year and then struck out six times in three games this weekend.

The Blue Jays are off to Boston for a two game series starting on Tuesday against the Red Sox.  Hyun Jin Ryu gets the start for Toronto.