Blue Jays: The Good, the Bad and Ugly in Houston

The Blue Jays finished off their three game series in Houston on Sunday with a loss, which meant they would fall in two of the games to drop the series.  In total they finished off their AL West portion of their road trip 3-4.  Here is a look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly against the Astros.

The Good
Marcus Semien continued his hot streak all the way through the series against the Houston Astros as he has now extended his hitting streak to nine games.  Semien led the club in hits (4), as well as collecting a double and home run over the weekend.  With a home run in the series, he surpassed his 2020 home run totals and is just four RBI behind last year.  It appears we are seeing the 2019 Marcus Semien that finished third in AL-MVP voting when he hit 33 home runs.

The pitching was not good in the series, both from the starting rotation and the bullpen, however we saw the return of A.J. Cole to the roster and he was one pitcher that threw well.  Cole came into the finale on Sunday to pitch two innings and did not allow a base runner, which gave the team a chance.

The Bad
The starting rotation struggled again in the series as Ross Stripling could not get out of the fourth inning and Nate Pearson, who made his season debut on Sunday, was pulled midway through the third inning of his outing.  The two starters combined to throw six innings and walked eight batters while surrendering 10 hits and six earned runs.  I expect Pearson to bounce back as you can chalk his up to nerves and inexperience, however, this is nothing new from Stripling.  Since being acquired by Toronto at the 2020 Trade Deadline, Stripling has a 6.47 ERA and a 1.75 WHIP.

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Vladimir Guerrero Jr is going through a stretch where he is struggling and he was exposed in Houston.  Before the road trip it was evident at the plate that Guerrero was hitting everything very hard and not swinging at pitches out of the zone.  However in this series, Guerrero looked like he was not locked in at all.  He finished 1-10 with just one RBI and a pair of strikeouts.  I believe this is just short term hiccup and wouldn’t be surprised to see him go on another run.

The Ugly
It is hard when a player hits two home runs in a series and you say their play has been ugly.  Danny Jansen hit home runs during both Friday and Saturday’s games and the one during the second game of the series was an absolute monster shot.  However, outside of that home run, all of his other at bats he looked like he was really struggling, including the home run on Friday night. Any contact Jansen was hitting were lazy fly balls including the long ball on Friday which was evident when it was determined that the only ball park it would have left was in Houston.  You will always take a home run, but when you look at the whole picture Jansen is just not having good at bats.

The Blue Jays will now have Monday off before going into Atlanta for a three game series against the Braves starting on Tuesday.  Robbie Ray will start for the Blue Jays in the series opener, while nobody has been named yet for the Braves.