3 things the Blue Jays learned after their huge sweep of the Yankees

Well that was fun! The Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Yankees played four “October-like” baseball games at Rogers Centre to begin the week and the Blue Jays came away victories in all four contest.

It’s only July but that series could be looked back on in a few months as the true turning point of the year. Sure, they have had some statement wins over the course of this season, the sweep of the Cardinals in St. Louis stands out, but to take four games from your division rival to put yourself in front of the division lead is no small feat. In fact that was the first time in the 48-year history of the Blue Jays that they had taken a four-game series from the Yankees in Toronto.

3 things the Blue Jays learned after their huge sweep of the Yankees

With that one in the books, here are three things the Blue Jays learned about themselves.

1. George Springer and the bottom of the lineup came to play

The resurgence of Springer has been one of the most entertaining stories to watch all season and that continued over these four games against the Yankees where Springer hit four home runs, drove in 11 and had three multi-hit games.

Whether it was his grand slam on Canada Day or his two out, two run home run in the bottom of the eighth on Wednesday, Springer seemingly came up in all of the clutch moments and delivered. But so to did the bottom of the order.

Whether it was a key two run double from Nathan Lukes or a two-homer game from Davis Schneider, everyone stepped up and contributed throughout the series. This gives the Blue Jays a good problem to have going into the deadline.

GM Ross Atkins talked about adding a right-handed bat, and many people expect the Blue Jays to be aggressive at the deadline. With everyone contributing, the decision becomes a little more difficult on who to trade or send down, but it also gives those players more value in those negotiations.      

2.  Blue Jays need some pitching insurance

As fun as it was to see the Blue Jays hit their way out of several tight spots, the pitching was a bit of a roller coaster. Up 8-0, José Berrios was cruising on Tuesday, until he unravelled in the fifth and the bullpen allowed the Yankees to tie the game.

Max Scherzer looked solid through his five innings with two runs and seven strikeouts on Monday, but the Blue Jays needed five pitchers to finish the game. Chris Bassitt allowed three runs, pitching into the sixth with nine strikeouts, and Braydon Fisher followed him by allowed two earned runs while only getting two outs.

This series proved the Blue Jays will need some reinforcements to their pitching staff at the deadline whether it be in the rotation or in the bullpen.

3. John Schneider still makes questionable management decisions

During Wednesday’s game the Yankees seemingly had all the momentum after being down 8-0, they clawed their way back and in the top of the eighth they trailed 9-7. With a man on and two outs and Yimi Garcia, fresh off the injured list, on the mound, Aaron Judge stepped up to the plate. For most of the series, Manager John Schneider elected to intentionally walk Judge in these moments – except for this one. Judge did exactly what everyone expected him to do and blasted a game tying home run.

Sure, you would love for your big shut down arm to shut down their biggest batter, but this strategy made no sense. Remember, Schneider is the guy who claimed taking José Berrios out of a must-win playoff game was due to playing the odds, running the percentages, rolling with the analytics.

The Garcia-Judge matchup heavily favoured Judge in all of those instances, but on-deck was lefty Cody Bellinger. Bellinger is having a decent season but is hitting just .231/.298/.394 against right-handed pitching and Garcia has been slightly better against left-handed batters than righties with a .162 batting average against allowing just six hits in 44 plate appearances.

The numbers, the odds, the percentages, the analytics all indicated that the smart play was to put Judge on-base and have Garcia face Bellinger. Yes, there would have been guys on first and second, but again, Bellinger is hitting just .217 with five singles in those situations.

Now throw out all the numbers and the analytics. It’s just plain old baseball strategy to work around the opponent’s best hitter in those moments if you have an opportunity to make sure he can’t hurt you. The next night, Schneider walked Judge in a similar situation. Hopefully that is a sign of leaning from your mistakes.