Blue Jays week in review: the good, the bad, and the noteworthy for August 18

The Toronto Blue Jays won both of their three game sets this week, taking care of the Cubs and the Rangers and going 4-2 overall. This week featured a little bit of everything we’ve seen from Toronto this season:
Thrilling come from behind wins? Check (2-1 vs Chicago on Thursday, 6-5 vs Texas on Friday)
Offensive explosions? Check (14-2 vs Texas on Saturday)
Unexpected performances? Check (Myles Straw hitting two home runs)
Dominant stretches from the rotation and the bullpen? Check (Scherzer throws seven innings of one run ball and the bullpen strikes out the final six outs of the game on Thursday vs Chicago)

The 4-2 week allowed Toronto (73-52) to stay a full five games ahead of Boston in the AL East, and 5.5 games ahead of New York, while also maintaining their spot at the top of the American League, ahead of Detroit (73-53) and Houston (69-55). Let's take a deeper dive into what else was good, bad and noteworthy about the Blue Jays last week.

Blue Jays week in review: the good, the bad, and the noteworthy for August 18

The good: Blue Jays getting healthier

The Blue Jays played some really good baseball over the last week, but the best news was that the team is starting to get back to full strength once again. Springer returned for the Blue Jays final two games of the weekend against Texas. He went a combined 2-8 with a home run and two RBIs. Springer has been a huge focal point for the teams success this season, as they are 60-43 in games he has appeared in, while they are 57-37 in games he has started.

Meantime, Giménez hasn’t swung a great bat this season, but this final month and a half gives him a chance to rewrite that narrative. He’s slashing just .223/.306/.321 with a .667 OPS, but he’s showing signs of breaking out. Over his last nine games, Giménez is hitting .417/.481/.542 with an OPS of 1.023. He has also displayed elite level defence at second base, with a 6.4 defensive fWar, third among all second basemen in MLB, and something the Blue Jays will rely on in the playoffs.

The bad: Berrios can’t finish the sweep

José Berrios didn’t have his best game on Sunday against Texas. The 31-year-old gave up a season high six earned runs, the fourth time he’s done that this season, while setting a new season high for hits given up, as the Rangers got ten against him in 4.1 innings. He only managed to strike out two batter, and while he didn’t walk anybody, he did hit a batter.

It was a disappointing outing for Berrios who was looking to build off a solid outing against the Cubs earlier in the week. He only allowed two hits in 5.1 innings pitched while not giving up any runs.

The noteworthy: Winning the DeGrom game a second time

The Blue Jays face the Rangers just six times this season and by the luck of the draw they had to go up against two-time Cy Young award winner Jacob DeGrom twice in those six games.

DeGrom threw a combined 10+ innings over the two starts, giving up just seven hits, two earned runs and striking out five while walking two. Great numbers if you’re a starting pitcher, but neither of those performance earned his team the win. The Blue Jays managed to win both games DeGrom started against them this season, winning 2-1 on May 26, then putting up six runs on the Texas bullpen once DeGrom left the game on Friday night, en route to a 6-5 Blue Jays victory.

On Deck: Time to feast on non-playoff teams

The Blue Jays get a chance to really build on their lead in the AL East this week. They hit the road for games against two teams with some of the worst records in baseball. Up first a three game set against the Pirates (52-73) and after an off day on Thursday, they head to Miami for the weekend to play the Marlins (59-65).