Blue Jays week in review: the good, the bad, the noteworthy for July 21

It was a short week but a great week for the Toronto Blue Jays who went 3-0, in a sweep of the San Francisco Giants at Rogers Centre. It was the first series after the All-Star break, marking the unofficial start of the second half of the season and it could not have gone any better for the Blue Jays.

Everyone contributed toward all three wins against a Giants team who were hoping to get on a roll, trying to narrow the gap in the NL Wild Card race. The Blue Jays wouldn’t give them anything easy, and took all three games in three different ways. On Friday, Chris Bassitt danced around ten hits, giving up no runs, striking out five and getting into the seventh inning and the Blue Jays shut out the Giants 4-0. 

On Saturday, the Blue Jays offence came to life in the middle frames. Down by two, they rallied for four runs in the sixth and tacked on two more in the eighth for a 6-3 win. On Sunday, they simply outslugged the Giants, hitting three home runs en route to an 8-6 finale. 

The Blue Jays have now won 10 straight games at home, tying the franchise record in that category, set by the 1985 AL East division champion Blue Jays. Their streak started almost a year to the date of this one tying the record. 

The ‘85 Blue Jays beat the Oakland A’s 11-4 on Sunday, July 21 at Exhibition Stadium in the finale of a three game series. They proceeded to sweep the Seattle Mariners in three games and the California Angels in four games to get the streak to eight games. They went on the road and took three of four from Baltimore, then came back home to host the Rangers. The Blue Jays won the first two of that Rangers series to make it 10 straight at home, before the Rangers avoided the sweep on Sunday, August 4.   

This is also the longest winning streak at home since the team moved to Rogers Centre, (formerly Skydome) in 1989. 

With only the three games on their schedule, let’s break down what was good, bad and noteworthy for the first place Blue Jays this week.

The good: Bottom of the order prevails

The 5-9 hitters in the Blue Jays order had more than half the hits during this series. The Blue Jays totalled 33 base-knocks in the three games against the Giants and  18 of those hits belonged to guys outside of the top four hitters.

Barger, slotted in the number five spot for the entirety of the series, did most of the damage. He went 4-4 on Saturday, and picked up a home run on Sunday while driving in a pair of runs. 

Will Wagner also made the most of his opportunities, with three hits in six at bats, driving in four runs. In total, the Blue Jays 5-9 guys hit .375 this weekend, driving in 12 runs and hitting two of Toronto’s four home runs. 

The bad: Concerns over Berrios?

Jose Bérrios has looked shaky in three of his last four outings. Going back to his start on July 2, Berrios has allowed 15 earned runs in 19 innings pitched. He is 2-1 in the month of July with an ERA of 7.11 in four starts. 

He allowed six earned runs to the Yankees on July 2, bounced back for a quality start against the White Sox allowing one run in six innings pitched. But over his last two outings against the Athletics and the Giants, he has allowed a combined eight runs in 8.2 innings with just six strikeouts.

It’s his worst stretch of the season after a brilliant June, where he allowed just seven runs in 32 innings, pitching to a 1.97 ERA, a 1.00 WHIP and holding opponents to a .205 batting average-against.

He’s just not fooling anyone at the plate this month, and the Blue Jays will need him to bounce back quickly as they are scheduled to continue to face tough opponents. As it stands right now, his next outing would come against the Detroit Tigers, who own the best record in the AL.  

The noteworthy: Blue Jays have almost three times more hits than strikeouts

It’s hard not to gush about the work the lineup did this past weekend, but they were just so much fun to watch. A big reason for that is they battled in virtually every at bat, and weren’t giving up any easy outs. 

As previously mentioned, they tallied 33 hits in the three games, while they struck out just 12 times. Going into Sunday, they had only been punched out five times, which is a tremendous accomplishment considering the opposition.

Nobody struck out against Friday’s starter, future Hall of Famer Justin Verlander. Meantime, Logan Webb, who has the third most strikeouts by a pitcher in the National League, got just one punch out against the Blue Jays on Saturday. They also worked in nine walks throughout the series. Not a bad ratio when you only have 12 K’s against you in three games. 

Some notable individual notes include Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Ernie Clement not recording a single strikeout all weekend, while Barger had just one and Bo Bichette had just two. That’s only three strikeouts combined from those four players in 45 at-bats.

On Deck: Hardest stretch of the season?

The Blue Jays go up against two formidable foes this week right ahead of the trade deadline. Up first is a showdown for the AL East division lead. The Blue Jays host the Yankees for three straight, starting on Monday, with a three game lead on said Yankees. 

When that series wraps, they head to Detroit to play the team that has been at the front of the pack of the American League all season, with a four game set against the Tigers. 

These seven games could truly determine Toronto’s game plan going into the deadline and how hard GM Ross Atkins will have to shop to improve their roster.