3 surprising statistics from the Blue Jays' first month

Many sports fans enjoy looking at relevant statistics of their favourite sports team to see how they are performing. However, there are often times where some less relevant, yet interesting statistics can actually draw the intrigue of the viewer when they finally realize them. For the Toronto Blue Jays, after having a stellar month of April, they have accrued some strong numbers across the board for both their hitting and pitching stats. But there are three surprising statistics that’s worth noting that may not have been evident at first glance.

Wild Pitches

With the likes of Alek Manoah, Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, and José Berríos on the mound, each possessing strong pitches in their arsenal that dance around the plate involving drastic horizontal movement and dips, one would expect a high number of wild pitches to accompany that utilization. However, the Jays led the entire league (or was dead last depending on how you see it) in wild pitches for the month of April with only three in total. So Danny Jansen and Alejandro Kirk must have been doing an amazing job defensively, along with communicating with their respective pitchers effectively to help keep that number low and also to prevent any potential baserunners from getting that extra base to minimize damage.

Sacrifice Hits (Bunts)

With the injection of speed on the basepaths for the 2023 season with the additions of Daulton Varsho and Kevin Kiermaier, it was expected that the Jays would put more emphasis on small ball, with base stealing and advancing runners using sacrifice hits. Well, one month into the season, the Jays currently rank second last in MLB in sacrifice hits with one, and third last if including sacrifice flies with only five. They also haven’t been hitting as much home runs this year as in the past, meaning they must have been coming through with some timely hitting instead, this despite their poor average with RISP, averaging over 4.7 runs per game as a result.

Road Attendance

This statistic may be the most intriguing of all, but the Blue Jays’ road attendance at visitors’ ballparks currently rank third in the entire league after the first month of the season, averaging close to 33000 patrons per game. They may be the only Canadian team in all of MLB, but apparently they attract the attention of fans in the American cities as well. No doubt budding stars such as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette help a lot with the draws in attendance, but it is great to know that the Jays’ impressive performance and star power has caught the eye of not only their own fanbase, but also those of the opposing teams as well.