Kuzul

The Toronto Blue Jays not only sweep the Tampa Bay Rays, they dominated in all aspects of the game in their recent series.

In the first game of the series, Toronto capitalized on Tampa’s mistakes, as two of their runs were unearned.

We also saw the first of Toronto’s strong pitching performances in the series, with Brett Cecil going seven complete innings while giving up one earned run on four hits.

In the second game, the attendance rose to 24,168 to watch the highly anticipated debut of Toronto’s top catching prospect, J.P. Arencibia (appropriately dubbed “The Franchise” by Toronto Blue Jays die-hard fans).

And boy, did he live up to that claim.

He hit a home run on the first pitch he saw in his first at-bat and ended up hitting one more homer, going 4-for-5 with three RBI and finishing a triple away from the cycle.

In the final game, it was all about the Brandon Morrow show.

Many were upset that Jays manager Cito Gaston started Morrow’s normal battery mate Jose Molina instead of Arencibia.

We don’t hate you now, Cito.

No offense to Arencibia, but I don’t think Morrow would have had the performance he had Molina not been in the lineup.

Molina has 593 career games of catching experience in the MLB, compared to Arencibia’s one. If you’re not a math genius, that’s a difference of 592 games.

Now, to Morrow himself.

Morrow ended up striking 17 batters. Seventeen! He also no-hit the Rays for 8 2/3 innings.

Among Morrow’s strikeout victims were Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, and Ben Zobrist, three of Tampa’s elite hitters.

The big highlight of this game was the leaping catch Vernon Wells made at the wall to protect Morrow’s no-hit bid. In a weird coincidence, DeWayne Wise was playing left field. Wise made a leaping catch in Mark Buerhle’s perfect game last year.

For Morrow, this could be the start of something special. For a guy known as a fastball pitcher, we definetly saw Morrow come out of his shell and throw the filthy breaking ball never scene before his time in Toronto.

If Morrow had retired Longoria and gotten the final out, there would be no doubt in anyone’s mind that this was the best pitching performance in Toronto History.

No Hitter? No. Best Pitching Performance in Jays’ History? Yes.

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Yes, it can happen—check Colorado Rockies, 2007.

The Toronto Blue Jays swept the Baltimore Orioles this weekend and have several series looming against some of the worst teams in the AL:

• A three-game series with the Kansas City Royals, who were recently swept by the Oakland A’s.
• A four-game series with the Detroit Tigers, who were recently swept by the Cleveland Indians.
• A three-game series with the Baltimore Orioles; the Jays are 9-0 against them this year.
• And finally the most intriguing matchup, a three-game series against Cleveland, who swept Toronto in four games earlier this year.

The first series against the Royals and will face two pitchers who have ERAs over five (Kyle Davies and Anthony Lerew) and Zack Greinke, who has a very respectable 3.67 ERA, but has not reached that Cy Young quality pitching he achieved a year ago.

This series will give another chance for the Jays’ big bats to bash more below-average pitching, led by John Buck, who will return to his former home, Jose Bautista, and guys who have once again found their bat recently—Lyle Overbay and Yunel Escobar.

The next series is against the Tigers, who were recently swept by the young Cleveland Indians.

This should be the only team to which Toronto they will lose a game, with the Tigers’ pitching being led by Justin Verlander, and the batting of Miguel Cabrera and rookie sensation Brennan Boesch.

The more easily predictable series against the O’s will likely mean another sweep for the Jays and will provide great momentum in their next series against Cleveland. As I said earlier, the Indians swept the Jays earlier this year and there is greater passion than ever at Rogers Centre, with many ads being hyped on this series.

I predict this to be another series sweep for Toronto, but I said that last time when they faced the Indians. But the Jays look more revived with the acquisition of the young Yunel Escobar, and who knows what moves Alex Anthopoulous will make between now and then.

As of this sentence, the Toronto Blue Jays have a 47-45 record and are only 8.5 GB in the AL Wild Card standings.

Ahead of them are the LA Angels, who have an upcoming series against the New York Yankees, the Texas Rangers, and the BoSox. So Toronto can easily find themselves ahead of this team in the Wild Card race. 

The next team ahead of them, the Minnesota Twins, are currently still without the services of Justin Morneau, who was coincidentally injured in a game against the Jays. The Jays could be the nemesis of the Twins and could move to at least a game ahead of them.

But the Twins’ upcoming schedule includes dates against the Indians, O’s, Royals, and Mariners. I could see them being third in the Wild Card standings after the end of these series.

The Tigers, unfortunately, will find themselves from top contention in the next few weeks to sixth-seventh place in the Wild Card, as they have series against Texas, Toronto, Tampa Bay, Boston, and the Chicago White Sox. I would be scared if I was a member of the Detroit pitching staff.

I see Tampa and Boston still competing for top spot in the Wild Card and even division, but Toronto dangerously chasing them while holding down third place in the AL Wild Card.

If Toronto wants to keep proving those doubters wrong, they will need to have a great winning stretch for the rest of the month and keep those big bats and pitching arms going.

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un-her-ald-ded , adjective

appearing without fanfare, publicity, or acclaim; unexpected.

That is exactly the way to describe the hitting coach for the Toronto Blue Jays, who have transformed hitters’ careers around and have put the Jays’ close to an AL Wild Card berth. Not surprising for a guy who has already won a World Series ring (2001 with Arizona).

The Jays lead the MLB in many offensive rankings. First in home runs already with an astonishing total of 89, first in doubles, and first in slugging percentage. I can go on and on.

The main reason, the rebound of Vernon Wells, and the surprise emergence of Jose Bautista, Alex Gonzales, Fred Lewis, and John Buck.

Bautista, is 1st in the AL in HR with 16, and fourth in RBI with 44. Not bad for Bautista, who all of his career has been considered a very effective bench player with his above-average defence at numerous positions, was acquired for Robinson Diaz, a career minor leaguer from Pittsburgh.

The mastermind in his big bat, is not suprisingly Murphy. The Toronto Blue Jays outfielder was getting started too late in the batter’s box, forcing him to use his shoulders rather than his hands when attacking the ball, making his swing long and wild.

Rather than going through the ball, he was going around it, leaving him vulnerable to inside pitches.

Murphy then personally approached Bautista in the Jays’ weight room, gave him a bat, and told him to swing in front of a mirror. Hours of video followed from Murphy, and suddenly you had here an unlikely possible All-Star and even possibly a Home-Run derby hitter.

Meanwhile, Vernon Wells has also done the same sort of thing with Murphy, working on his swing and pulling the ball. Alex Gonzales and John Buck have seem to have adjusted to the Jays’ “See it and Swing it” approach.

Hopefully the Blue Jays’ bats will continue surging, and make that push for the Wild Card.

One thing is for sure, the main protagonist for the Jays’ success, you gotta say Murphy.

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