TORONTO — Don Mattingly calls games like this ‘hard hat and lunch pail’ days.
As in, you’d better show up ready to work, because the opposing starting pitcher is going to bring it. Ahead of Saturday’s matchup against defending NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes, the Toronto Blue Jays braced themselves.
“Great stuff in the zone. A lot of arm-side movement into righties,” manager John Schneider said. “You’ve got to be ready to hit (since) he’s not going to pitch around you.”
As George Springer prepared for the Blue Jays’ first at-bat of the game, he expected Skenes to attack.
“Go up there and fight,” Springer said. “He’s elite. And he’s elite because he’s elite. He doesn’t walk guys. He can control the strike zone. He can throw, I don’t how many pitches he has? Probably six or seven or eight. He can throw them at any time to any quadrant.”
Thanks to a leadoff home run from Springer and some help from the likes of Yohendrick Piñango and Jesus Sanchez the Blue Jays still found a way to score four runs off Skenes. Not only did the win bring the 25-27 Blue Jays a little closer to .500, a big game against a pitcher this dominant provides a little optimism for where this struggling offence can go.
“It was really good,” Schneider said. “George setting the tone was key. (The lineup was) pretty relentless. It’s not easy to rack up nine hits off him.”
It started with Springer, who swung and missed at two Skenes fastballs before connecting on the third pitch he saw. The 0-2 pitch from Skenes was another fastball and, anticipating it, Springer put a perfect swing on the pitch to connect on a no-doubt home run.
From Schneider’s vantage point, Springer has gotten “a little bit more athletic in the box” recently, “just being in his legs a little bit more.” That’s led to better swings from the 36-year-old, who now has five home runs and a .677 OPS on the season.
“He does his homework,” Schneider said. “He’s trended in the right direction and he’s taken some good swings in the last week.”
After a strikeout in the third, Springer made more hard contact in the fifth with a double to centre. Yet he wasn’t the only one who connected for damage against Skenes.
Batting cleanup while facing Skenes for the first time, Piñango built on his hot start with a double and a single. As Springer remarked afterwards, the rookie gives the Blue Jays a grade-A at-bat every time.
“Whether it’s on the first pitch or the 15th pitch, he seems to navigate his at-bat to his strengths,” Springer said. “He doesn’t look overmatched a lot. He seems to slow things down.”
As for Sanchez, he hit two doubles to bring his season average to .284 with a .767 OPS. But when asked what stands out most, Schneider pointed to the slugger’s willingness to pass on pitches he can’t drive.
“The takes,” Schneider said. “You buy yourself another pitch to hopefully get a mistake.”
Keep in mind, results like this are rare against Skenes, who sat 97 m.p.h. with his fastball Saturday. Now in his third big-league season, he already has a Rookie of the Year Award and a Cy Young to his name. Entering play Saturday, he had a career ERA of 2.06, the lowest mark through 65 career starts by any pitcher in any the last 100 years except Dwight Gooden.
What he’s doing isn’t normal.
“It’s been awesome,” Pirates shortstop Konnor Griffin said before the game. “You don’t have to do too much. You don’t have too much action out there when he’s pitching. It’s been cool to see a front-row view of what his ball does when he’s pitching.”
While the right-hander’s stuff can be unhittable, former Blue Jays infielder Spencer Horwitz has been most impressed by how he prepares in the four days leading up to his starts.
“On that fifth day, he goes out and shines,” Horwitz said. “It’s impressive. He’s an impressive person and an impressive athlete. He’s as real as it comes.”
“I’ve never met a guy who’s so diligent and locked in to his routine.”
Within that context, the Blue Jays’ success against Skenes stands out even more. This group has underperformed all season, ranking 26th among the 30 teams with a .681 OPS as they’ve navigated injuries and underperformance.
Oddly enough, their current four-game win streak has coincided with matchups against high-octane arms like Skenes, Bubba Chandler, Carlos Rodon and Cam Schlittler.
Now the question becomes whether the Blue Jays can build on this recent run of success. To this point in the season, they’ve struggled to find much offensive momentum. But to borrow Mattingly’s expression, the Blue Jays are putting on their hard hats and getting some honest work done right now.
“I feel like I’m starting to slow things down a more,” Springer said. “Starting to control the plate more.”
