Toronto Blue Jays "mop" the New York Yankees in this week's MLB Good Times
By Jake Mintz
FOX Sports MLB Writer
Welcome to Good Times.
Every Friday, we’ll focus on three things from the previous week in baseball — fans, managers, players, teams, cities, fan bases or mascots — for which the times were good.
Let’s get right to it.
These are the Blue Jays we saw on paper.
At long last, the 2021 Dunedin Buffalo Toronto Blue Jays are who we thought they could be. Winners of eight straight games, including a statement, four-game mop at Yankee Stadium, the roarin’, scorin’ Jays are but a half-game behind the New York Yankees for the second AL wild-card spot.
Their recent hot stretch has been equal parts inexplicable and inevitable. The rate at which they’ve rocketed up the standings — 11 wins in their past 12 games — has been downright startling. Two weeks ago, the Jays were 6.5 games out of a playoff spot, stuck behind both Oakland and Seattle in the race for October. They were a postseason afterthought, one with a fun lineup, sure, but a team incapable of cobbling together the pitching necessary to make a real run at things.
Then they got hot.
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But that the Blue Jays find themselves just metres away from a postseason spot is no real surprise to anyone who has watched them all season. I mean, have you seen this lineup? The Jays have been scoring runs in bunches and criminally underperforming their run differential all year (they’re at +145, third-best in the AL; the Yankees are at +34). Their recent stretch is simply the baseball scales of justice returning to their rightful equilibrium.
Unless you’ve been disconnected from technology since April, you know that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is the heart of everything the Blue Jays have become. Even if you haven’t been on your phone, Vladdy might have cracked a tater off your windshield while you were driving through Buffalo. The dreadlocked, baby-faced torque-monster has solidified himself, at just 22 years old, as the best hitter on planet earth.
No matter how you slice it, whether you use advanced stats such as his 171 WRC+ or .414 xwOBA or stick to his 42 dingers, 100 RBIs and .319 average, Vladdy is just the best. If not for that fellow in Anaheim having the most unique and impressive season in baseball history, Guerrero would be running away with the MVP. Good thing he has two more decades.
But what makes this Jays offense truly spectacular is how watchable and interesting the lineup is top to bottom. This is way more than the Vladdy show. Marcus Semien has bounced back from a subpar 2020 to crank 38 homers and should earn a top-five MVP finish. Bo Bichette is a tornado of bat speed and well-conditioned hair, with more swag in his tight pants than all of Montana. Teoscar Hernández is a line-drive machine capable of taking out 15 home run derby shagger kids with a single swing.
Alejandro Kirk is built like a potato with elite bat control. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is always smiling. Randal Grichuk is the epitome of a forgettable, down-order guy who crushes mistakes. Cavan Biggio is hurt right now, but your dad knows who his dad is! George Springer has struggled with injuries all year, but if they get him right for October, he’s the best postseason hitter of our lifetimes.
And on the pitching side, Robbie Ray has gone from an even more frustrating version of Blake Snell to a legit Cy Young contender. I proclaimed earlier this year that Ray was my least favorite pitcher to watch in the league. Then he figured his stuff out, and now I’ve got hard-boiled all over my face. Alek Manoah is a 6-foot-6, 260-pound rookie who throws straight Gruyère. You know Hyun-Jin Ryu and his pinpoint control, but wait until I tell you that former Mets pitching machine Steven Matz has actually been pretty solid recently. Who knew!
This is a likable cast of characters, led by Vladdy and backed up by a deep crew of supporting actors. The Jays are a young team of exuberant and large baseballing children learning for the first time how to win together. Like the White Sox and the Padres, the Jays fulfill the real measure of a fun team: You go to their online team store and don't know which of the delightful, exhilarating players to get a jersey or shirsey for.
This no-longer-traveling Canadian circus has a bit more work to do, but the Jays are fortunate that 14 of their final 23 games are against the Twins or the Orioles. They’ve also got one last meeting with the Yanks in the second-to-last series of the season. Ooooooh boy, that could be a fun one.
Buckle up, people, it’s time to watch the Jays.
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2. Hunter Renfthrow
That’s not a typo — it’s a bad portmanteau. It’s also now a regular occurrence at Fenway and 29 other MLB stadiums. Take a gander.
Here it is from another angle. It's important to watch both for the upcoming list.
Here’s a list, in no order, of great things about this play.
1. It was on a backup.
Hunter Renfroe has made tons of incredible throws in his career, almost all of them from right field. But it’s one thing to unleash a howitzer from your usual grassy spot. To hustle full-out and heave a rocket such as this from an unfamiliar domain takes it to the next level.
2. The half-second breath he takes before he throws
This is like when you’re a little kid going off the diving board for the first time and you take a deep breath before you jump, or when you take a hefty inhale before telling someone important news. As humans, we take deep breaths to reset ourselves, to gather our minds and bodies before attempting something significant.
There’s a microsecond in here before Renfroe turns around during which the whole play pauses, and he loads up his energy before reaching back to toss. That's also the only relatable thing about a 250-foot throw.
3. The ball bouncing right behind the runner
It’s like a horror movie. Joey Wendle is doomed. He can run all he wants, but the baseball chasing him down the dark hallway or through the cemetery or on the basepath from second to third is going to get him eventually.
4. The umpire’s out call
The raised leg. The feel for the game-ending moment. The strong yet classy punch-out. Take notes, kids. This is elite umpiring.
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3. SpongeBob
This one is pretty straightforward. Back in January 2020, when Larry Walker was voted into the Hall of Fame, he wore a SpongeBob SquarePants "Ain’t no ordinary sponge" shirt on TV during the post-vote interview. It obviously went viral.
Now it’s in the Hall itself.
But the Hall of Fame induction ceremony itself is a pretty classy affair. You can’t wear Nickelodeon-themed shirts to one of the most important moments of your life. I mean, you could, but it’d be frowned upon. Nonetheless, Walker found an incredible way to honor everyone’s favorite cartoon sponge without ruffling the feathers of the crotchety traditionalists: a SpongeBob pin.
Just good stuff here. Shouts out to Larry Walker for not taking himself too seriously. Life is fun! So is SpongeBob! It's always a delight to see people around the baseball world putting fun first. Kudos to Larry and a big congrats!
Jake Mintz is the louder half of @CespedesBBQ and a baseball analyst for FOX Sports. He’s an Orioles fan living in New York City, and thus, he leads a lonely existence most Octobers. If he’s not watching baseball, he’s almost certainly riding his bike. You can follow him on Twitter @Jake_Mintz.