From a glass-half-full strategy, this season is off to a fairly sturdy begin for the 8-6 Toronto Blue Jays, who got here inside a number of unlucky bounces of finishing a four-game sweep of the Boston Pink Sox at Fenway Park on Thursday. And so they got here that near the end line regardless of solely producing three extra-base hits within the sequence.
However as a substitute, this workforce — which sits second within the AL East, behind the New York Yankees — heads to Camden Yards for an additional pivotal sequence towards the Baltimore Orioles whereas positioned two video games above .500 throughout the two-week mark of the 2025 marketing campaign.
The pitching has been distinctive to date. That features the beginning rotation and bullpen, which maybe have carried out higher than anybody might’ve predicted popping out of spring coaching. They’re each key causes Toronto has loved as a lot early success because it has out of the gate, they usually’ve completed so whereas working with little margin for error as a result of offence’s sluggish begin.
Coming into Friday’s slate, the Blue Jays have averaged a modest 3.71 runs per sport by way of 14 video games, good for seventeenth within the majors this season. All issues thought-about, that isn’t all that horrible. In actual fact, it’s fairly spectacular, given this lineup has solely hit six dwelling runs — tied with the Kansas Metropolis Royals for the fewest in baseball.
Blue Jays 6 Dwelling Runs are their fewest in franchise historical past by way of 14 video games
— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) April 11, 2025
Now, to be honest, it hasn’t been all dangerous for Toronto’s offence early on. They’ve completed many issues properly, like posting the fifth-most hits (119) and eighth-highest workforce batting common (.254). Additionally they rank inside the highest 10 in on-base share (.332) and strikeout fee (19.6 per cent), registering a 102 wRC+ as a bunch that places them two per cent above league common.
If solely they may begin hitting for some energy.
Not solely do the Blue Jays sit on the backside in dwelling runs. However they’re additionally positioned twenty second within the majors in slugging share (.344) and twenty ninth in remoted energy (.090). It additionally hasn’t helped that they’ve struggled to come back by way of with the large hit in essential moments, as their .246 AVG in hitting with runners in scoring place sits thirteenth amongst all 30 big-league golf equipment.
Of the six dingers this lineup has produced, none have come from their high hitters (Bo Bichette, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Anthony Santander). As a substitute, it’s been Andrés Giménez (three), George Springer (two) and, amazingly, Tyler Heineman (one) main the best way within the energy division.
Nonetheless, likelihood is that gained’t stay the case over a full 162-game season. These first three will begin hitting balls out ultimately, particularly as soon as the situations start to heat up.
“I do know we have now them. We’ve homers. Homers are issues that come, they arrive in streaks, they arrive in bunches,” Bo Bichette instructed reporters of Toronto’s early-season energy drought, together with Sportsnet’s Shi Davidi. “Good groups, good gamers are in a position to hit and be productive after they’re not there. We’ve completed that.”
The unseasonably chilly temperatures have definitely contributed to the Blue Jays’ lack of thump to date. However so has a little bit of dangerous luck, contemplating they entered this week’s four-game sequence at Fenway Park tied with the Athletics for twelfth in hard-hit fee at 40.9 per cent. And so they have been even greater earlier than arriving in Queens final weekend, with each golf equipment tied for seventh with a 42.4-per-cent clip.
The excellent news is the climate needs to be a lot hotter in Baltimore this weekend, a minimum of in comparison with the horrendous situations this workforce simply endured in Boston. Nonetheless, they’ll be going toe-to-toe with an offence that has relied closely on the lengthy ball in ’25, because the O’s have hit 10 dwelling runs of their 5 victories in comparison with only one in eight losses.
