Who’s Hot, Who’s Cold: Blue Jays Pitchers

Over the past two weeks, the Jays were 5-6. Our pitchers had a 3.18 ERA.

Hot

Alek Manoah: 1-1, 0.00 ERA in 2 starts. In 14 innings, batters hit .106/.177/.170 with 1 home run, 2 walks, 13 strikeouts, and 2 hit batters.

He went 7 innings in each of the two starts, throwing 78 and 103 pitches. Both Quality Starts. He had 3 unearned runs against in the first of the starts. They were two pretty amazing starts, especially considering his first start of the season. We were complaining about the team calling him up after a particularly lousy start in Triple-A. I’d bet there will be the odd poor start, but he looks great right now.

Yusei Kikuchi: 0-2, with a 2.45 ERA in 3 starts. In 18.1 innings, batters hit .217/.260/.333 with 2 home runs, 4 walks and 18 strikeouts.

He pitched 8, 4.1 and 6 innings in his starts. He threw 97, 88 and 101 pitches in the games in those three starts. There were two Quality Starts and one where he was pulled too early to be a QS. In that game, he threw 88 pitches in 4.1 innings. There is likely an argument that a pitcher throwing more pitches per inning would tire quicker. I was a little grumpy when he was pulled after 4.1 innings, but he was throwing many pitches an inning. He walked 3 batters in his last start for the first time since his first start of the season.

Chris Bassitt: 1-1 with a 2.13 ERA in 2 starts. In 12.2 innings, batters hit .217/.294/.304 with 1 homer, 5 walks and 9 strikeouts.

He pitched 5.2 and 7 innings in the starts, throwing 103 and 107 pitches. One of the starts was a Quality Start, and the other was just an out away from the QS. He’s had a couple of bad games, but he’s having a pretty good season.

Jose Berrios: 1-0, with a 3.46 ERA in 2 starts. He threw 13 innings, batters hit .234/.280/.447 with 3 home runs, 3 walks and 10 strikeouts.

He pitched 6 and 7 innings in the two games, throwing 94 and 100 pitches. Both were Quality Starts. The team is 7-3 in his starts, but we are scoring a reasonable number of runs in his starts, 4.29 per game. Then he had games where the team scored 8 and 9 runs. And he had 3 games where they scored just a run and 2 more where they scored 3 or less.

Trevor Richards: In 4 games, he had a 1.93 ERA. In 4.2 innings, batters hit .067/.125/.067 with 1 walk and 7 strikeouts.

If he keeps pitching like this, he’ll get to pitch in higher-leverage spots.

Yimi Garcia: In 5 games, he had 4 holds and a 0.00 ERA. In 5.2 innings, batters hit .059/.200/.118 with 3 walks and 8 strikeouts.

He has been terrific. It would be hard not to over-use him. If I’m a manager and have a get-out-of-the-inning-free card, I’d always use it. Especially when the rest of the bullpen hasn’t been good

Erik Swanson: In 5 games, he was 1-0 and a 3.60 ERA. In 5.0 innings, batters hit .211/.250/.263 with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts.

He hasn’t been great since coming off the IL. In his 6 appearances this season, he’s given up runs in 4, and he hasn’t pitched a clean inning yet. It is good to see him pitching well. He gave up 2 runs in one of his outings, but that was the only time he gave up runs.

Cold

Kevin Gausman: 0-0, 9.00 ERA in 2 starts. In 9 innings, batters hit .419/.457/.581 with 1 home run, 3 walks and 12 strikeouts.

He went 3 and 6 innings in the starts. One was (just barely) a Quality Start. He talked about how he likely should have started the season on the IL and he’s likely right. But then we were short of starting pitchers at the time. Hindsight is 20/20. But then, we are a little ways away from the start of the season. I’m not sure the soreness at the start of the season can still be to blame. We have been scoring runs for him, 5.7 runs per start.

Jordan Romero: In 4 appearances, he was 1-1, had 2 saves, and a 5.40 ERA. In 3.1 innings, batters hit ..231/.286/.539 with 1 home run, 1 walk and 4 strikeouts.

He had one bad outing of the four, but then small samples caused one outing to have more of an effect than normal. He had a terrific outing, keeping the game tied in the ninth, and kept the Manfred Man from scoring in the tenth to pick up a win. But he also had a blown save. There was a bit of bad luck in that he had a ground ball that took a funny hop and got past IKF. And then a fly ball that barely cleared the wall and would have been a home run in 9 of 30 parks, but Camden was one of those.

Genesis Cabrera: In 5 games, had a hold and a 2.45 ERA. In 3.2 innings, batters hit .333/.389/.600, 1 home run, 2 walks and 2 strikeouts.

He’s been hit hard this season. I don't know that Cabrera will keep his job with a couple of relievers returning from the IL in the next few days.

Nate Pearson: in 5 games, he had 1 blown save and a 7.36 ERA. In 3.2 innings, batters hit ..267/.353/.533 with 1 home run. 2 walks and 7 strikeouts.

He gave up two runs in one of the games and one run in another and had three clean innings (whoops, two clean, one where he gave up a walk).

Zach Pop: In 5 games, he had a 6.23 ERA. In 4.1 innings, batters hit .381/.381/.714 with 2 home runs, 0 walks and 4 strikeouts.

He’s been hit hard lately, but it is only 4.1 innings. It's a very small sample.

Also Pitched

Tim Mayza: In 3 games, he had 1 hold with a 5.40 ERA. In 1.2 innings, batters hit .286/.375/.429 with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts.

He only faced 8 batters in the last two weeks. I wonder if something is going on.

IL

Yariel Rodríguez: He’s pitched in Buffalo and isn’t far away from returning.

Bowden Francis: Pitched in the Bisons’ rain-shortened game, and it didn’t go well: 2.1 innings, 3 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned, 1 k, 1 home run.

He’ll likely be back soon.

Chad Green: He is on a rehab assignment and should be back in Toronto soon.