The Blue Jays now sit fifth in the American League standings after a huge comeback win over the Yankees

No Bo Bichette? No Teoscar Hernandez? No problem. The Blue Jays’ lineup exploded for a 10-run inning to sink the Yankees on Monday night, making one of their most important victories of the season.

Things worth mentioning…

It’s been mentioned many, many times, but this stretch against the Yankees (10 games in a couple of weeks) is absolutely massive for the Blue Jays. If they do well during this stretch, they can certainly finish with the second-best record in the American League East and shove the Yankees down into a battle for seventh and eighth in the league.
It looked like the New York Grind got off to an ugly start last night when Hyun Jin Ryu got roughed up. Ryu, who had been lights out over the past month, allowed three homers and left the game with the Blue Jays trailing by a score of 5-2. The issue for Ryu on Monday was that his mix of pitches became too predictable. He generally throws an array of five different pitches to keep hitters off-balance, but against the Yankees on Monday, he threw 61 changeups or curveballs. Two of the homers he allowed in the first came on …

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Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation

Teoscar Hernández has gone full Bo Bichette

No matter how you slice it, Teoscar Hernández has been one of the best power hitters in baseball this season.

He ranks in the top 15 of home runs, slugging percentage, isolated slugging, and his 95.5mph exit velocity places him in the top five in baseball alongside Fernando Tatís Jr. Miguel Sanó, Juan Soto, and Gregory Polanco.
And this more than just a small sample blip. Since June 5th, 2019, when Teoscar made his return from a demotion to the minors, he has hit .259/.323./.567 with 30 home runs, in 105 games. That translates to a .366 wOBA and a 130wRC+, per Fangraphs. His .308 ISO (slugging percentage minus batting average) of .308 ties him with José Ramírez and Aaron Judge for fifth in baseball. For context, the four hitters above Hernandez are Jorge Soler, Soto, Nelson Cruz, and Mike Trout. If that wasn’t enough Teoscar’s average exit velocity of 92.9mph places him eighth among qualified hitters.
So yeah Teoscar has some serious power. What’s kept him from tapping into that power and becoming a more consistent power hitter, has been the swing and miss in his game. He strikes out way too much. …

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Author: Paul Berthelot / Blue Jays Nation

Teoscar Hernandez went to hell and back last night

Welcome to the Teoscar Hernandez experience! While Hernandez has a lot of upside, mostly in his bat, he’s certainly prone to gaffes, both in the field and on the bases. Last night, we got a look at both ends of Hernandez’s spectrum.

In the sixth inning, Hernandez was standing at first with Brandon Drury at the plate and the Jays down 3-1. Drury took a 2-2 pitch for a ball, thought for some reason that he took a walk, and began to jog to first base. Hernandez, obviously confused about what was going on, began trotting to second base. The pitcher threw the ball to the first baseman and tagged Hernandez out before he could make it safely back to first.


Uhhhhhhhhh. Okay! I’ll be honest, I don’t think this is on Hernandez so much as it is on Drury. I mean, Hernandez is the one who looks like a donkey on the play because he got thrown out, but the batter reaaaaaally needs to know what the count is.
Anyways, Hernandez obviously felt bad about the play, but he ended up compensating for it soon after when …

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Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation