3 Takeaways From Blue Jays Series Win Over Angels
Hunter Renfroe took out the home run trot and put away the brooms.
The Angels outfielder's 10th-inning blast broke the tie and stole a sweep from the Blue Jays on Sunday. Despite dropping the finale in extras, the Jays still managed a series win over the Angels to push up the AL East standings and set themselves up for an interesting trade deadline day on Tuesday.
Here are three takeaways from Toronto's series against Los Angeles:
How Do You Pitch To Shohei Ohtani?
Angels two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani got an immediate pitch to hit. The first delivery he saw during a three-game set in Toronto was a center-cut fastball from Kevin Gausman. Ohtani took the pitch to deep right field for a solo home run, and Matt Chapman — rather infamously — wasn't a big fan of giving the Angel a pitch to hit.
“Why did we pitch to him? He’s the only fucking guy on the team that can hit” -Matt Chapman after Shohei Ohtani's home run pic.twitter.com/rqKMmF0Rvp
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) July 29, 2023
After that first at-bat, though, Ohtani didn't see many more challenge pitches. After the homer, Jays pitchers intentionally walked Ohtani three times and hit him with a pitch once. While the Angels DH notched three more hits during the series, all three came when the bases were loaded.
“I'm just following Chappy's lead right there," manager John Schneider joked. "That's all it is. Just listening to my third baseman and it worked.”
When the Jays did pitch to Ohtani, it was still with extreme caution. On Sunday, José Berríos fed Ohtani a heavy dose of changeups away. In two at-bats (and one intentional walk) against the slugger, Berríos never threw a single pitch fully in the strike zone and 80% of his deliveries were changeups.
"There's gonna be times where you don't want to let him beat you," Schneider said. "The score dictates."
A Lineup Shakeup
Prior to the Angels series, Schneider made a shuffle to his lineup, sliding Whit Merrifield up into the leadoff spot and bumping George Springer down to fifth.
Before Friday, Springer had played 878 of his 1105 career games out of the leadoff spot and hadn't hit anywhere but up top since July 2021. The move to take him out of the leadoff spot in Toronto's order came amid a July in which Springer is slashing .202/.287/.310.
"It wasn't something totally reactionary," Schneider said before the series. "Been thinking about how we can be more efficient [with runners on base]. Talked to him last night, he's good with it."
Merrifield added six hits and a homer from the leadoff spot in the three-game series, pushing his season batting average back over .300. Springer, from the fifth spot in all three games, failed to record a hit in the series but scorched some hard-hit outs on Sunday.
"I think for now, yeah we'll roll with it," Schneider said. "The goal of it is to get Vlad, George up with guys on base."
Toronto's Deadline Needs Evolve
With hours until the 2023 trade deadline, Toronto's transactional needs are ever-changing.
While rotation depth was once a mandatory need, a solid start from Alek Manoah against the Angels (4.1 innings, 1 ER) and Hyun Jin Ryu's announced rotation return likely mitigates that hole.
While one need wanes, another waxes. The Blue Jays placed closer Jordan Romano on the injured list on Saturday, with the 30-year-old set to miss at least 15 days with back inflammation. Relief pitching may have already been high on Ross Atkins' shopping list, but Romano's IL stint prompted an almost immediate move. The Jays swung a trade for hard-throwing reliever Jordan Hicks from the Cardinals, and may not be done enhancing the bullpen, either.
On a less granular level, the weekend's series win brought the Jays as close to the AL East lead as they've been all season. Toronto was always going to be a trade deadline buyer, but with a first-round bye now within reach maybe motivations to improve have increased?
Mitch Bannon is a baseball reporter for Sports Illustrated covering the Toronto Blue Jays and their minor league affiliates.Twitter: @MitchBannon