Blue Jays by the numbers: Aaron Sanchez settling in as a starter

It was a good week for the the Toronto Blue Jays as they went 5-1 with a series win over the Washington Nationals and a series sweep of the Houston Astros. Yes, they still face a bit of an uphill climb in their own division but they appear to be trending in the right direction. The same can be said for 22-year-old right-hander Aaron Sanchez.

Sanchez had his best start of the season on Friday night going eight-plus innings and giving up two runs, just one earned, in Toronto's 6-2 win against Houston. Most encouragingly, Sanchez didn't allow a walk, which had been a big issue for him early on.

He's now posted a 2.57 ERA over his last four starts and has walked 7.34% off the batters he's faced while averaging seven innings per outing. Compare that to his numbers in his first seven starts – a 4.26 ERA, a problematic 16.9 BB%, while only averaging just over 5 1/3 innings per outing – and the progress Sanchez has made of late is obvious.

"Now he's just doing it but he's having to do it for more innings," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said after Friday's win. "He keeps getting better and better every time he goes out there."

Sanchez was highly successful in a relief role in the second half of 2014 as he got his first taste of the majors, but being a starter brings a whole new set of challenges. Forced to expand his repertoire because he's facing the same hitters up to three times in one game, Sanchez is growing increasingly more comfortable using his curveball and changeup according to the PITCHf/x data collected by Brooks Baseball:

But even as he's becoming a more dynamic pitcher, Sanchez is still thriving on the strength of his ground-ball inducing sinker. Sanchez ranks fifth among qualified starters in ground-ball rate with 58.1% of batted balls against him hit on the ground. It's a big reason he's been able to keep his BABIP at .240.

Just like the Blue Jays though, Sanchez still has some work to do. As good as he's been at generating ground balls, he's also been prone to giving up home runs (1.09 HR/9) and his secondary pitches aren't quite where they need to be. His command has been noticeably better lately, but it will be interesting to see if he can keep it up. Brendan Kennedy writes in the Toronto Star that Russell Martin has changed the way he sets up behind the plate when he's catching Sanchez and that adjustment seems to have helped the young right-hander find the strike zone with more regularity.

The talk of Sanchez being moved to the bullpen as a shutdown reliever has gone away. He's getting deeper into games and appears to be gaining confidence with every start.

With the offence rolling, having Sanchez pitch like he has recently, along with more positive signs on the mound from fellow starting pitcher Drew Hutchison, is a good way to ensure more good weeks like this last one are on the way in Toronto.

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Israel Fehr is a writer for Yahoo Canada Sports. Email him at israelfehr@yahoo.ca or follow him on Twitter. Follow @israelfehr