Grichuk shows the best he has to offer in Blue Jays' doubleheader

TORONTO — There is absolutely no doubt that Randal Grichuk is capable of doing remarkable things on a baseball field.

He’s been a Statcast darling for years because the ball explodes off his bat. He’s a minor-league Gold Glove winner who’s athletic enough to handle centre. He’s far from a station-to-station plodder.

So far, though, the Toronto Blue Jays haven’t seen nearly enough of the skills that made him an appealing trade target in the offseason. Prior to Tuesday’s doubleheader he had an ugly .071/.149/.167 line to his name with just one home run on the year.

“I feel like [prior to today] I hadn’t done too much to help the team win lately,” he put it bluntly after the day’s action.

In the first game, Grichuk exploded for by far his best day as a Blue Jay. The right-fielder earned his first multi-hit game of the year and managed his second full day at the plate without a strikeout. Both of his hits went for extra-bases, including this 114 mph laser that helped break the Blue Jays’ 11-3 win open.

Perhaps even more impressively, both that home run and his fifth inning double came on 1-2 counts. Grichuk came into the game hitting .152/.188/.261 in a 1-2 count, striking out 53.1 percent of the time. Seeing him get big knocks in that spot was legitimately encouraging.

In the early blowout he also demonstrated one of his more subtle skills: the ability to hold base-runners. Although you’re not going to see preventing runners from advancing making highlight reels, it can be very valuable.

The first instance came in the second inning when Grichuk reached a ball in the gap quickly and turned a potential Lucas Duda double into a single.

Although Duda is no speedster, if Grichuk hadn’t hustled to the wall, collected the ball quickly off the hop and made a good throw, this play could easily have been worth two bases. If nothing else, Duda showed he had no interest in testing the Blue Jays right fielder.

Three innings later Grichuk saved a run with the deterrent of his arm. Even though he caught this Whit Merrifield fly a little awkwardly, Cam Gallagher didn’t try to make a sacrifice fly out of it.

Again, Gallagher is no burner, but given the lurch Grichuk makes to catch the ball and how deep he is in to foul territory, you’d think it’d be worth an attempt. Instead, a quick recovery and strong throw stops the Royal in his tracks.

“I kinda want to know what my scouting report on my arm in the outfield because I feel like there’s been times when I thought guys would tag up or try to take an extra base and they haven’t,” he said. “Those pitchers are going out there and give us all they’ve got and the least we can do is try and give them a play every few innings.”

When Game 1 was all done and dusted, Grichuk had performed like a multi-dimensional stud coming out of his cold streak ready to provide the zip the bottom of the Blue Jays order has often lacked.

To be fair, in Game 2 he didn’t exactly cover himself in glory.

In the Blue Jays’ 4-3 win, the 26-year-old wasn’t exactly a crucial contributor. He went 0-for-3 at the plate with two strikeouts and didn’t show significantly in the field. In his first at-bat he was caught looking on a pitch that seemed clearly in the zone. In his second, he went down swinging after chasing two pitches that were certainly destined to be balls.

Grichuk’s third trip to the dish was an impressive one though. The slugger fought off some tough pitches to earn a seven-pitch walk off Justin Grimm.

He finished the game getting hit by a pitch in the 10th. It may not have been enough to make the game a rousing success for him, but the whole day certainly was. The Blue Jays will take 2-for-7 with a walk, home run and double any day of the week. Grichuk will too.

The day perfectly encapsulated what the outfielder can bring to this club with his combination of power, defence and even a spattering of patience. Ugly strikeouts are just part of that package.

On Tuesday, the Blue Jays saw him put everything together for the first time. They’re hoping to see it a lot more often.