What you missed in Blue Jays land: Hustle from Diaz to Travis

Every Sunday in this space I’ll be doing my best to bring you little tidbits about the week (or in this case week and a half) in the world of the Toronto Blue Jays that you might not have seen.

Whenever you have a week where you earn a sweep, it’s almost always going down as a success. Even though the Blue Jays dropped two of their first three games in New York, you’ll take a 4-2 stretch wherever you can find one.

Things tended to go right for the Blue Jays this week, whether it was a successful doubleheader featuring a Joe Biagini cameo, a memorable Lourdes Gurriel Jr. debut in the Bronx, or more Luke Maile magic.

Here a couple of the little things that might have passed you by amidst all the excitement:

Aledmys Diaz does Aaron Loup a favour

There’s no good way to measure hustle, but if you’re in the business of trying it’s interesting to see how players perform when games are out of reach one way or the other. On Tuesday – with the Blue Jays up 11-3 in the seventh – Diaz showed off his motor by ranging into the gap to knock down a ball that saved an utterly meaningless run.

The only real beneficiary of this play was Aaron Loup who was able to escape the inning without tarnishing his ERA – but it did show that Diaz is the kind of guy who’s not going to coast, even when coasting is more or less justified.

Obligatory Biagini quote of the week

The Toronto media has a love-hate relationship with Biagini, who is certainly capable of a notable soundbite, but also tends to engage in lengthy filibusters and explore multiple tangents in a single answer.

That said, there’s no doubt he’s a character, and when he rolled through town to assist the Blue Jays in Game 2 of their Tuesday doubleheader, he made a post-game impact. Prior to answering questions he tried in vain to make the Sportsnet and TSN mic operators use each other’s equipment. Then, he was asked how the ball felt coming out of his hand – to which he responded with this gem:

“I feel like it got smaller the farther it went away from me… but maybe that’s just an illusion.”

The ball finds Steve Pearce

On Tuesday, Pearce started at first base for the first time this season after playing just 55 innings at the position in 2017. He wasn’t given much time to settle in as the very first ball of the game came right for him at 91.7 mph. The result wasn’t exactly pretty:

Luckily for Pearce, who has traditionally been an above-average first baseman, he was able to make up for his mistake just a few plays later – and save a run in the process.

That’s a very athletic play for a 35-year-old. Pearce may not be called on to man first much this year, but an eventful inning like that certainly helped shake off some rust.

Devon Travis making it happen on the bases

When you’re not swinging the bat well – which Travis hasn’t been lately – it’s always nice when you can do something else to help your team win. In Game 2 of Tuesday’s doubleheader, the Blue Jays second baseman made a subtle play on the bases that could have been the catalyst for a walk-off win.

After reaching on a single, Travis took a big risk and chugged all the way to third on a ground ball base hit to left field by Pearce:

It’s a very strong read by Travis who notes the slow-moving ball and a noodle-armed Jon Jay, whose arm has been worth -22 runs in his career per FanGraphs. The situation also made this a crucial gamble as Travis got himself to third with less than two outs to put the Blue Jays in a position to win the game with just a medium-depth flyball.

As it happens, Curtis Granderson struck out as the next man up to nullify the importance of this play, but it really showcased the quickness and smarts that Travis brings to the base paths. It’s also hard to fault this kind of hustle.

Scuffling Justin Smoak

When a team scores 43 runs over a six-game span, it’s easy for anyone who’s struggling to go unnoticed. Randal Grichuk didn’t have that luxury this week thanks to an ugly overall line and a red-hot Teoscar Hernandez, but Smoak certainly did.

In the midst of surprisingly strong performances from the likes of Hernandez, Yangervis Solarte and the Pearce/Granderson platoon, Smoak’s poor output has gone largely unnoticed – but it has been significant. Since his two-homer outing against the Yankees on April 1, Smoak has hit just .172/.310/.224 with three extra-base hits. This week he was a similar .143/.280/.190 with just three knocks – one of them a double.

Because Smoak is carrying a healthy walk rate of 14.8% and showing the kind of selectivity at the plate that fueled his 2017 breakout, it’s far too early to be to concerned. At the same time, when some of this club’s more surprising contributors come back to earth a little bit they will need Smoak to step things up.