{"id":66705,"date":"2025-08-13T14:45:05","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T14:45:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/66705\/"},"modified":"2025-08-13T14:45:05","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T14:45:05","slug":"impressive-blue-jays-showcase-their-brand-of-baseball-in-win-over-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/66705\/","title":{"rendered":"Impressive Blue Jays showcase their ‘brand of baseball’ in win over Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 There are many ways to describe what has led the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> to their current position as the best team in the American League. Mark Shapiro has a simple way of summarizing it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we’ve just established our brand of baseball,\u201d said the Blue Jays president on Tuesday afternoon during his mid-season media availability in front of the team\u2019s dugout at Rogers Centre.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That identity involves a few components, according to Shapiro. He used descriptors such as \u201ctoughness\u201d and \u201ccohesiveness\u201d and that\u2019s translated into the lineup\u2019s knack for consistently solving tough pitchers, he noted, before highlighting that the Blue Jays are hard to strike out and also play sound defence, a combination that applies pressure to the opposition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat identity is married to the culture and the values that our players bring to the field every day,\u201d said Shapiro. \u201cWe’ve got great players but our results have not been driven by individual players. It’s really been driven by collective efforts and it’s taken a while to kind of form that as a team identity, but we’ve seen it through the toughest times this year when we bounce back like Sunday [versus the Los Angeles Dodgers] and throughout the year when we’ve hit rough patches or lost players that were important and key for periods of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hours later, as if on cue, that Blue Jays\u2019 identity was on full display during a 5-1 victory over the Chicago Cubs<\/a> in the first of a three-game set in Toronto. There was contact hitting, highlight-reel defence and a strong outing from starter Jose Berrios to go along with the cherry on top, a pivotal three-run home run from Ernie Clement that was the serendipitous result of his own mistake.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With runners on first and second with no outs in the fourth inning, manager John Schneider called for Clement to bunt. He didn\u2019t and instead deposited a first-pitch slider from Cubs right-hander Javier Assad over the left field fence to give the Blue Jays a 4-0 lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI missed the sign,\u201d Clement said with a sheepish grin after the game. \u201cI was ready for the bunt sign. I’m looking really hard and I must have just missed it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you’re going to do that and miss a sign, you better hit a homer or they’re going to be pretty pissed at you,\u201d he added. \u201cI’m glad I put a good one on it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know you’re living right when you’re doing that,\u201d quipped Schneider.<\/p>\n

Clement\u2019s homer might have been the attention grabber, but the Blue Jays were doing plenty right on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The home side opened the scoring in the first when Bo Bichette singled, advanced to second on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.\u2019s single, and scored on Alejandro Kirk\u2019s base hit up the middle.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ty France doubled to open the second frame and Blue Jays third base coach Carlos Febles sent him on Andres Gimenez\u2019s bloop single to left. France, whose sprint speed ranks in the bottom five percentile of MLB, was tagged out on his slide to the plate, but the daring send nonetheless resulted in a close play that required perfect execution from Cubs left fielder Ian Happ.<\/p>\n

Pressure on the opposition? Checkmark.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The defensive component showed up in spades, too. Nathan Lukes made a nice diving catch on a sinking liner to rob Nico Hoerner of a hit in the second inning and, in the fourth, Gimenez \u2014 activated from the injured list ahead of Tuesday\u2019s game \u2014 completed a slick sliding play at second base.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The best of all came later in that inning when Hoerner shot a sharp grounder to the 5-6 hole, where Bichette lunged to his right to snare it before turning and throwing to first on the run. The ball sailed into the glove of first baseman Guerrero Jr., who hit the splits while outstretching his glove just enough to catch it before the runner arrived.<\/p>\n

\u201cBo does a great job going to his right,\u201d said Clement. \u201cI get to watch him work every day and he’s gotten so consistent on that play. And, I don’t know how Vladdy can do the splits like that. That’s pretty wild but that’s a great play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The sequence brought the crowd of 43,003 to its feet and earned kudos from Berrios, whose mettle was tested earlier, during a 38-pitch third inning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The right-hander loaded the bases with two walks that followed a groundball that Bichette bobbled, allowing Dansby Swanson to reach base safely. Berrios bore down on Cubs cleanup hitter Carson Kelly, though, retiring him with a nicely placed inside sinker for a called third strike that ended the bend-but-don\u2019t-break inning.<\/p>\n

\u201c[I had] the same mindset I had from the beginning of the game,\u201d Berrios said. \u201cJust make pitch by pitch at that time. I had baserunners on that inning and I just tried to make quality pitches. And I did it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toughness? Another box checked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Berrios mowed down seven of the next nine hitters before he was removed in the sixth inning for left-hander Mason Fluharty. In total, the right-hander allowed two hits over 5.1 scoreless frames, striking out three while walking four batters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In all, it was an exciting win for the Blue Jays (70-50) over a Cubs team that owns a 67-51 record that\u2019s good for sixth-best in baseball.<\/p>\n

\u201cI find a lot of joy in watching this team play because of the way they play,\u201d said Shapiro of the Blue Jays. \u201cAnd I appreciate tough at-bats, love that style of baseball. I think that translates well. We need to certainly play our best to beat the best and we haven’t always done that. But playing our best at the right time is what’s going to be most important.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u00a0think the toughness this team represents has been characteristic of the outcome and results,\u201d he continued. \u201cAnd that’s what I’ve taken the most pride and joy in watching.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 There are many ways to describe what has led the Toronto Blue Jays to their current…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":66706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-66705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}