Toronto Blue Jays: Can Josh Donaldson Spark the Offense?
The reigning American League MVP is hoping to get the faltering Toronto Blue Jays offense back on track in Game 3 of the ALCS.
Heading into tonight’s game, the Toronto Blue Jays find themselves trailing the Cleveland Indians 2-0. After the most recent game, reporters sought out Josh Donaldson to hear his thoughts on the Blue Jays’ struggling offense. As Israel Fehr of Yahoo Sports notes, Donaldson believes he can be the spark that Toronto needs to make this series competitive again.
In the past 18 innings of ALCS competition the Blue Jays have mustered only one run on 10 hits. That lone run was scored courtesy of a Josh Donaldson double in the third inning of Game 2. Throughout the 2016 season Donaldson was one of the best hitters in baseball. By OPS+ he had slightly better production than his MVP season of a year ago (152 to 151). The man who hit .284/.404/.549 this season with 37 HR and 99 RBI will do what he can to spark an offense struggling against a depleted Indians rotation.
A quick look at the lack of production from some of Toronto’s best hitters highlights the concern. Through these first two games Edwin Encarnacion is 2-7 with a walk, Jose Bautista is 0-6 with a walk, and Troy Tulowitzki is 1-8. Donaldson has been a little more productive, going 3-8. Toronto has showed little of the production that made them a top-10 offense by wRC+ this season.
Before this series began most fans focused on Toronto’s offense as opposed to their rotation, but it’s been the Blue Jays starters who have kept them in games. In Game 1, Marco Estrada went eight innings and gave up two runs on six hits. J.A. Happ followed that performance by giving up two runs over five innings in Game 2. Joe Biagini and Roberto Osuna followed Happ, and kept Cleveland off the board in the game’s final three innings.
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There’s still time for Toronto to turn this series around, but it’s going to require the offense to break out of its recent funk. In tonight’s game they will face Trevor Bauer who is recovering from a finger injury he suffered prior to Friday’s game. In two games against Toronto this season Bauer found success, holding them to a .159/.245/.227 line. Coming back from a 2-0 deficit isn’t going to be easy, but Josh Donaldson is determined to do everything possible to make it a reality.
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