Despite all their right-handed power in Jose Bautista, Vernon Wells, Alex Gonzalez, Edwin Encarnacion, Aaron Hill and John Buck, the Jays have been eaten alive by left-handed pitching this year. As a team, they are hitting .191 with a woeful on-base percentage of .254 and a slugging percentage of .311 and a major-league low OPS of .565. Against righthanders, they are hitting .263 with an OBA of .328, a slugging percentage of .516 for a major-league high OPS of .844.
Unbelievably, they have hit just seven of their 76 home runs against left-handers and 69 against right-handers. Boston is second in home runs against righthanders with 39, 30 less than Toronto.
“I don’t know why,” Cito Gaston said. “We’ve always had trouble against left-handers. Maybe it’s the type of pitcher we’ve faced. I wish I could put my finger on it.”
With 46 out of 162 games in the books, the Blue Jays, with 76 home runs were on pace to set the major league record for home runs in a season, heading into last night’s game against the Angels.
The Seattle Mariners hold the record, with 264 homers hit in 1997, four more than the 2005 Texas Rangers. The Jays currently are on pace to hit 268.
The Boston Red Sox are second in homers with 60, 16 behind Toronto.
He Wuz Robbed
If Encarnacion was ever going to win American League player of the week, it would have been last week when he hit six home runs, drove in 11 runs, batted .368 and scored seven runs. He had an on-base percentage of .409 and an off-the-charts slugging percentage of 1.316 for an OPS of 1.725.
Apparently, Nelson Cruz of the Rangers, who was named POTW, had a better week. He hit two home runs, drove in 12 runs, batted .458 and scored five runs. He had an on-base percentage of .533 and a slugging percentage of .917 for an OPS of 1.450.
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