Blue Jays going for the trophy

by Asa Montreaux

Tune into tomorrow on tv on Sportsnet in Canada, and on Fox in the United States. Of course if you miss it, there will be plenty of coverage on Selections sports, that won’t cost you all your time. 

The Blue Jays post-season run has been a miraculous, and somewhat unexpected one. A strong regular season performance contrasted with a poor record of playoff performances. It almost seemed like a team that had something to prove, by finally making it out of the AL Wildcard series.

To make things more precarious, last season they missed the playoffs entirely, making this seasons' comeback one without a lot of easy explanation. As well, they are a group without a lot of playoff experience together.

The Blue Jays are led by their superb players Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk. Guerrero has 8 home runs in the post-season so far, while Kirk has five. Guerrero has a very impressive batting average at .415. He is the top performer in both home runs and batting average, and has surely been the most valuable player in the playoffs. Kirk has an average of .254 so far. That is not bad. 
When considering the Dodgers, their big guns are comparable. Ohtani and Hernandez are second and third in home runs, and have a batting average also in between the two Toronto players. On average, the big two Toronto players have 6.5 home runs this post-season. The big two LA players have the same split at 6.5 home runs so far in the post-season. In terms of batting average, the two Toronto players have a .335 average. At the same time, the two LA players have a formidable batting average at .268. Toronto’s dominant performance in a 6-1 win in game 5 seems to indicate their advantage in hitting is leading to victory through offence, as opposed to defence.

The Toronto Blue Jays seemed to be in an uncharted territory, as a team that has not been in the World Series for the last five years, whilst the Dodgers have appeared in it twice, and also won twice. If Toronto wins, it will be its first World Series win since 1993. The Houston Astros also appeared in the World Series twice in the last five years, and won once.

In fact the Blue Jays performance over the past five seasons has seemed to be negatively correlated to their post season success. Two seasons ago, a near best finish led to another first round exit. After a long rebuild, it always seemed they would come into their own. The younger nucleus, led by a matured Guerrero, has perhaps come into its own, in a winding, and tumultuous way, and with the results showing now.

Each of the last five World Series have not had a game seven, so Selections would give some advantage to the Jays for the game tonight, however whatever the result, Selections isn’t concerned and consider both exciting!