Blue Jays takeaways: Steven Matz makes quick work of the Royals in doubleheader opener

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This article was published 17/04/2021 (1669 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on Saturday’s first Blue Jays-Royals game:

Steven Matz was absolutely brilliant in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader in Kansas City, not allowing a hit until Nicky Lopez dropped a little duck snort in front of left-fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. with one out in the sixth inning.

Matz walked the first batter who came to the plate against him, but got the next one to hit into a double-play and didn’t allow another Royal to reach base until a two-out walk in the fifth.

The lefty did it with a fastball that touched 96 miles per hour, mixing in a slider, curveball and changeup and getting swings and misses on all four pitches.

All game long, the Royals had issues making solid contact in a 5-1 defeat. Only Whit Merrifield and Andrew Benintendi — the top two hitters in the K.C. order — put balls in play harder than 92 miles per hour, topping out at 97.1.

Six of the 14 balls put in play against Matz were hit under 80 m.p.h., and a seventh was at 81.3. That’s outstanding work.

Matz, acquired in an off-season trade with the New York Mets (where he was 0-5 with a 9.68 ERA last year), has made three starts as a Blue Jay and in each one he’s gone at least six innings and allowed exactly one run.

• This is getting silly: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had yet another big game at the plate, crushing the ball twice. He lined a single up the middle in the first inning, eventually coming around to score the game’s first run, and crushed a first-pitch fastball into the Jays’ bullpen (which just happens to be situated in Deep Left Field) leading off the sixth to make it 4-0.

The first-inning safety extended Guerrero’s hitting streak to nine games, three shy of his career high set last year, and the sixth-inning blast raised the 22-year-old’s batting average to an astounding .429 on the season, second in the American League to the ridiculous White Sox rookie Yermin Mercedes, who went into Saturday’s action batting .476.

• Flashing the leather: The Jays’ defence — especially on the left side of the infield — has been an issue over the first couple weeks. But in the two games he’s played, Santiago Espinal has stood out with exceptional glovework.

Espinal was called up to act as the 27th man on the active roster for the doubleheader and started the opener at third base. Though at the time he was on the other side of the diamond — just to the right of second base on the shift for the left-handed hitting Benintendi — Espinal made his presence felt very early on.

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In the bottom of the first, with Merrifield having walked, the Royals put the hit-and-run on and Benintendi hit a ground ball up the middle right to Espinal, who looked and saw Merrifield bearing down on second. The rookie didn’t rush and gave a perfect feed to Bo Bichette to start a double-play.

Espinal also made a nice play charging in on a slow roller by Carlos Santana in the fifth, and an outstanding grab on a Salvador Perez grounder down the line and well behind the bag at third in the sixth, but saved his best for the final frame.

With Rafael Dolis in early trouble in the seventh — having walked the leadoff man and hit the next batter, bringing the tying run to the on-deck circle — Espinal fielded a ground ball by Royals centre-fielder Michael A. Taylor near the bag at third. He stepped on the base for a force out, then turned and threw to second, trying to start an around-the-horn game-ending triple-play. Taylor was too fast for Marcus Semien to even attempt a relay throw to first, but Espinal once again showed a great internal clock and a terrific thought process.

The bat probably isn’t enough to run him out at third base on a regular basis — he hit just .267/.308/.333 in 26 games last season — but the glove is making him very difficult to ignore.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness