Blue Jays takeaways: A moment for Ryan Borucki, a home for Marcus Semien, and a hit (two, actually) for Danny Jansen

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This article was published 02/05/2021 (1655 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 7-2 win over the Braves on Sunday:

The Blue Jays talked in the off-season about using Ryan Borucki as a 100-inning reliever, dropping him in games in big spots, wherever they might come up, and asking him to get four to seven outs at a time.

While he is currently on pace to throw only about 73 innings, he has done a great job far more often than not, and that continued Sunday afternoon.

The Jays called on the southpaw in the top of the fifth inning, with two on and one out and Toronto leading by two, to face reigning National League MVP Freddie Freeman and noted lefty-crusher Marcell Ozuna. At one of the game’s most pivotal points, he struck out both Braves, on three pitches each.

Borucki came back out for the sixth and faced the minimum, adding another strikeout. He lowered his WHIP for the season below 1.00 and raised his strikeouts-per-nine-innings rate to 9.53 while kick-starting what wound up being 4 2/3 innings of four-hit shutout for the Jays’ bullpen.

• Settling into the sixth spot: When George Springer was unable to start the season, the Jays decided to get things rolling with Marcus Semien in the leadoff spot.

Semien, who signed for $18 million (U.S.) in the off-season, batted first 145 times for Oakland in 2019, when he had by far the best year of his career, posting an .892 OPS and finishing third in American League MVP voting.

Things didn’t go especially well for Semien at the top of the Jays’ order, though. He led off each of the first 17 games of the season and hit just .174/.247/.348, leaving Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. coming to the plate with nobody to drive in far too often.

After an 0-for-3 game in Boston on April 20 left him hitless in his last 13 at-bats, Semien was moved to the sixth spot in the batting order, and he has thrived there. Semien went 2-for-4 with a walk his first game after being moved down in the lineup, and hasn’t really stopped hitting since.

He drove in four runs in Sunday’s series-sweeping win over Atlanta with a two-run double and a two-run homer, and is now hitting .346/.433/.615 in seven games batting sixth.

• Finally! Alejandro Kirk was placed on the injured list before the game with a left hip flexor strain, but Danny Jansen was going to be in the Jays’ lineup on Sunday regardless, with it being a day game after a night game and Jansen having not started since Wednesday.

The fourth-year catcher dragged an 0-for-35 skid into the game, tied for the franchise futility record with Ed Sprague, who managed the ignominious achievement back in 1994. He was in danger of having that record all to himself with an out in his first at-bat Sunday.

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Jansen singled on opening day, doubled on April 7 and had been hitless since.

His first trip to the plate Sunday came in a big spot. Cavan Biggio had drawn a two-out walk in the bottom of the second, putting runners at first and second with the Blue Jays trailing 1-0. Jansen, wearing regulation glasses as he awaits the delivery of his new sport goggles, got behind 1-2 against prized Atlanta rookie Ian (Aqualung) Anderson and started to battle. He fouled off a fastball that was off the plate, but too close to take, then worked the count full and fouled off a changeup. On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, Anderson threw a 96-miles-per-hour fastball at the bottom of the zone and Jansen whacked it back up the middle. It came off the bat at 100 m.ph. and landed safely on the grass in centre for Jansen’s first hit in 25 days. As an added bonus, he drove in Randal Grichuk with the game-tying run.

Next time up, Jansen hit a ground ball with eyes that got through into right-centre for another base hit. He eventually came around to score on a Bo Bichette double.

Jansen walked in his third trip before striking out in his final at-bat, but 2-for-3 with a walk was sorely needed for the 26-year-old who is back to being the Jays’ No. 1 catcher with Kirk on the shelf.

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