Blue Jays takeaways: Yes, Marcus Semien you can go home again, and again, and again

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This article was published 06/05/2021 (1652 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 10-4 win over the Athletics:

Marcus Semien saved his best for last as the Blue Jays wrapped up their only visit to Oakland this season on Thursday.

The second baseman, signed as a free agent in the off-season, returned home, both literally and figuratively. He’s a Bay area native — born in San Francisco, raised in Berkeley — and spent the last six seasons playing shortstop for the A’s, helping them to the playoffs three times while becoming both a fan favourite and a respected teammate.

The 30-year-old made sure he left town with a bang, capping a four-hit afternoon with a towering home run to left in the seventh inning. The homer was his seventh of the season, tied with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. for the team lead.

Semien opened the game with a single, doubled and scored on Randal Grichuk’s three-run homer in the third, and singled and scored in the sixth. He finished his four-day trip home 7-for-17 with two walks and a .412/.474/.706 slash line.

• Five and dive: With Hyun-Jin Ryu returning from the injured list to make Thursday’s start, Jays fans were expecting an ace-like outing. He was unable to deliver that.

In his first appearance since leaving an April 25 start with a mild strain of the right glute, Ryu didn’t quite look himself. His second pitch of the game — a fastball at just 88 miles per hour — was deposited into the seats by Oakland’s leadoff man, Mark Canha.

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The southpaw recovered to retire the next three hitters and shut out the A’s in the second but, after the scored three runs in the top of the third, he gave them right back on a Matt Olson RBI double and a two-run single by Sean Murphy.

A nine-pitch bottom of the fourth followed, then a shutout fifth before Ryu left, an inning or two earlier than we might have expected, having thrown 91 pitches.

• Whoops! The Jays made it a point to improve their defence in the off-season, and while having Semien at second base has helped in the infield, they haven’t gotten a single minute of George Springer in centre field yet.

That said, no Jays outfielder had made an error over the first 29 games of the season. Errors aren’t a terrific measure for strong defensive play — you can’t make an error on a ball that you never get to — but at least there hadn’t been any dropped fly balls, wild throws or clanked one-hoppers.

The streak ended Thursday on a seemingly completely innocuous play. Ramon Laureano hit a two-out line drive to right field with the bases empty in the fifth inning, and it rolled toward Teoscar Hernandez, who dropped to one knee to get it … and completely whiffed. The ball rolled right through him and Laureano wound up at third base.

Ryu struck out Matt Olson to leave him there.