Blue Jays takeways: The holiday debut of a starter acquired at the trade deadline? It’s been the start of something good before

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This article was published 01/08/2021 (1572 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 5-1 win over the Royals at Rogers Centre:

Just as they did in 2015, the Blue Jays unveiled their big trade-deadline prize on the August long weekend.

Six years ago, it was David Price delivering eight innings of three-hit baseball on the holiday Monday, allowing one run against the Minnesota Twins in the second game of what would be an 11-game winning streak.

This time, it was José Berríos throwing six innings of five-hit shutout ball at the Kansas City Royals on Sunday, leading the Jays to their fourth straight win. How long this streak goes, only time will tell.

Berríos, who cost the Jays two of their top prospects in Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson, showed well in his Jays’ debut despite giving up hits to four of the first eight batters he faced.

He erased one of those runners by starting a nifty double play in the second inning. Berríos shattered Michael A. Taylor’s bat with a 93-mph sinker but had the presence of mind to field the ball as the barrel helicoptered past him toward Bo Bichette at shortstop.

The next inning, Berríos popped up Whit Merrifield and called off his infielders so loudly he might have been heard on Centre Island.

The 27-year-old snatched another comebacker to start the fifth inning, and had time to pose for the fans before making a perfect throw to first. It seems as though he’s going to fit in very well with the fun-loving young bunch the Jays have put together.

“These guys like to have fun out there,” Berríos said. “They enjoy themselves and they motivate each other, and that’s the most important thing for the team. Why can’t I have fun out there with them? I’ve been having fun so far and now, with this group, I want to join them and have fun. They give me a lot of confidence, they gave me a nice welcome here, so I feel at home so far.”

The only time Berríos was really in trouble was in the sixth, when he hit two batters to load the bases with two out and former Jays farmhand Edward Olivares at the plate. Pitching coach Pete Walker came out for a little chat, and Berríos struck out Olivares on five straight curveballs.

Berríos isn’t what Price was, and the Jays didn’t make as big a splash as they did that magical week six years ago, but there are palpable 2015 vibes around this team. They barely broke a sweat in sweeping the Royals this weekend.

• Whither Guerrero? Vladimir Guerrero Jr. wasn’t in the starting lineup for the first time this season.

Not only had the 22-year-old slugger played each of the first 100 games, he also played every game of last year’s COVID-shortened schedule, so the day off ended a streak of 160 consecutive regular-season games played.

His teammates not only didn’t miss him between the lines, but a couple of them — Teoscar Hernández and George Springer — actually taped him to the end of the bench early in the game.

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The truth is that there’s no good time to give a superstar a breather. You could suggest it would be better to sit Guerrero when the Jays are on the road, but their last trip was through Boston and New York, playing a pair of first-place teams, and they don’t go on the road again for a couple of weeks.

Would it have been better to sit Guerrero on the holiday? We know what that looks like, and it’s not good. Against a better team like Cleveland or Boston later in the homestand? Probably not that, either.

The Jays will play 11 games in 10 days over this homestand, and are in the midst of a 25-games-in-24-days run that includes a trip to the West Coast. Everyone’s going to need a day off, or two. And while every game for which one of the team’s better players gets a rest will be an important one as the team tries to claw its way to the post-season, in an everyday sport like baseball it has to be done.

At least the crowd of 14,427 got to see Berrios’s Jays debut as a consolation prize.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness