Two things: Jays’ bats come alive to even up series vs. Cardinals

By: Mike Wilner - Baseball Columnist, Toronto Star Posted: 10:21 PM CDT Tuesday, May. 24, 2022 Last Modified: 8:05 AM CDT Thursday, May. 26, 2022

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Two things you need to know about the Blue Jays’ 8-1 win over the Cardinals in St. Louis on Tuesday:

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Two things you need to know about the Blue Jays’ 8-1 win over the Cardinals in St. Louis on Tuesday:

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This article was published 24/05/2022 (1252 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Two things you need to know about the Blue Jays’ 8-1 win over the Cardinals in St. Louis on Tuesday:

Everything is awesome

For the first time in what feels like forever, the Jays scored early and often and were never challenged on the way to an easy win.

Jeff Roberson - The Associated Press
Raimel Tapia scores during the sixth inning of Tuesday’s game after reaching base on a single. The Jays hit for the cycle within the space of five batters in the inning with a Tapia single, Bo Bichette double, George Springer triple and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homer. — Jeff Roberson - The Associated Press Raimel Tapia scores during the sixth inning of Tuesday’s game after reaching base on a single. The Jays hit for the cycle within the space of five batters in the inning with a Tapia single, Bo Bichette double, George Springer triple and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homer.

An RBI infield single by Teoscar Hernandez with two out in the top of the first got them going, and the rest of the scoring was pretty loud. Danny Jansen homered twice — a three-run job in the fourth and a solo shot in the seventh, George Springer drove in a run with a triple and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. snapped a 15-game homerless drought with a 438-foot shot over the Jays’ left-field bullpen.

The offence was so locked in that the Jays hit for the cycle within the space of five batters in the sixth inning with a Raimel Tapia single, Bo Bichette double, the Springer triple and Guerrero homer.

The eight runs matched their second-highest total in any game this season.

Crazily enough, the only Jays’ starter without a hit was Santiago Espinal, whose hit streak ended at 16 games, though he did have a walk and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly.

Zeroes for Gausman

Most of the season, Jays’ pitchers have worked with zero margin for error, having to be perfect or nearly so in order for the team to have a chance to win.

On a night when he didn’t need to be, Kevin Gausman was anyway, throwing six shutout innings while the bats were booming.

The righty issued back-to-back walks in the first innings, the first time he’d walked two in a game all year, but stranded them both with one of his eight strikeouts.

Gausman whittled his ERA down to 2.25 in picking up his fourth win (and sixth quality start) of the season.

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