Blue Jays Dominated Their Former Top Pitching Prospect As Offense Keeps Rolling
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The Toronto Blue Jays have looked like the team everyone expected them to be coming into the season these past three games against the Athletics.
Coming off a stretch where the offense was largely absent -- failing to score more than three runs in six straight contests -- the lineup has woken up in a major way, plating 31 total runs in this homestand.
What's been the most noticeable is that the scoring has started early and often.
To open the series against the Athletics, the Blue Jays put up a blistering eight runs in the second inning. They followed that up with six runs in the first three frames of Game 2 before scoring four in the first inning on Saturday.
They needed all the scoring they could get in that one, since the Athletics put up three runs of their own to get things started and hung with Toronto every step of the way before their comeback rally fell short in the top of the ninth inning.
Coming into Saturday's contest, there was a bit of story surrounding who was opposing the Blue Jays.
Gunnar Hoglund, the 25-year-old rookie, might be a familiar name for many fans since he was once a top prospect for Toronto after being taken 19th overall in the 2021 draft. He was infamously included in the trade package that brought Matt Chapman to the Blue Jays in 2022.
Hoglund made his Major League debut this season on May 2, and while he seems to have the ability to be a starting pitcher at this level at some point in his career, things have not gotten off to a good start.
Entering Saturday with a 5.13 ERA in five starts, Toronto did not give their former star prospect a warm welcome by scoring eight runs off 10 hits in the six innings that he pitched, inflating the right-hander's ERA to 6.40.
Of course, nobody inside or outside the Blue Jays organization is complaining about the performance since they were able to keep their offense rolling at an important time on the calendar.
Still, it will be interesting to see what comes of Hoglund.
As a young pitcher, there is a chance his first stint in the Majors ends soon if he can't turn things around, and if it happens sooner rather than later, his former team will have played a huge part in that.
