Edwin Encarnacion Slammed His Way into Blue Jays History 11 Years Ago
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As August winds down in MLB, plenty of players begin thinking ahead, whether to the postseason or what awaits them during the winter. Alternatively, you could be like Edwin Encarnación in 2015 and spend the final weekend of the month seeing how much damage you could do to a baseball.
On Aug. 30, Encarnación went deep in the first inning of Toronto’s 9-2 win over the Detroit Tigers, giving him his 30th home run of the season and extending his hitting streak to 25 games. It was already his fourth long ball of the weekend, with three of them coming less than 24 hours earlier.
Encarnación Was Practically Unstoppable
Encarnación went 3-for-5 with three home runs and nine RBI in Toronto’s 15-1 demolition of Detroit on Aug. 29. His first homer was a three-run shot, his second drove in two more and his third was a grand slam, with each blast somehow doing more damage than the last. The nine RBI tied a Blue Jays single-game franchise record at the time.
This performance put a neat bow on an unreal August for the Blue Jays slugger. Encarnación finished the month hitting .407/.460/.919 with a 1.379 OPS and a franchise-record 35 RBI. He carried that momentum into September as well, although his OPS dipped to a more human-sounding .969.
Encarnación was not the only one putting up elite production on that 2015 team. Toronto finished the season with arguably the most high-powered offense in baseball, leading MLB with 232 home runs and posting a league-best .797 OPS. The gap was substantial, with Houston finishing second at .752.
However, Encarnación lost some of his secret stuff once the postseason arrived, with his slash line dropping to .275/.383/.400. Toronto was eventually eliminated by the Kansas City Royals, who went on to win the World Series. Fittingly, Kansas City was built around an elite bullpen and a contact oriented approach, almost the diametrical opposite of a Blue Jays offense that had spent the season bludgeoning opponents with home runs.
Kansas City ultimately proved better equipped for that particular series. But that does not make the Blue Jays frauds who did not deserve to be there. They fielded one of the most dangerous offenses in franchise history; they simply ran into an opponent capable of keeping that offense from doing what it had done to teams all season.
Even with the subdued postseason, Encarnación still finished 2015 with a .929 OPS and authored one of the wildest single months a Blue Jays hitter has ever produced.
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Wesley Dixon is a sports writer focused on thoughtful analysis, roster-building angles, player development and feature-style storytelling. He has covered the Philadelphia 76ers and the NBA, with work centered on breaking down team direction, player fit and the larger stories behind the game. Wesley is a lifelong MLB fan, following multiple teams throughout the league. He is excited to bring that same detail-oriented approach to On SI.