Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Edwin Encarnacion (10) bumps fists with centre fielder Kevin Pillar (11) as they celebrate a 9-1 win over the Baltimore Orioles at the Rogers Centre in Toronto on Saturday, July 30, 2016.Dan Hamilton
Two days from Major League Baseball's trade deadline, it has been unusually quiet in the front office of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Of course, it was that way last year before former general manager Alex Anthopoulos pounded the anvil at the last minute and pulled off a couple of deals that rocked the Major League Baseball World.
Suddenly, pitcher David Price was the ace of the staff and Troy Tulowitzki was the glue of the infield defence at shortstop and the Blue Jays went on a 40-18 tear to win the American League East by a cozy six games.
This year, apart from a couple ancillary moves with the acquisition of fourth outfielder Melvin Upton Jr. and veteran reliever Joaquin Benoit, the Blue Jays have remained primarily observers, despite the obvious need for another starting pitcher.
But that is the priority for just about every other team with a passing interest in extending their year into the post-season, and therein lays the rub for the Blue Jays.
The depth of available starters being dangled on the open market is not exactly of Grade-A quality. More like what turns up on the blue plate special.
Perhaps new GM Ross Atkins figures his team doesn't need any more help and it is hard to argue that now that they have gone from being the hunter to the hunted.
The Blue Jays moved into sole possession of first place in the A.L. East on Saturday by steamrolling the Baltimore Orioles 9-1 before another jovial jam-packed gathering at Rogers Centre.
With the win, their second straight over the Orioles, the Blue Jays jumped ½-game ahead of Baltimore and into first place for the first time since being 2-0 to start the season.
The Blue Jays have now won five of their last six and 16 of their last 22 games and will look to sweep the Orioles away with a win in the third and final game of the series on Sunday.
Toronto catcher Russell Martin was asked what it meant to be in first place at the end of July.
"It means we're playing good baseball," said Martin, who also had a solid day at the plate, driving in two runs with two doubles and also scoring twice. "There's still a lot of baseball left but I feel like we're starting to play good ball. We're swinging the bats well and playing good defence and pitching well.
"But what I like about this team is the consistency of our starting pitching. I fell like it's been that way the entire year. And if you want to be on a winning team that's kind of one of the main things you want to have is pitching, and we have that."
With the likelihood of burgeoning superstar starter Aaron Sanchez being shifted into the bullpen at some point in the near future in order to try to protect his precious arm, it is hard to imagine Toronto not trying to swing a trade for an adequate replacement in the rotation.
Toronto manager John Gibbons left little doubt on Saturday that the bullpen will eventually be the landing spot for Sanchez.
Before the game, Gibbons was asked – theoretically – if a starting pitcher who has been moved into the bullpen could be stretched back out again into a starter if the team makes the playoffs?
"We've talked about that," Gibbons said. "You could probably try. It might be kind of difficult."
Gibbons then dropped the theoretical aspect to the question.
"In Sanchez's case, there's no telling how many innings he logs down there [in the bullpen]. It's one of those deals where nobody wants to do it, but it's probably going to happen for his own good. He's going to make our bullpen better, too. You've got to have a strong one.
"But I don't know, that might be kind of difficult to get him cranked up again. But we've talked about everything, if we do this or do that, to try and maximize who he is."
Sanchez, 11-1 on the year with a league-low 2.72 earned run average, just might be making one of his final starts of the regular season when he takes the mound on Sunday.
The Blue Jays on Saturday were trailing 1-0 on a home run by Pedro Alvarez in the second inning when the offence caught fire in the fifth inning.
There's where Toronto sent 12 batters to the plate and scored seven runs to run the Orioles out of the ballpark.
The onslaught was started by Devon Travis, who belted a one out solo home run to centrefield, his seventh of the season.
That was enough to rattle Yovani Gallardo, the Baltimore starting pitcher, who proceeded to walk the next two batters, not a good plan when the third batter was Edwin Encarnacion.
Encarnacion made Gallardo pay for his wildness, poking a double into the leftfield corer to score another run and the parade kept rolling from there.
Kevin Pillar doubled in the inning and scored two of the runs and had a big day overall at the plate with two doubles and four RBI.
It all made things kind of easy for J.A. Happ, the Toronto starter, who was superb.
Happ worked into the eighth inning, allowing just the one run off three hits while striking out 11, one off his career high, to improve to 14-3.