Blue Jays Trending Up with Jose Bautista Back Powering MLB's No. 1 Offense

We could open with a ham-fisted line about how the Toronto Blue Jays' offense is soaring like a, well, you know. But let's just cut to the chase: These Jays can rake. And it's translating, finally, to notches in the win column.

After defeating the Houston Astros 7-6 Sunday on a Chris Colabello walk-off single, Toronto sits at 28-30. Not a stellar record, admittedly, but within striking distance in the mediocre American League East, where every team is a moderate hot streak away from serious contention.

In fact, with Sunday's win, the Blue Jays have won five straight and are just 4.5 games back of the first-place New York Yankees, arguably the most vulnerable division leader in baseball.

If Toronto does flutter into the picture (sorry), it'll be thanks to its high-powered offense, headlined by Jose Bautista. 

With a pair of home runs Sunday, Bautista now has 11 on the season to go along with 36 RBI and a .936 OPS.

The five-time All-Star, who has been dealing with a nagging shoulder injury, remains the ostensible cornerstone of the Blue Jays lineup. And his recent power binge—he's clubbed four home runs in his past four games, all Jays wins—is excellent news for Toronto.

"We're finally seeing a healthy lineup," outfielder Kevin Pillar said, per Sportsnet.ca's Ben Nicholson-Smith. "Having Bautista back in the outfield's a big help, too."

Right now, though, Bautista isn't the Blue Jays' best hitter. That title, by the stats, belongs to third baseman Josh Donaldson, one of the winter's big acquisitions. Entering play Monday, Donaldson led the team in home runs (15), RBI (40) and OPS (.939).

Then there's catcher Russell Martin, another top name added in the offseason, who owns a solid .267/.354/.483 slash line while contributing the same behind-the-dish leadership that helped transform the Pittsburgh Pirates from perennial also-rans into a playoff club.

Add a sprinkling of other contributors—including surprise rookie second baseman Devon Travis, who is poised to return from the disabled list, per MLB Network Radio—and you have the MLB's best offense by almost any measure.

Greg Fiume/Getty Images

The Jays currently lead the field with 303 runs scored and rank among the top five in home runs, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.

They can hit, to state the painfully obvious.

Just ask the Astros, leaders in the AL West, who watched the Jays plate 20 runs en route to a three-game sweep.

"It's pretty amazing," Toronto skipper John Gibbons told Nicholson-Smith. "We can score a lot of runs in a big league game. I can't remember a team I've been with—and maybe I'm wrong—that scores that many that often."

So why are the Blue Jays still mired under .500?

The pitching, mostly, which hasn't been disastrous, particularly of late, but remains a question mark with a middling 4.30 ERA.

There's pitching in the pipeline, but the present picture is murky, as Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun notes. 

"[Toronto has] the worst starting pitching in the American League," Simmons opined. "They probably [also] have the best array of young arms—mostly off the 25-man roster—in baseball."

If the bats can keep the Jays in the picture, might general manager Alex Anthopoulos consider rotation or bullpen upgrades at the trade deadline, even if they cost prospects and/or dent the budget?

"If we were going to spend any payroll dollars, those are probably going to be allocated to the mound in some capacity," Anthopoulos said before the Houston series, per the Associated Press, via ESPN.com.

Translating from GM-speak to English, that means "yes."

In the meantime, the formula for Toronto is simple: Keep swinging those bats.

Despite their up-and-down pitching, the Blue Jays own the best run differential in the AL, as ESPN's Buster Olney noted:

With a bit more consistency on the other side of the ball, it's easy to imagine this club making its first postseason appearance since 1993.

We're getting ahead of ourselves, of course. It's only June, and the Jays are in third place. But if they haven't taken flight quite yet, at the very least they seem to be preparing for liftoff. 

All statistics current as of June 7 and courtesy of MLB.com unless otherwise noted.