{"id":80238,"date":"2025-07-21T09:11:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T09:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/80238\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T09:11:18","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T09:11:18","slug":"barger-continues-to-flourish-with-blue-jays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/80238\/","title":{"rendered":"Barger continues to flourish with Blue Jays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TORONTO \u2013 Addison Barger has played a big part in the Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 rise to the top of the American League East division this season.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The 25-year-old utilityman continued his breakout season on Sunday afternoon, going 1 for 4 with a towering two-run home run to help the Blue Jays sweep their three-game series versus the San Francisco Giants with an 8-6 victory. The day prior, Barger notched the first four-hit game of his career, going 4 for 4 with a double.<\/p>\n<p>Sunday\u2019s home run gave Barger 14 on the season, three behind George Springer for the team lead. His .846 OPS ranks second behind Springer as well among Blue Jays hitters with over 100 plate appearances, while his .514 slugging percentage ranks first.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that one went a little farther than 407 (feet),\u201d joked Blue Jays manager John Schneider of Barger\u2019s home run.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tRelated Videos\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'One-on-one with up and coming Toronto Blue Jays prospect Arjun Nimmala'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753089076_675_STILL_GN_ARJUN_NIMMALA.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t18:46<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOne-on-one with up and coming Toronto Blue Jays prospect Arjun Nimmala\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\tPrevious Video<\/p>\n<p>\t\tNext Video<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know if that\u2019s what Stat Cast had it at.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/national.jpg\" alt=\"For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n<p>On a team littered with star power, Schneider says Barger is earning his place among them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think he\u2019s there,\u201d said Schneider post-game. \u201cI think he\u2019s been there for a while. He\u2019s playing pretty regularly, he\u2019s doing a lot of damage, he\u2019s hitting the ball hard. He\u2019s usually in the top five (hitters in the lineup). So, yeah, I think he\u2019s there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barger\u2019s breakout has now led to his manager trusting him, a left-handed batter, to face off against left-handed pitchers, a rarity for a rookie with as little experience as Barger has. With lefty starter Robbie Ray on the mound on Sunday, Barger remained in the starting lineup, batting sixth.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s an approach and having a plan,\u201d Schneider said of Barger facing left-handed pitching. \u201cSometimes, it\u2019s sitting on a pitch. Sometimes, it\u2019s taking some shots. Sometimes, it\u2019s letting the ball travel and hitting it a little deep. But I think, with his skills, you trust that something good is going to happen.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<ul class=\"l-inlineStories__posts c-posts c-posts--inline \">\n<li class=\"c-posts__item\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11295355\/canadian-woman-detention-by-ice-nightmare\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753089078_529_Paula-Callejas.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tICE detention a \u2018nightmare\u2019 says Canadian woman\u2019s family\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"c-posts__item\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11295498\/astronomer-ceo-resigns-coldplay-video\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1753089078_676_coldplay-chris-martin.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tAstronomer CEO Andy Byron resigns after Coldplay \u2018kiss cam\u2019 video\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd I think, too, with his preparation, that\u2019s kind of what separated him a little bit. Not being afraid to go against a tough lefty.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Barger credits much of his success to Blue Jays hitting coach David Popkins and his staff.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey come up with most of the plans,\u201d explained Barger post-game.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe come up with our own plans based off of reports and video. It\u2019s a combination of us working with them. And they\u2019re open to certain things and there\u2019s a lot of back and forth. So, they\u2019re extremely important.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now set to host division rival New York Yankees for a three-game series on Monday, the Blue Jays will need Barger to continue his impressive offensive breakout with important divisional implications on the line.<\/p>\n<p>This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 20, 2025.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Sports<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 The Canadian Press\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 Addison Barger has played a big part in the Toronto Blue Jays\u2019 rise to the top&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":80239,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[591,22896,26245,1266,62,1290,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-80238","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-blue-jays","10":"tag-blue-jays-baseball","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-toronto-blue-jays","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114890460843833841","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80238","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}