PHOENIX – Small-sample sizes can get weird, especially early in a new season, which is why Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider doesn’t look at his hitters’ individual numbers out of the gate. Instead, he focuses on a pair of underlying measures, their pitch selection and quality of contact, to assess their early performance.

“We've run into some games, even going back to Chicago (two weeks ago), where there were a lot of hard-hit balls, some at people, some not, and you've got to just stick with that,” said Schneider. “You can't direct it once it leaves your bat, but you can definitely dictate what you swing at and how you swing at it. That's what we're looking at.”

That’s also what the Blue Jays preached all weekend in Phoenix, with some payoff at long last arriving Sunday when an eight-run first – highlighted by bases-loaded doubles from Kazuma Okamoto that........

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