Toronto notched two runs on a couple of hits, a hit-by-pitch and a bases loaded walk in the Top of the 1st and it looked like Thursday’s series finale with Baltimore might be one of those games where the Blue Jays put a big number on the board.
Instead, they had four more baserunners the rest of the night and the Orioles clawed their way to victory, scoring the tying run in the seventh and the go-ahead tally in the eighth.
The Jays were 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position, left six men on and struck out nine times, squandering a good, not great start from Marco Estrada who was at least able to battle through his rough patches without allow Baltimore to put any runs on the board. It wasn’t until Toronto went to the ‘pen that things went south with Pat Venditte leaving with the bases loaded in the seventh before Brett Cecil gave up the game-tying sacrifice fly.
The next inning, the former lock-down lefty allowed the go-ahead run on a Manny Machado double. In the top of the ninth, Baltimore tagged in Zach Britton and the closer worked a 1-2-3 inning to collect his fourth save of the season.
If this were an isolated incident – the first time in a couple weeks that Toronto had a game like this – manager John Gibbons’ standard, “Ah we’re not getting the key hits like we normally do, you know what I mean?” routine would be fine, but we’re nearly 20 games into the season and this has been happening a lot. Some may argue too much given the amount of talented hitters on this team and yet the manager is content (and partially hamstrung) to run the same group out there night after night to no real change.
Right now, Michael Saunders and Josh Donaldson are the only players consistently getting hits and Jose Bautista is good for at least one walk per game, which has allowed him to reach base in 30-straight games dating back to last season, but other than that, it’s a complete crap shoot from night-to-night.
When it’s on, it’s great, but when it’s off, it’s ugly and more times than naught this season, the Jays have been off and lost a bunch of winnable early season games as a result. There is time to correct it and at some point, some of the near misses will become clutch hits, but for now, this team is scuffling and just saying, “We’re bound to get our breaks one of these days” doesn’t seem like enough of a reaction from the manager.
Because this team is build around its offense, the struggles at the dish have also helped deflect attention (and blame) away from the bullpen at times, but they have to carry a share of the weight for this one and others this year too. From the minute Buck Martinez mentioned Cecil’s unprecedented (though matched at the time by Boston’s Craig Kimbrell) shutout inning streak, the bespectacled lefty has struggled.
The ironic part is that it has primarily been two guys you thought Toronto would be able to rely on – Cecil and newcomer Drew Storen – but they just haven’t been on point yet this year. If they could provide the “lock it down” relief that was expected of them, some of these tight losses where the offense struggled would be close wins where the pitching staff picked up their boys.
One of the two needs to get better soon and both have to improve long-term or else this team with World Series aspirations won’t even be challenging for a playoff spot.
Player Of The Game: Michael Saunders
The new leadoff man got another two hits and scored one of Toronto’s two runs, cashing on Donaldson’s first-inning double. His average is up to .320 and he’s getting on-pace at a .390 clip, infinitely better than Kevin Pillar was earlier in the year and exactly what this club needs, in theory, to put runs on the board.
Hopefully the Canadian can keep it up while the rest of the lineup finds its stroke.
On Deck: Toronto heads home to the friendly confines of the Rogers Centre for a three-game set with the Oakland A’s that kicks off with a terrific pitching match-up as Sonny Gray takes the ball for the Athletics, while the Jays counter with Aaron Sanchez.
