One day after collecting some clutch hits in the ninth inning to salvage a victory in Tampa, the Toronto Blue Jays fell into their familiar rut at the dish on Monday night in the opener of the rematch of last October’s contentious American League Divisional Series match-up with the Texas Rangers.
The Jays managed seven hits, four walks and just a single run in dropping the opener of this four-game set to the Rangers, who weren’t all that much better at the plate, but got a go-ahead home run from rookie Nomar Mazara in the Top of the 8th that held up the winning run in this tight 2-1 game, with Mazara making sure it stayed that way by gunning down Michael Saunders at the plate when he tried to score the tying run in the bottom half of the inning.
Not a bad start to the month of May for the American League Rookie of the Month for April.
As has been a theme all season it seems, Toronto’s inability to put runs on the board squandered what was a strong performance from R.A. Dickey, who went 6.1 innings coughing up just a single run on six hits and three walks. After a disastrous April, this was an excellent turnaround outing for the veteran knuckleballer and unfortunately it goes for naught as the Jays couldn’t provide Dickey with any real support.
Toronto is now 2-7 in one-run games this season, which is one of those stats that should revert back to the mean at some point down the road, but right now, it’s like catching spikes in the ankle every time it happens because the Blue Jays are supposed to be an offensive juggernaut and they’ve been anything but through the first 27 games of the season.
Adding to the frustration of this game is that those five of those seven hits came from three familiar sources, with Kevin Pillar leading the way with three knocks and Saunders and Josh Donaldson chipping in with one each; Justin Smoak had the other two.
That means the guys that have largely been struggling – Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Goins and Josh Thole – continued to struggle, going a combined 0-for-10 with four strikeouts, which becomes even harder to stomach on those odd nights like Monday where Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion combine for an 0-for-6 evening.
The Jays have also now lost four straight at home, which is just salt in the wounds at this point. Thankfully, this is baseball and they get a chance to correct all of this later today. Of course, it could be more of the same too.
We’ll tell you how it went tomorrow.
Player of the Game: Kevin Pillar
As mentioned earlier, Pillar collected three hits in four trips to the dish, including a double in the sixth, continuing what has been a nice hot streak since being dropped towards the bottom of the order roughly a dozen games ago.
Pillar is a dime shy of .300 for the season and is 14-for-28 over his last 10 games, so clearly the move out of the leadoff spot has been positive for the standout defensive centerfielder as much as it has been for Saunders, who is thriving at the top of the order. He’s still not a big fan of the free pass, having walked just twice in 100 at-bats this season and only 38 times in his entire 273 game MLB career, but if he keeps playing stellar defense and slashing the ball the way he has of late, that won’t matter.
On Deck: After experiencing some shoulder pain in his last start, Marco Estrada (1-2, 2.92) will make his scheduled start for the Jays, taking the mound against Texas lefty Martin Perez (1-2, 4.20).
