It was a classic case of not winning the games you’re supposed to win. It was a frustrating weekend to say the least, as the Boston Red Sox—the last place Boston Red Sox—came into Toronto and took two of three from the Toronto Blue Jays and prevented the AL East leaders from gaining any ground on the Yankees and putting a bigger dent in their magic number.
I say frustrating because all
year every other team has been beating up on the Sox but in the past two weeks,
the Jays could only take two of the six games from Boston.
Now, getting back to my first
point about not winning the games you should be winning, in the final two games
of the weekend set, Toronto played more like the team they were before the Troy
Tulowitzki trade and a lot less like the team they have been in the two months
since. Failing to hit with men in scoring position, making too many errors, and
blown leads by the bull pen, all contributed to the unimpressive performance.
Saturday was probably the worst
of the two games. Toronto starter R.A. Dickey pitched fairly well, allowing
only two runs in his six innings of work. And it seemed like everything was
falling into place for another Jays’ win when they were able to score two in
the bottom of the eighth to take a 4-2 lead. And then when they loaded the
bases in the same inning with only one out, you expected them to tack on a few
more insurance runs.
Well, Boston reliever Jean Machi
came into the game and threw just one pitch to Toronto batter Ryan Goins. It
was grounded to Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia who, with the infield
playing in, threw to home for the force out and catcher Blake Swihart fired to
first to finish the double play. Rally killed, inning over.
Still, a two-run lead with
closer Roberto Osuna on the mound is enough to win the game, right? Well, a
double, a home run, a walk, two singles, a wild pitch, an intentional walk and
another single were enough to push five Red Sox runs across to turn a 4-2 lead
into a 7-4 deficit. Everything that could go wrong that inning did, including
the leadoff hitter, Brock Holt—who started the rally with the double—appearing
to strike out for out number one, but a foul-tip that wasn’t snagged by Jays’
catcher Russell Martin before it hit the ground seemed to signal that things
weren’t going to work out on this day.
Toronto scored two runs in the
bottom of the ninth to close the gap to 7-6 but it was a little bit too late.
On Sunday, it was an early 3-0
Toronto lead that gradually disappeared into a 4-3 Boston. yet another
performance reminiscent of the pre-All-Star break Blue Jays. Three errors, the
bullpen again failing to shut down the opponents in a tight ball game and a
weak one for seven hitting with runners in scoring position. It all led to
another wasted performance by a Toronto pitcher as Mark Buehrle pitched well
enough for the victory, but a lack of run support for his second straight start
meant another no-decision for the lefthander.
Of course, with the
disappointment of the last two days, we can’t overlook the job Marcus Stroman
did on the mound on Friday night in the Jays’ only victory of the weekend, a
6-1 score. In just his second start of the season after coming off the disabled
list less than a week earlier, Stroman justified manager John Gibbons’s
decision to keep him in the starting rotation and move Drew Hutchison to the
bullpen, by pitching seven innings, scattering six hits while giving up the
lone run, while striking out three. It is a positive thing to take away from
this weekend that Stroman looks like the pitcher he was last year and seems to
have no ill-effects from the torn ACL suffered in Spring Training.
Going forward, the Jays hold a 2
½ game lead going into the three game Yankee series which starts Monday night.
While you could lament that it should be a 4 ½ game lead following the missed
opportunities against Boston, it would be better to focus on the Jays still
being in first place and ready to take a huge step towards the division crown
by having a big series against New York.
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