Scott Carson

Stats man Scott Carson is now in his 18th season as "third man in the booth" during Blue Jays telecasts.

The Jays are really missing Aaron Hill's bat at the moment.

I guess it was inevitable that the team would go into a collective slump. The fact that it coincided with the return to Interleague play should surprise no one.

Let's face it, as I've stated many times over the years, the Blue Jays are not put together to play National League-style baseball. They are a team of sluggers, as their MLB-leading 99 home runs - 15 more than the next closest team, Boston - reflects. But when the power dries up, as it has during this 1-6 stretch in which they've hit just three home runs, this team is in tough to score runs. And with the pitching also left wanting, this provides the perfect storm for the Blue Jays' first extended slump of the season.

There's no one area to point at as to why this is happening. But I will say this: the Jays are no longer flying below the radar, and the adjustments being made on both sides of the ball by the opposition have exposed some glaring weaknesses.

In the past, during the sub-standard J.P. Ricciardi era, the Blue Jays were known throughout baseball as an on-base percentage team. The old Jays were a team that liked to work the count, so first-pitch fastballs thrown over the plate were usually ignored by Toronto hitters.

That all changed this season when the team, under new hitting coach Dwayne Murphy, started jumping on the first pitch and the results, before this current slump, were spectacular. They have done the majority of the damage when jumping on that first pitch, with 23 home runs on a 0-0 count. Their 51 total extra-base hits are also atop the Majors and the Jays .333 average on first pitches is vastly better than their .239 overall average.

The opposition have now made their adjustments and the Jays have struggled to react. Thus, over the last seven games, the team has hit a measly .163, averaging just 1.9 runs and 4.9 hits per game and have gone just 4 for 39 with runners in scoring position. Couple those lowly offensive numbers with a starting rotation with an 6.69 ERA and there is no mystery as to why the Blue Jays are drifting away from the Rays, Yankees and Red Sox in the A.L. East.

Reasons for concern

The club's 28th-ranked offence has been hamstrung this season by the fact that their two best hitters from a year ago - Adam Lind and Aaron Hill - are hitting just .210 and .186 respectively. While the apologists have stated that they have shown signs that they are getting better, we are now 64 games into the season and yet neither have been moved from their vital second and third spots in the batting order. While Cito Gaston can be called loyal to a fault by not shifting around the line-up, he really has very few options should he decide to rearrange the deck chairs.

Jose Bautista would be the obvious choice to move up in the order, but he is currently mired in a 1-for-27 slump, and hasn't hit a home run since June 4th when he mashed a pair against the Yankees to give him a MLB-leading 18 on the season. Vernon Wells has also gone into a mini-slump with just two hits in 21 plate appearances on this road trip. And Fred Lewis has just three hits on the trip and in the midst of his first slump since coming over from the Giants.

What has also been exposed during this downturn is the Blue Jays lack of a credible bench, especially when they have to use pinch-hitters when playing in N.L. parks. Gaston's limited options, which include Mike McCoy, Dewayne Wise, Jose Molina or Edwin Encarnacion, don't provide the skill or power to cause opposition managers to alter their strategy.

Another reason to hate interleague

As I've stated in the past, I'm no fan of interleague but last Friday night's debacle in Denver made my disdain grow even darker. The game was delayed for over 90 minutes due to a steady rain, and then it suddenly started without the rain letting up and played under sketchy conditions. It was finally called after six innings when the field became unplayable. The fact is the game should not even been started in the first place. But, because this was the only series of the season between the Blue Jays and Rockies, these games had to be played.

The home side has already had four games already postponed due to inclement weather and doubleheaders are starting to pile up. That is understandable. But the big losers on Friday night were the fans, who got discounted on a fantastic pitching match-up between Colorado ace Ubaldo Jimenez and Jays' lefty Ricky Romero. Neither could even come close to performing at their high levels due to a strong rain that made gripping the ball properly impossible.