There are no easy answers or quick fixes for Blue Jays manager John Farrell in the ninth inning.
The three-headed closing monster of Frank Francisco, Jon Rauch and Octavio Dotel was brought in over the winter to help stabilize the back-end of the bullpen after a season of stomach-turning adventure with Kevin Gregg in 2010.
Things have been no less turbulent so far this year, with the gruesome work of Francisco and inability of impressive rookie Luis Perez to bail him out of it in Thursday’s troubling 5-4 loss to the Cleveland Indians marking the club’s 14th blown save in 33 chances.
They’ve lost seven times when leading after six innings, six times when leading after seven and now five times when leading through eight. But with few options at his disposal, Farrell is left to try and mix and match as best he can, hoping to put the reliever of the day in the best situation to succeed.
"We have the pitchers we’re going to run with and yet we’ve got to find a way to continually build confidence," Farrell told Sportsnet Radio The Fan 590’s Brady and Lang In The Morning. "At this point if that means taking Frankie to get a couple of outings to build back the confidence to get him going in the right direction as we’ve done earlier in the season, that may be in the cards here as we move forward in the short-term. …
"We may look to turn to Jon Rauch to close out games for the time being, or Octavio Dotel if we’re in an appropriate matchup where it’s right on right."
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The Blue Jays employed a similar approach with Francisco after he entered a tie game and was saddled with a loss against Houston on May 20, and then blew a save in a 5-4 setback at Yankee Stadium on May 24.
Returned to the closer’s role on June 15 in a 4-1 win against Baltimore, the burly right-hander locked down four straight games before blowing it in the ninth against the Philadelphia Phillies on July 1. He nailed down his next chance on July 4 at Boston before allowing the only three batters he faced to reach in Thursday’s setback at Cleveland.
Perez eventually surrendered Travis Hafner’s walkoff grand slam.
Francisco’s velocity was down noticeably against the Indians, about 3-4 m.p.h. from where it was versus the Red Sox, which likely contributed to the problems.
"The consistency, in a word, is the most elusive thing at this point," Farrell said of Francisco. "Frankie has shown the ability to have dominant type stuff against a powerful lineup like Boston, and we saw what he did the other day, and not that you’re anticipating that every time he walks to the mound but you’d like to think there’s a little bit more consistency with each outing that he goes to."
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Compounding matters is that Francisco’s frustrations bubbled over in the Blue Jays clubhouse afterwards, with him cursing at a reporter. Farrell says the club’s focus is on maintaining control through adversity and that his display didn’t demonstrate that.
"There’s a certain expectation that we have as the Blue Jays organization, there’s a certain expectation that Major League Baseball has, we have to uphold that," said Farrell. "We have to have a level of composure, and that gets tested at times, probably every day. But how we respond to it and how we work within that to balance it out, that has to continually be addressed and (the club) will do so in this case."
Rauch is 7-for-9 converting saves so far this season and while he doesn’t have Francisco’s velocity and ability to dominate, he gives the Blue Jays a better idea of what they can expect from outing to outing. The imposing 6-11 right-hander attacks hitters, seeks contact, and doesn’t beat himself with walks.
Dotel is 1-for-1 finishing out games but left-handed batters have an OPS of .968 against him compared to .501 against righties, making him more of a situational reliever than full-blown closer.
