Is it any wonder Jose Bautista has been in such a foul mood of late?
Update: On Thursday the Blue Jays activated Carlos Villanueva from the 15-day DL and designated LHP Brian Tallet for assignment. It doesn’t matter how many runs Bautista’s offensive brethren put on the board because there’s a fair-to-good chance that the Blue Jays laughably weak bullpen is going cough it up late. That has occurred far too often of late with an American League-high 11 blown saves since July 1, far more than any other team.
While most everyone lauded the July 27 trade that landed high-ceiling centre fielder Colby Rasmus from the Cardinals, the flip side was that the bullpen – with the subtractions of Jason Frasor, Marc Rzepczynski and Octavio Dotel – was left dangerously thin while the likes of Wil Ledezma, Rommie Lewis and Trever Miller found themselves in high leverage situations.
The proof has been in the pudding.
An injury to Carlos Villanueva also cost the bullpen effective left-hander Luis Perez as he’s now taking a regular turn in the rotation for the time being. Unfortunately, all this roster movement has left nothing in the cupboard at triple-A to come in and help through the final month of the schedule.
The worry has to be that all the good has come about through the first five months of the season is going to be quickly forgotten over the final five weeks of the schedule. It’s like when you play a really good round of golf through the first 15 holes only to start shanking the ball on the final three. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth from something that was enjoyable to begin with.
Case in point was Tuesday night’s debacle at Camden Yards. The Blue Jays began their third-to-last road trip of the season with an extra-inning loss thanks to yet another blown save. The culprit this time was recently acquired left-hander Brian Tallet. He walked the first two batters of the 10th inning, threw 14 balls among his 23 pitches as the team lost for the eighth time in their past 11 games. The real head-scratcher however was why closer Frank Francisco didn’t come in to pitch.
I guess he was unavailable after mopping up the ninth inning off Sunday’s 7-3 win over the Rays with no save on the line.
What everyone needs to realize is that the starting rotation is doing no favours for this substandard relief corps by failing to go deeper into the games. Over this recent 11-game swoon, the starters have averaged just 5.2 innings per game while throwing just under 18 pitches per inning. That’s just not going to cut it.
Monday night it was Brett Cecil with a 32-pitch second inning and a 25-pitch fourth that cut short his start. Sunday it took Ricky Romero 48 pitches to get through his first 10 hitters. Saturday it was Brandon Morrow with a 31-pitch second inning.
Are you starting to see a trend here?
Those big pitch innings guaranteed that the bullpen would be coming in far too early.
On a team where the roster is likely to see a vast turnover this off-season, it’s imperative that they play hard through the end of the season, with so many jobs on the line. I’m sure the deep thinkers in the front office are taking stock and, hopefully, not just falling back on the rebuild excuse. We all know that this team is still a couple of years away from seeing the waves of prospects arrive in Toronto. But what we’ve witnessed over the last week and a half is leaving a bad taste in the mouths of many.
AROUND THE HORN
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