TORONTO – There’s an old adage that says momentum in baseball is only as strong as the next day’s starting pitcher, and that’s why rarely should too much be read into a single win or loss over the course of 162 games.
As bad as things get one game, a good outing from a starter in the next one can easily flip things.
So it was for the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday, as they rode six very good innings from J.A. Happ and some timely hits to a 7-3 win over the Boston Red Sox. That the victory came on the heels of a 14-1 drubbing from the defending World Series champions a night earlier supports the above adage, but at the same time, the Blue Jays have to like the way they responded.
“The good thing is whatever you want to say about (Monday), it counts as one, and (Tuesday) counts as one so we’re even,” said Happ. “As bad as it may have seemed, we came back but as far as wins and losses they count the same. We’ve got to try to get them these next two and win a series.”
The Blue Jays looked hopeless Monday but were far crisper Tuesday, with some strong defence behind Happ, and home runs from Jose Reyes and Dioner Navarro in the sixth that broke open what had been a 1-0 game.
“It’s almost better we lose 14-1 than 3-2 on a heartbreaking broken bat (hit),” said closer Casey Janssen. “We threw that one out, got right back at it (Tuesday) and the sign of a good team is being able to bounce back. J.A. threw the ball really well, that’s a good sign, and we’re going to need all hands on deck to do this. To see other guys contribute, to see (Ryan) Goins swing the bat well, to see (Anthony) Gose do what he did, and obviously the guys we lean heavy on are there and producing as well. At times it looks like we’re a pretty good team, and if we can weather the storm enough to get Brett (Lawrie), Adam (Lind) and Edwin (Encarnacion) back, hopefully we can sustain it enough to give ourselves a chance at the end.”
The Blue Jays recalibrated themselves Tuesday morning by recalling Aaron Sanchez, Ryan Goins and Esmil Rogers, as I explained here, and they’ll need to hit on those adjustments and not stop at three wins in four games.
“We try to ride as many waves as we can and good streaks as we can,” said Janssen. “Obviously getting the win (Tuesday) and winning the series against Texas is huge but we’re not where we need to be. … We’ve got a long end of July, August and September, a couple game winning streak here and there, we need to sustain it and continue to play better.”
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J.A. Happ threw seven shutout innings against Oakland on May 25, allowed one run over six frames in Baltimore on June 15, and delivered 7.2 shutout frames versus the White Sox on July 26.
Yet manager John Gibbons was full of praise for the lefty’s six innings of shutout ball against the Red Sox, when he allowed seven hits and a walk while striking out for.
“That might have been, in my opinion, his best outing of the year,” said Gibbons, “because he had a good curveball going and he used it quite a bit.”
Happ features a fastball, changeup, curveball and slider, and typically he relies on his catcher to decide early in his outings which of the latter two is better on a given day and running with it. His first curve of the night came on an 0-1 pitch to Dustin Pedroia in the first inning, and he was rolling from then on.
“Sometimes it’s one or the other with the slider, it’s hard to throw all four and have a good feeling for all four,” said Happ. “That was there and fastball command was pretty good overall, so I felt good about getting ahead of those guys because they can be patient and wear you out if you don’t get ahead.”
Read more about J.A. Happ from Mike Wilner.
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John Gibbons considered using Aaron Sanchez once the Blue Jays opened things up late in the game, but ended up riding Dustin McGowan for 1.2 innings in relief of J.A. Happ, getting one out from Aaron Loup and then both Casey Janssen and Brett Cecil in the ninth when trouble brewed.
What happened once the game got out of hand?
“We got Sanchez up but I wanted to pick a spot to debut him,” said Gibbons. “Sanchez will be in the fire (Wednesday), but I want to bring the right spot to bring him in.”
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Casey Janssen, just over a stomach bug he picked up over the all-star break, gave up two runs on three hits and a walk in the ninth inning, getting two outs but leaving two on and David Ortiz up for Brett Cecil.
Cecil got Ortiz on a fielder’s choice to third to end the game, but Janssen was roughed up a bit for the second straight outing. On Sunday allowed three hits and a run in two-thirds of an inning.
Anything to do with the illness?
“I’m feeling good,” he said. “I’ve been doing everything I’m supposed to be doing, going about my day as normal. I haven’t weighed myself lately but I’m not worried about that anymore. I feel good and that’s all that really matters, weight or no weight, that’s not an issue.”
Janssen’s night Tuesday went like this: he gave up a double to Shane Victorino before Stephen Drew hit a two run homer; an out later, David Ross hit a single up the middle and Brock Holt walked before Dustin Pedroia flew out to right.
“I made mistakes,” he said. “I threw a ball right down the middle to Drew and he hit it out, got Victorino 0-2 and then hung two breaking balls, one he fouled and the other he put in play. I made two good pitches to Pedroia, so I am living on the corners at times, other times I’m not finishing, not executing. I’m not really worried about these and I’ll be right back at it (Wednesday).”
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Marcus Stroman and Aaron Sanchez used to dream about one day breaking into the big-leagues together with the Blue Jays, and now their locker stalls are beside one another at Rogers Centre.
“I couldn’t be more excited,” said Stroman. “Going back to spring training, or even my first year when I got drafted in 2012 at Instructional League, talking about it, being up here and helping the team win, it’s pretty special. We keep in contact all the time, we talk to each other pretty much every day, just to have him here with me and along for the ride should be pretty awesome.
“We’ve been boys since 2012 and I feel like we’ve been boys our entire life, you know what I mean?”
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One thing Ryan Goins expects himself to be better at in this stint with the Blue Jays is managing his failures. It’s something he struggled with his last time up.
“During the game it’s not so bad, but when you go home and the 0-for-4s, 0-for-3s keep piling up it gets worse and worse,” said Goins, who had an RBI single in the win. “By going through it one time you learn how to deal with it, learn how to be better and come to the ballpark with a fresh mindset and get after it.”