TORONTO – The lefty lineup the Toronto Blue Jays employed in Tuesday’s 5-2 victory Houston Astros at minimum shows that they’re willing to be creative.
Brett Oberholtzer is a reverse-split kind of guy – his career OPS against is .608 versus right-handed batters and .748 versus his fellow southpaws – and manager John Gibbons got all Joe Maddon in this one and used Adam Lind in the two spot and Colby Rasmus seventh in the order.
Neither was a factor – Jose Bautista opened the scoring with a solo drive, Dioner Navarro collected pivotal RBI doubles from each side of the plate, and the sizzling Melky Cabrera provided some breathing room in the seventh by going deep for a fourth straight game before a crowd of 13,123 – but the machinations illustrate how their lineup for lefties, and batting order in general, is a moving target.
“We signed Navarro because he can hit,” Gibbons said of hitting his catcher fifth behind Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion. “He’s a good little catcher but he can swing the bat so he’s going to be a big help there. It won’t be long before Jose Reyes is back anyway, then everything slots back in the way it’s supposed to. Hold on until then.”
The Blue Jays improved to 2-2 against southpaw starters this season after scratching out three runs off Oberholtzer before Cabrera opened things up against righty Josh Zeid in the seventh. Their two losses came against David Price and CC Sabathia and there’s no shame in losing to those guys, although they’ll need to get their share of wins against pitchers of their ilk, too.
They also need to be better than the 19-24 they were when facing southpaws last year, and minus a proven lefty masher on the bench like Mark DeRosa was in 2013 with an .810 OPS, there are no obvious options for Gibbons to turn to if he wants to sit his southpaws.
Given that, the polarizing debate will continue about whether Lind (.852 career OPS versus righties, .606 versus lefties) and Rasmus (.789 career OPS versus righties, .640 OPS versus lefties) should be in the lineup when a left-hander starts on the mound.
“Lindy’s off to a good start, Colby not much production yet, so we’ll drop him down and put Lindy up there, get him on base for those other guys,” Gibbons explained before the game. “Try it.”
Complicating matters is that with Cabrera replacing the injured Reyes in the leadoff spot, the Blue Jays don’t have an obvious two-hole hitter. Lind slotted in for Rasmus on Tuesday but his production lower in the lineup may be missed, although the switch-hitting Navarro did a nice job cashing in a pair of Edwin Encarnacion walks Tuesday.
“I’ve just got to go out there and be myself,” said Navarro. “My approach is to hit the ball up the middle of the diamond, and get as many hits as I can. I hit the ball where it’s pitched, that’s my gameplan and what I’m going to continue to do.
Maicer Izturis is also off to a decent start and batted second Sunday against Sabathia, but he’s probably a better fit at the bottom of the lineup. And then there’s Brett Lawrie, who’s now just 3-for-29 this season after an 0-for-4 night as his slump shows no sign of easing.
At least the Blue Jays saw positive signs from both Bautista and Encarnacion, who when hot can solve many of the club’s problems by themselves.
Bautista homered in the first and then walked twice after a groundout to short, while Encarnacion singled in the first and then walked three straight times. The way they’re taking walks suggests the slugging duo is locked in at the plate, but also that opposing pitchers are willing to take their chances with the rest of the lineup.
Navarro didn’t let that didn’t happen Tuesday, helping capitalize on 5.1 innings of bend-but-don’t-break pitching from Mark Buehrle and some nifty relief work by Steve Delabar, Aaron Loup, Brett Cecil and Sergio Santos.
The resurgent Cabrera, driving the ball in ways he couldn’t last year when he had a walnut-sized tumour on his spine, also helped bring things home.
“I feel like my swing has always been the same,” Cabrera said of his improved pop. “It just happened that last year the tumour wouldn’t allow me to really swing the bat well.”
He’s among the few right now, and when Gibbons was asked if he was tempted to move the left-fielder down the order to capitalize on the surge, the manager replied: “I don’t know if I want to tinker with that just yet.”
But tinker he likely will in other places, as he tries to milk what he can from a hot and cold lineup. Through eight games the Blue Jays have scored 27 runs, 15 of which have come from their 10 home runs.
That’s not a very diversified offence regardless of who’s batting where, who the pitcher is on the mound.
