ANAHEIM, Calif. – Jose Reyes lived through this last year, a team of promise built in the off-season that flops when it counts, and while the root problems for the Miami Marlins of 2012 and Toronto Blue Jays of 2013 are different, they appear destined to share the same sorry fate.
“The problem is performing on the field, we need to perform the way we’re capable,” the all-star shortstop said in an interview Saturday before a 7-3 thumping from the Los Angeles Angels. “We haven’t been able to do that, you can see the results right now, we’re in last place, that’s not acceptable because of what kind of team we have. It’s not acceptable to be in last place.
“No disrespect to some other teams, but we have more talent than some other teams who are playing for first place, playing better than us. We feel like we have more talent, but we haven’t been able to put it together on the field.”
Exhibit No. 60 in that regard offered plenty of examples why the Blue Jays are exactly where they are right now, perhaps none as blatant as the black comedy of errors typical of Little League rather than the American League that broke the game open in the fifth inning.
With runners on first and second, Howie Kendrick singled up the middle and rather than throwing to third to keep the runners from advancing, centre-fielder Colby Rasmus went home to try and get Mike Trout.
His throw, like so many others this season, sliced up the third-base line, allowing Trout to score easily while Josh Hamilton and Kendrick both took an extra base. The play should have ended there, but catcher J.P. Arencibia decided for some reason to try and get Kendrick at second – he had no chance – the throw sailed into right-centre, and both Hamilton and Kendrick scored to make it a 7-1 game.
Embarrassing stuff all around.
If it was a sequence in isolation the mishaps could be more easily forgiven, but physical errors, mental errors and fundamental failures have been troublingly commonplace for the Blue Jays in this season off the rails. Before the game manager John Gibbons mused that sometimes in trying to make a big defensive play that turns a contest, his players neglected basic principles.
In this instance, the Blue Jays fell behind early and the game was about to unravel when Arencibia unwisely tried to force a play.
“That’s a big part of it,” said Gibbons. “You’re trying to kill something and make a big play to stop something because you’re on that fence, it’s either going to explode on you or you’re going to hang in there. No doubt that’s a part of it.”
Said Arencibia: “I should have ate that ball. I thought I had time to make a throw at second, try to force the issue. That’s an aggressive mistake, my thought process is try to get an out there, try to change that inning a little bit. Obviously throwing it into centre field isn’t a wise play.”
Now, maybe the Angels end up scoring both runs anyway, but the way the rest of the inning unfolded, Esmil Rogers retired the next two batters to end the frame, but the Blue Jays offence was again saddled with some very heavy lifting.
As much as they gamely tried to rally, the deficit to overcome was too big, and underlined how if it’s not one thing that hurts them, it’s another, plus another.
On this night, Rogers fell behind 3-0 in the first against Jered Weaver and the offence never really had a chance. But at least he provided five innings, one inning less than Josh Johnson and Todd Redmond combined for in the first two games of the series.
“We spot them three again tonight so it’s an uphill battle,” said Gibbons. “That’s been happening way too much lately.”
No surprise then that the frustration Reyes had after Friday’s 7-5 loss in which the Angels rallied for three runs in the eighth lingered into Saturday.
“It’s just overall the way that we’re playing,” he said. “When I look at this team, I see a better team than the way we’re performing on the field. Look around this ball club, there’s a lot of unbelievable talent, and we haven’t been able to put it together so far on the field.
“When I came here I didn’t expect to be in last place in August. That’s a part of baseball, sometimes you never know what’s going to happen. It’s been kind of rough and disappointing because we know as players that we’re better than this. There’s still two months of the season, a lot of stuff can happen in those two months.
“We need to turn it around, badly.”
Fuelling the disappointment is that since Reyes returned from a badly sprained left ankle on June 25, the Blue Jays are just 12-22, the memory of the 11-game win streak that catapulted them back to relevance now a distant and faded memory.
Instead of building with him back in the lineup, they regressed right back to where they were.
“It is frustrating because it’s all about winning,” said Reyes. “I have everything that I want but the only thing that’s missing is a championship. I can’t wait to do that.
“Last year I went to Miami, we had an unbelievable ball club and we were never able to do anything, we finished last. Disappointing there. Then I came here, better opportunity to at least go to the playoffs. There’s no doubt in my mind (the 2013 Blue Jays are) much better, way better (than the 2012 Marlins), we came with high expectations here, we haven’t been able to do anything, it’s disappointing because it’s unbelievable talent that we have here. But here we are into August, we’re in last place, and we expected to be on top of our division coming into spring training.
“We had a lot of opportunities to win a lot of ballgames and we just let it get away. That’s not going to get it done.”
Reyes is still playing with pain in his ankle, feeling it especially when he moves to his left in the field or tries to slow down on the basepaths. He doesn’t expect to be fully 100 per cent until next spring, after his ankle gets rest and rehab during the winter.
Despite that, he’s been productive and effective, and the promise of more from him in 2014 should excite the Blue Jays. But that alone won’t get this team over the hump.
“I don’t want to point at no one, me, everybody needs to step up and everybody needs to contribute,” said Reyes. “This is a team game, everybody needs to contribute if we want to be good, it’s not only one, two or three guys, it’s everybody as a group. All the ball clubs that have been successful this year, they play as a team together and everybody contributes. That’s something we haven’t been able to do so far.”
The standings certainly show it.