KANSAS CITY, Mo. — It felt like it took an eternity to start Friday night’s rain-delayed game at Kauffman Stadium, but that pales in comparison to the eternity it’s been since the Blue Jays scored a run.
The exact figure is 24 innings, a drought dating back to the fifth frame of Wednesday’s game in Chicago. You can count that as the primary reason why the Blue Jays have dropped three straight and nine of their last 12, the latest defeat coming at the hands of the Royals, 3-1.
“We’ve cooled off with the bats, no doubt about that,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “But we’ve also run into some good pitching on this road trip. It was bound to happen a little bit. That’s the way baseball works. I’m surprised it lasted this long without cooling off a little bit.”
Gibbons is referring to how the Blue Jays sustained a prodigious offence through the first half of the season, leading the league with 470 runs and showing no signs of slowing down. That is, until now, when his team has been shut out in back-to-back games, the same amount of times the Blue Jays were held scoreless in the first 87 games of the season.
The start of Friday night’s series opener was delayed two hours and seven minutes as a thunderstorm slowly rolled over Kauffman Stadium. But that didn’t seem to bother Blue Jays starter Marco Estrada, who pitched a useful game for his team, throwing 6.2 innings of two-run ball.
“Estrada was good—he really was,” Gibbons said. “He did a nice job. He’s basically done that every time he’s gone out there for us.”
The 32-year-old suffered a scare in the first inning when Eric Hosmer squared up an 88-mph fastball and sent it right back at Estrada who took it off the outside of his right shin. Gibbons came out to see his starter and Estrada told him he couldn’t feel his leg. That’s when Gibbons gave Estrada the option of leaving the game or pitching through it.
“I didn’t want to come out,” Estrada said. “I just tried to space it out. I wasn’t really thinking about it.”
Estrada threw a couple tentative warm-up pitches before deciding to battle through and, naturally, recorded the third out of the inning with his very next pitch. That helped Estrada remain in the game as he was able to head directly back to the clubhouse and get his leg treated by the Blue Jays training staff.
“I was able to wrap it right away. That helped a lot. It hurt, obviously. He hit me pretty good,” Estrada said. “I might need a few days. I’m just glad I was able to get through it and give the guys some innings.
Estrada went on to give up runs in the second and fourth, but otherwise worked effectively, pitching to contact and using Kauffman Stadium’s vast outfield to get 14 outs in the air. The pain in his leg limited his delivery and his ability to use his back leg, which caused him to mis-locate some of his pitches. But the combination of a big ballpark and damp, post-storm air worked together to help keep the ball in the yard.
“I left some pitches up that were hit up in the air. I gave up some hard hits, gave up some soft hits, also gave up some hard outs and some soft outs. That’s just he way it goes,” said Estrada, who has now allowed two earned runs or less in each of his last five starts. “Even after I got hit, I told myself, ‘man, if I can just keep the ball from going out we should be okay.’”
Royals starter Danny Duffy, meanwhile, was equally effective if not overwhelming—he didn’t strike out a single batter—as he threw six innings of shutout ball and got the Blue Jays to ground out seven times.
“You could say he’s effectively wild. He’s got a good arm. He clutched up and made a good pitch here or there when he needed it; threw some good changeups,” Gibbons said. “He’s a great competitor. I know the guy. He competes out there.”
The most important part was getting the Royals to the sixth, where they were able to hand the shutout over to their lights-out bullpen, which did the rest of the work through shutout innings from Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis and Greg Holland.
“It really set up the way they like it to set up,” Gibbons said. “Really, all they need is five [innings.] And then they turn it over to those guys who have been pretty damn good.”
The Blue Jays had their chances early, putting runners on in each of the first four innings, but weren’t able to capitalize. The most glaring missed opportunity came in the fourth when Danny Valencia and Russell Martin reached base but didn’t move any further as the next three batters—Dioner Navarro, Kevin Pillar and Devon Travis—made unproductive outs.
The closest the Blue Jays came to scoring was likely in the first when, with Jose Bautista on first, Edwin Encarnacion drilled a full count pitch from Duffy 400 feet to left-centre field where it fell into Lorenzo Cain’s glove for a loud third out. In all, the Blue Jays put a runner on in seven of their innings Friday night, but came away empty handed—a familiar feeling of late for baseball’s most productive offence.
“We had pressure. We had guys on base all night,” Gibbons said. “We just couldn’t come through.”