Yeah, well, that Troy Tulowitzki stuff sucks. Seriously. Never mind the fact that he wasn’t hitting a lick, his mere presence in the middle of the lineup was notable – especially with Russ Martin’s middle of the order bat cold – and his defence was game-changing. The Blue Jays played baseball better than their opponents with him in the lineup.
But pining for Tulowitzki is pointless. Best-case scenario is he’s back for the playoffs, which means putting away the American League East title and avoiding the one-game wild card to buy more time for healing. Ryan Goins is a more than adequate defensive replacement; the Blue Jays were scoring runs by the bushel without much of a contribution from him. Seriously, you want to worry about the Blue Jays offence, worry about Edwin Encarnacion’s finger.
Three weeks from today the regular season will be over and at this stage you can let your mind wander. Did Aaron Sanchez’s problems in the first game of the doubleheader hint of difficulty ahead? Can Roberto Osuna keep this up? What if Mark Buehrle gets knocked around by the Atlanta Braves? Look, if it means anything every other contender has problems, too. Yeah, it’s all relative … but let’s catalogue those problems, shall we? Let’s help each other feel a wee bit better.
Chicago Cubs: All you need to know about the Cubs bullpen is that it added Fernando Rodney out of need. Keep an eye on Carl Williams, a 24-year-old right-hander whose late-season audition is reminding manager Joe Maddon of Francisco Rodriguez’s age 20 season with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Maddon told reporters that his bullpen’s inconsistency “occupies my thought process on a daily basis.” The Cubs bullpen earned-run average of 3.62 is third-worst of all contenders.
Houston Astros: For all the time they’ve spent either tied for first place or in sole possession of first in the American League West, the Astros have a 29-42 road record that is second worst among all contending teams. Carlos Gomez could be done for the remainder of the regular season with an intercostal strain. He hasn’t provided the offensive boost expected when he was acquired at the trade deadline but he had quietly put together a .300 run and was playing solid defence.
Kansas City Royals: Suddenly, rental ace Johnny Cueto is burying his team early. Sunday night, working on six days rest, he gave up a three-run first inning home run to the Baltimore Orioles‘ Adam Jones. In his last three starts, Cueto has allowed seven first-inning runs, matching his first-inning run total in his first 25 starts, both with the Royals and Cincinnati Reds. Sunday’s loss marked the first time in Cueto’s career that he lost five consecutive games; his ERA over that stretch is 9.57. It’s nothing physical, he maintains – which is, of course, the problem. Closer Greg Holland’s 1.83 WHIP since the all-star break has not yet become a problem, but there is concern that wrapping up the AL Central so early might have taken a bit of the edge off the Royals. The Blue Jays are within striking distance of having the best record in the AL thanks to the Royals skid, which would give them home-field advantage through the playoffs, World Series included.
Los Angeles Angels: Eleven of their final 20 games are against teams with records over .500. There’s a sense that time has run out on the Angels and with it another missed season of having Albert Pujols and Mike Trout in the same lineup.
Los Angeles Dodgers: They have done well without the other-worldly talents of Yasiel Puig, who is expected to be out for the remainder of the regular season with a hamstring strain. But like the Cubs they, too, have bullpen issues – and nothing can remove the lingering image of Clayton Kershaw’s post-season meltdown. Mat Latos was acquired from the Miami Marlins at the trade deadline to be the third starter in the post-season and he’s in the bullpen with a stiff neck and an ERA of 6.56. Carl Crawford and Jimmy Rollins are old, and are fighting nagging injuries.
Minnesota Twins: When you’re 10th in the AL in ERA, have the lowest strikeouts-per-nine innings ratio and are 10th in pitching WAR and within a game of the wild card, you’re playing with house money. Nothing to worry about, here.
New York Mets: The Mets have effectively put away the NL East title, so they have time on their side in figuring out how to navigate their way around the Matt Harvey innings-limit issue. OK, let’s be honest: it’s hard to find anything to be down about if you’re a Mets fan, other than figuring out which young starting pitcher is going to be shunted to the bullpen in the best-of-five NLDS. With a magic number of 12 for their first division title since 2006, the biggest worry might be how a young, untested team keeps its edge through what could be 10 meaningless days at the end of the regular schedule. Wow.
New York Yankees: Mark Teixeira’s fractured leg has robbed the Yankees of an authoritative switch-hitting bat and sure-handed defence at first base, leaving that position in the hands of rookie Greg Bird. That double-header sweep at the hands of the Blue Jays showed an awful lot of fraying at the seams. Manager Joe Girardi is wondering publicly about how much use he can get out of relievers Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller before their arms fall off, even as he’s addicted to having them on the mound e-v-e-r-y day.
Pittsburgh Pirates: Josh Harrison and Gregory Polanco’s lack of on-base percentage at the top of the order has been a talking point for much of the year, but it hasn’t stopped the Pirates from settling in comfortably into a playoff spot. The Aramis Ramirez experiment at first base has resulted in mixed returns.
St. Louis Cardinals: The Cardinals were reeling before an 11-2 win over the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday, losing eight of 10 and being outscored 20-3 through the first three games of the Reds series. Their usually efficient lineup has been hampered by cold spells on the part of Johnny Perralta (8-for-53) and Brandon Moss (0-for-23) and Cardinals fans have been expecting calamity all season long in the absence of Adam Wainwright. But remember: the 2006 Cardinals lost eight consecutive games in September, limped into the playoffs and won the World Series.
Texas Rangers: Newsflash: the Rangers still can’t score runs.
So there you go. Everybody has issues of one sort or another. Every contending team has doubts. Just remember: you could be the Washington Nationals.
QUIBBLES AND BITS
- Want to know how well the Astros are set up for the future? Consider this: in addition to the parent team leading or having a share of the lead in the AL West for 138 of 161 days, no fewer than seven of the organization’s affiliates made the post-season in their respective leagues: triple-A Fresno, double-A Corpus Christi, single-A Lancaster, Quad Cities, Greeneville, short-season Tri-City and the Dominican Summer League Astros. Not bad for an organization that pulled off in-season promotions to the majors of AL rookie of the year favourite Carlos Correa as well as Lance McCullers, Preston Tucker and Vincent Velasquez. No wonder the St. Louis Cardinals tried to hack into their computer system.
- Had a chat with Westwood One’s NFL analyst Mark Malone on my show on Thursday and the former quarterback agreed with an interesting observation made by St. Louis Rams general manager Les Snead that the onus might be on NFL teams to adapt to more and more college quarterbacks who are coming into the game with less experience in running and maintaining pro-style offences due to the preponderance of spread offences in the NCAA. Several offensive coordinators spent much of training camp complaining about needing to explain the basics of the pro game, such as running a huddle.
- Answer: Blake Bortles, Tyrod Taylor, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Marcus Mariota and Brian Hoyer or Ryan Mallett. Question: Who are the next six quarterbacks the 1-0 Miami Dolphins face after taking care of Kirk Cousins and the Washington Redskins in Week 1.
- The Cincinnati Reds were mathematically eliminated from post-season contention on Friday, but Etobicoke, Ont.’s Joey Votto has had quite the finishing kick, leading the majors in hitting (.382) and on-base percentage (.561) in the second half while being fifth in slugging at .682. He has a shot at leading the National League in on-base percentage for the fifth time in six seasons. Votto is just the third player in Reds history to produce at least 30 doubles in seven seasons, joining Pete Rose and Vada Pinson. Votto has gone hitless in consecutive games just 11 times this season.
THE END GAME
Forget that poor officiating late in the game. Canada’s men’s basketball team lost to Venezuela at the FIBA Americas competition because of odd rotation decisions by head coach Jay Triano and because it spit out the bit in the semifinal game against a wizened opponent – which reminded us all once again that despite its growing NBA pedigree, there is still a callowness to the Canadian team at this point in time. And so now its one last-gasp attempt to qualify for the Rio Olympics, through a one-game playoff that will cost between $3 million and $5 million to host. What a strange way to run a sport: drop the B, add the F, and FIBA becomes FIFA, just like that. At any rate, given the demands on governing bodies in this country, it would be nice if Canada Basketball remembers that it has one team that has already qualified for the Olympics: the women’s program. Might want to spread some cash around there, too, instead of going all-in on the men’s program.