The atmosphere at Safeco Field on the weekend was rather extraordinary, but what happened on the field was all-too-typical for the Blue Jays.
On Friday the team’s potent offence was silenced by a true ace, on Saturday it came alive to cancel out another poor Drew Hutchison road start, and on Sunday the bullpen–which had been excellent all weekend– relinquished another lead. It would be difficult to script three more familiar 2015 Blue Jays storylines.
With four days until the non-waiver trade deadline the team is stuck in neutral with a 50-50 record looking for an addition that can help them find some consistency down the stretch.
Here are five takeaways from the series loss:
Holding leads remains an issue for the Blue Jays
The relief core is the easiest place to point the finger following Sunday’s loss to the Mariners as they coughed up yet another lead.
On one hand that seems a little bit unfair. The bullpen was called on to pitch 12.2 innings in relief over three games and only allowed three runs. However, the relievers allowed those three runs at the worst possible time–when the team was ahead by two.
The unit was overworked, but they had an opportunity to grant the Blue Jays a big series win and instead left the team back at .500 after another dispiriting loss.
The Blue Jays need a rotation upgrade
While the bullpen ended up costing the Blue Jays the rubber match, the rotation cost them the series.
Toronto’s starters managed just 13.2 innings of 8.56 ERA ball in a pitchers’ park against a mediocre lineup.
The relief core could undoubtedly use another arm, but with Aaron Sanchez back in the fold things look brighter there despite Sunday’s collapse.
On the other hand, this team really needs at least one more starter if they want to make a late run.
Running on Mark Buehrle is not a good idea
Buehrle is one of the masters of the little things in pitching.
He works quickly, he fields his position, and he holds runners like almost no one else in the game.
In the southpaw’s 16-year career opposing base runners have stolen bases off of him successfully a mere 42 percent of the time. He’s picked off far more runners (101) than he’s allowed to steal (59).
On Sunday Kyle Seager learned just how dangerous it is to get caught leaning against the Buehrle.
Aaron Sanchez is picking up where he left off
John Gibbons is not easing Sanchez back into the bullpen with low-leverage work, instead throwing him right into the fire and hoping he can be the late-game weapon he was last year.
So far, so good.
The right-hander appeared twice in this series with the game tied in the eighth inning. He responded with two scoreless frames and recorded even the win on Saturday afternoon.
Ezequiel Carrera played the series of his life
Sometimes in baseball, as in life, completely inexplicable things happen.
In this series, Ezequiel Carrera’s Herculean performance was one of those things. In the first 624 plate appearance of his career he hit three home runs, in six against the Mariners he hit two.
Not only that, but he took a home run away from Mike Zunino on Sunday to cap off an outstanding weekend.
For those counting at home that’s three net home runs in two days for the reserve outfielder.
