DUNEDIN, Fla. – The Toronto Blue Jays split their squad in half, sent one group to Lakeland to play the Tigers, kept one home to face Houston and suffered their second and third straight losses of the spring – getting blanked at home for the second straight day and winding up on the wrong side of a back-and-forth battle down the road.
Joe Siddall and I did the broadcast of the home loss, so that would be the game into which I have more insight:
THE GOOD STUFF
SOLID STROMAN: Making his second start of the spring, Marcus Stroman only gave up one hard-hit ball in 2.2 innings of work – a leadoff single in the first to Robbie Grossman. He struck out three of the next five hitters and got ground balls from the other two. In all Stroman only gave up the one ball in the air in facing 11 hitters, and when his control deserted him in the third he still managed (with help) to keep the Astros off the board because off a double-play grounder he induced off the bat of Gregorio Petit.
CANADIAN MAKING HIS CASE: Jeff Francis made his second appearance of the spring and while it wasn’t a perfect frame like the one he pitched in Sarasota Thursday night, he still made short work of the Astros after allowing a leadoff single to Matt Dominguez. The B.C. native has a shot at a spot in the bullpen should the Blue Jays decide to keep a third lefty with Brett Cecil getting some (or most) of the closing duties. If that’s how the bullpen aligns, that job would likely go to either Francis or Colt Hynes.
ANOTHER CANADIAN SHOWS HIS STUFF: Russell Martin hadn’t yet been challenged by a base runner this spring, but Grossman took off stealing after his first-inning single and Martin gunned him down with a perfect throw to second. Martin now trails young A.J. Jimenez by only two in the “runners caught stealing” category. He also singled and walked, reaching base in two of his three plate appearances as he gears up to catch R.A. Dickey’s flutterball on Tuesday.
THE LESS THAN GOOD STUFF
LACK OF COMMAND: Despite the fact that the Blue Jays lost only 1-0 to Houston, it was not a good day for the pitching staff. Blue Jays hurlers combined to issue seven walks and hit a batter, and they were helped out by Grossman’s caught stealing and by Aaron Loup picking Jake Marisnick off first to end the fourth. As well, the Houstons managed just one hit in nine at-bats with runners in scoring position.
In his shaky third inning, Stroman handed three of the four batters he faced free passage to first base; Ryan Tepera walked a pair in the sixth, putting himself in a position to be victimized by Marisnick’s 80-foot floater RBI single; and Cory Burns walked two – each on four pitches – in working a shutout eighth inning.
HE WHO HESITATES: Every team spends a tonne of time on pitchers’ fielding practice in the spring, but Loup was too slow making a throw to second on a Marisnick comebacker in the fourth inning and the Blue Jays settled for just one out instead of turning two. Loup hesitated, waiting for either Jose Reyes or Maicer Izturis to get to the bag at second, instead of leading Reyes there with his throw and giving his shortstop a chance to make it a twin killing. There appeared to be a bit of miscommunication as to who was going to take the bag, so it wasn’t all Loup’s fault, for sure. But spring training is for ironing out such things, and they still have almost a month left until opening day.
WHITHER THE BIG BATS: Getting shut out twice in a row in front of the home crowd isn’t much fun, and the Blue Jays only really had a couple of good opportunities to score in the entire game. Reyes led off the bottom of the first with a double, but Martin struck out and after a Chris Dickerson grounder moved Reyes to third, Justin Smoak grounded out to end the inning. In the fifth, back-to-back two-out walks to Reyes and Martin loaded the bases for Dickerson, who lunged at an off-speed pitch and hit a weak tapper back to the mound.
It should be pointed out that only three or four of the Jays expected to play every day were in the lineup, and Reyes, Martin, Izturis and Kevin Pillar combined to go 3-for-8 with three walks and a hit by pitch. Smoak and Danny Valencia were each 0-for-4, though.
The Blue Jays will try to snap their losing streak when Kyle Gibson and the Minnesota Twins pay a visit to The FAES on Tuesday. Dickey is slated to pitch the first three innings, so we’ll be monitoring how good Martin looks behind the plate with him, and we should also see bullpen hopefuls Steve Delabar, Wilton Lopez and Kyle Drabek. Joe Siddall and I will have the broadcast for you online at 1:00 p.m. EST.