TORONTO – Over his previous three outings Drew Hutchison appeared to be building toward the consistency he’s sought all season, throwing strikes, limiting hard contact and controlling games. That progress continued for five innings Friday night before the right-hander hit a hard and sudden stop that led to the Toronto Blue Jays’ most lopsided loss in two months.
Everything happened quickly, and at times, strangely in a 10-2 drubbing from the Baltimore Orioles, their first loss by more than three runs since an 8-3 setback July 4 at Detroit.
A two-run Chris Davis homer slapped over the wall in left field broke a 2-2 tie right after the Blue Jays had evened the score, and things took a turn for the bizarre when Matt Wieters slashed a ball to left that a leaping Ben Revere inadvertently pushed over the wall for a second solo shot.
Two more hits followed and over a span of eight pitches a once promising outing came to an abrupt end.
“I made my pitch to (Adam) Jones on the single and there’s no excuse for the home run,” lamented Hutchison. “It was a pitch away off the plate but if you’re going to go there against him, it’s got to be down. Just a bad pitch, and the same can be said of the next one to Wieters, not down enough and he’s a strong guy.
“Just disappointing to feel good and be throwing the ball so well, and us come back and tie it, and you need to go out there and put up a zero and give us a chance to take it from there, and I didn’t do that.”
Maybe it was the pre-game visit from Liberal leader Justin Trudeau that turned things sideways. The Blue Jays’ 11-game win streak ended Aug. 14 when NDP leader Thomas Mulcair attended a 4-3 loss to the New York Yankees, and they lost 4-2 on Monday after a visit from Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Curse of the politicos?
“Stay away,” quipped manager John Gibbons.
The loss was costly as combined with a 5-2 Yankees win over the Tampa Bay Rays, the Blue Jays’ lead atop the AL East was cut to a half-game.
After the Wieters homer, Hutchison allowed a double down the third-base line to Jonathan Schoop and a single to Jimmy Paredes – the fourth and fifth straight hits off him – before Gibbons came to pull the plug on the 25-year-old, who’s been a focal point since being dropped one turn of the rotation late last month, and with Marcus Stroman coming hard in his return from a knee injury.
Stroman starting won’t be a certainty unless he shows well in his next and final rehab start Monday for triple-A Buffalo against Pawtucket, and the Blue Jays won’t let one bad inning derail Hutchison’s recent gains. But clearly the leash is short in this September of consequence, especially if Stroman proves ready to be a real option.
Still, Hutchison looked sharp at times Friday with three three-up, three-down innings. And perhaps things play out differently if Jose Bautista had managed to snare the Ryan Flaherty RBI double lined over his head that he managed to get a glove on. Instead it dropped and put the Orioles up 2-0, coming a few batters after Davis opened the scoring with a resounding solo blast to right.
Davis continues to maul the Blue Jays, and now has 40 home runs this season, although he was just 4-for-20 against Hutchison coming in.
“I thought he was fine going into that sixth inning,” Gibbons said of Hutchison. “He was strong, he didn’t labour at all. It happened fast, really. This part of September, he’s one of your starters you lean on, I don’t think you can panic and yank him after five innings. He’s been good, he’s been really good at home, I don’t think anybody does that.”
Typically Hutchison gets plenty of run support, but it didn’t happen against Ubaldo Jimenez, who despite walking six still helped the Orioles to just their fourth win in their past 17 outings before a sellout crowd of 46,201.
The Blue Jays scratched out a run in the second when Jimenez couldn’t snare the relay from Manny Machado on a potential 3-6-1 double play ball from Ryan Goins, allowing Chris Colabello to score on the play.
They then eked out another in the fifth when Josh Donaldson’s sacrifice fly brought home Goins that tied things 2-2 before things opened up. Potential rallies in the fourth and sixth were snuffed out on 5-4-3 double plays hit into by Russell Martin.
“He was getting me to ground out into double plays, that’s pretty much the only thing he did tonight,” said Martin. “I felt like guys were getting good ABs off him, we had him on the ropes a couple of times, and the worst feeling in the world is hitting the ball into a nobody out double play. I did it twice, I feel like this one is on me a little bit. Put it behind us and get ready for the next one.”
Liam Hendriks took over from Hutchison with men on the corners, surrendered a turf single that cued oddly in front of the mound to Steve Pearce that loaded the bases but he limited the damage to just a Machado sacrifice fly.
The Orioles blew the doors off in the eighth against Bo Schultz, Gerardo Parra ripping an RBI double and Adam Jones adding a two-run shot.
David Price started for the Tigers in the July 4 loss that was their most decisive defeat until Friday. The left-hander takes the mound Saturday for the Blue Jays trying to get them back on track.