TORONTO – Losing two of three to the Baltimore Orioles and getting stymied by Miguel Gonzalez in Thursday night’s 2-1 loss isn’t the end of the world for the Toronto Blue Jays.
The two teams played a crisp, entertaining and hard-fought ballgame in the rubber match, and such disappointing setbacks happen.
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The thing to fret about is the next six games against Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners, when the list of starters the Blue Jays face is as follows: Anibal Sanchez; Max Scherzer; David Price; Felix Hernandez; Chris Young; and Hisashi Iwakuma.
The highest earned-run average in the bunch is Sanchez’s 3.37. The lowest is Hernandez’s 1.97. The group makes facing Gonzalez look like a walk in the park.
Oh, and did we mention Melky Cabrera is day-to-day with a golf-ball-sized welt on his right elbow after getting plunked in the first inning?
Yikes.
Now, if the Blue Jays offence was rolling and at full strength the way it was during its torrid May and early June, or as opportunistic as it was during the 11-3 stretch coming out of the all-star break, the outlook wouldn’t be as worrisome.
But when J.A. Happ delivers the type of dominant performance he did Thursday – a career-high 12 strikeouts over a season-best eight innings – and still gets hung with the loss because of a single mistake, a two-run homer to Caleb Joseph in the fourth inning, there’s the potential for serious trouble ahead.
“That’s the big-leagues,” said manager John Gibbons. “If you’re going to win anything, you’ve got to beat those guys. They’re all right in it and if you’re good enough you’ll do it, and if you’re not you won’t. It’s pretty simple.
“When you pitch like we have the last couple of nights, we at least give ourselves a pretty good shot.”
The Blue Jays (61-55) now trail the Orioles (65-49) by five games in the American League East while the chase for the second wild-card keeps getting tighter and tighter. The next six games won’t define the season, but they’ll certainly alter its course.
That’s why squandering Happ’s superb effort is such a shame.
The left-hander, who has emerged into a stabilizing force in the Blue Jays rotation, worked out of trouble in the early innings but paid for a 2-0 fastball that was “just a bad pitch” to Joseph in the fourth, cashing in J.J. Hardy’s leadoff double ahead of him.
Happ, who took a hard-luck no-decision last Friday in Houston where he allowed one run over seven innings, retired his final 14 batters from there. His previous best for strikeouts in a game was 10, which he accomplished twice.
Similar efforts will surely be required in the days to come.
“We’re not trying to put that kind of pressure but just to go out and keep us in the ballgame,” said Happ. “You never know who’s going to be the guy. The (Orioles) have so many great hitters up and down their lineup, you might not guess that Joseph was going to be the guy but he was.
“Hopefully we have some of that, too.”
Gonzalez matched Happ for six innings, catching a break in the fourth when Colby Rasmus ripped a ball to right that bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double, preventing Danny Valencia, at first after a fielder’s choice, from scoring easily.
With men on second and third, Goins flew out to centre to end the threat.
Gose’s homer opened the fifth but the Blue Jays managed just one hit from there, with deadline addition Andrew Miller, Darren O’Day and Zach Britton each providing a shutdown inning of relief to close the win out.
In the ongoing absence of Adam Lind and Edwin Encarnacion, who both may soon return, and with Brett Lawrie back on the DL, the Blue Jays have tried to play more small-ball and made attempts to create offence.
That’s easier said than done.
“When situations come up we’ve bunted at times, we’ve done a little hit and run, but you’ve got to get guys on and the right guys,” said Gibbons. “But our lineup is what it is right now, there are some guys that have been doing a good job, some nights you’re going to get that big hit, some nights you’re not. …
“Let’s be realistic, we’re missing the home-run ball, that’s a big part of what we are, you know?”
That identity is about to be tested, in games that are about to get a whole lot tougher.
Notes: Melky Cabrera left the game before his at-bat in the third, with Nolan Reimold taking his place. Miguel Gonzalez’s fastball caught the left-fielder flush on the side of the elbow. “It got him pretty good, he’s got a nice welt and seam marks on his arm,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “It locked up on him when he was trying to hit underneath the stands. He’s wasn’t able to give us a good effort, but I don’t think it’s a big deal.” … After the game the Blue Jays optioned left-hander Rob Rasmussen to triple-A Buffalo to clear space for infielder Steve Tolleson’s return from the paternity list Friday.