TORONTO – Back in May when the Toronto Blue Jays last played the Boston Red Sox, they swept a three-game series at Fenway Park by a combined score of 20-10, making the World Series champions look like a total non-factor in the AL East.
Much has changed since then, and while it’s premature to call the Red Sox contenders in a division apparently destined to be won by default, they’re certainly giving others cause to reconsider their long-held afterthought status.
A thorough 14-1 dismantling of a limp Blue Jays squad made for rude reintroduction to their hosts in the first of four at the Rogers Centre, and underlined how the two teams are heading in different directions.
The victory was a fifth straight for the Red Sox (47-52) and pulled them within 3.5 games of the second-place Blue Jays (51-49) in the standings. Instead of selling off pieces at the trade deadline, they’re rethinking their stance much in the same way the Tampa Bay Rays are.
Each victory adds to the belief that they can be a real factor, and slugger David Ortiz, who promised Sunday that he’d soon be hotter than Jamaica in August, offered the following to reporters after hitting a pair of home runs: “Put it down like this: I’m on my way to Jamaica.”
And the Blue Jays? They’re stuck on Antarctica waiting for the middle of their lineup to return from injury in about two weeks and rescue them, hoping no team surges away in the interim, amid legitimate doubts whether GM Alex Anthopoulos has the financial resources to add impactful external help.
Good times.
The different momentum each team is riding played out early, with Drew Hutchison coming apart after an electric 10-pitch, nine-strike first inning en route to allowing six runs in 2.2 innings.
On the heels of a six-run, six-hit, five-walk effort in five innings during his previous start before the all-star break, it was a disappointing beginning to the second half for Hutchison, who must be good for the Blue Jays to have a chance.
“I put us in a terrible position and didn’t really give us a chance to win,” said Hutchison. “In the process I made it real tough on our bullpen. …
“It was just a lack of execution and a lack of getting the job done.”
Also, it was a lack of consistency with his slider and changeup, leaving him overly reliant on his fastball.
“For strikes, his secondary stuff wasn’t really in there,” said catcher Erik Kratz. “The first inning, he didn’t need it, so that was good. But I challenge anybody to look back at the game and tell me which balls were hit hard that he shouldn’t have thrown or that he missed his location. He survives a lot on his fastball, and that’s something that when you look back on it, it may have ended up hurting him that he didn’t throw those (off-speed) pitches for a strike.
“We tried to work the changeup in, they did a good job of laying off of it.”
Recent waiver claim Brad Mills came on in relief and was as effective as a batting practice machine, surrendering eight runs on eight hits – three of them homers, two by Ortiz – in two innings of work.
Rob Rasmussen and Todd Redmond followed and you know it’s been a thoroughly dreadful night when a team has to mop up for its mop-up man. That’s the way this one went down.
“We needed him to do that, he’s our long guy, that’s what he’s there for, otherwise you’re using everybody,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said of leaving Mills out despite his ineffectiveness. “He hasn’t pitched in a while, but that’s no excuse. I thought he had a nice little breaking ball, that’s a key for him.
“But they squared him up pretty good, too.”
Offensively, meanwhile, the Blue Jays reverted back to recent poor form after exploding for 13 runs during two straight wins against the Texas Rangers over the weekend.
They managed two – TWO! – hits in eight innings off John Lackey via consecutive doubles in the third by Kratz and Juan Francisco. Steve Tolleson added a base hit in the ninth against reliever Craig Breslow, but beyond that it was a big bag of thanks for coming out.
The 14 runs were the most surrendered by the Blue Jays since a similarly bleak 15-4 drubbing from the Cleveland Indians on May 14. They responded then with a run of 12 wins in 13 games immediately after that, including the three-game sweep of the Red Sox.
How they respond this time now will go a long way in determining what the Blue Jays are made of.