TORONTO — The magic that allowed Ramon Ortiz, two days short of his 40th birthday, to vastly exceed expectations in his first two starts for the Toronto Blue Jays ran out in a hurry Tuesday night.
Gifted an opportunity to undo the damage done against him by the Tampa Bay Rays thanks to an eighth-inning error, J.P. Arencibia could not deliver the remedy.
Combined, the Blue Jays fell 4-3 in a contest in which they went 1 for 8 with runners in scoring position, including 0 for 4 after Jose Bautista’s RBI single had pulled them within two in the fateful eighth.
An ineffective Joel Peralta allowed the first three batters to reach, including Bautista’s single, before rallying to strike out Edwin Encarnacion. Adam Lind followed with a chopper to second that Ryan Roberts booted, preventing a sure inning-ending double play.
That left the bases loaded and Joe Maddon called upon closer Fernando Rodney to face J.P. Arencibia, who grounded the first pitch he saw to Roberts, who this time made no mistake on a 4-6-3 to end the threat.
Should Arencibia, who met with manager John Gibbons after the game and wasn’t available for comment, have been swinging at the first pitch with the bases loaded?
“I didn’t have any problem right there,” said Gibbons, who has talked to his catcher about being more selective at the plate. “The closer’s coming in, I think he hit a strike, he just hit it right at the guy. That wasn’t an at-bat to probably judge that off of, but we were chasing out of the zone a lot tonight.”
Rodney closed things out in the ninth — first allowing Colby Rasmus to double and score on a wild pitch — on a controversial called third strike on Melky Cabrera, as the Rays made the four runs they collected off Ortiz stand up.
“Right there at the end, that’s a pretty tough call, leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth,” said Rasmus. “But that’s baseball.”
—
WHERE THINGS STAND: The Blue Jays (18-27) lost for the third time in four games before a crowd of 15,802 under a closed roof at Rogers Centre and are now 3-3 this season versus the Rays (24-21), who won for the fourth time in five games.
Mark Buehrle (1-3, 6.33) takes on Jeremy Hellickson (2-2, 5.82) in Wednesday’s series finale.
—
THEY PUT IT ON THE GROUND: Rays starter Alex Cobb, who has stepped up in his first full season in the majors, gave the Blue Jays very little to work with, inducing 14 groundball outs and allowing only three hits and two walks over his 6.1 innings.
The right-hander surrendered a Colby Rasmus solo shot in the fifth, a massive drive off the ribbon scoreboard in right field, and was only in trouble once, when Bautista singled and Encarnacion walked with two out in the sixth inning. But shortstop Yunel Escobar’s diving stop on Lind’s grounder up the middle ended that threat.
“He’s got that split that’s pretty good,” Rasmus said of Cobb. “He spots up pretty well, all his pitches have pretty good movement on them, and that split, that’s what it’s for, to try and get ground balls and get you off his heater.”
Lind also had a hit taken away in the second, when Desmond Jennings chased down his line drive to the wall in centre field.
—
ROUGH NIGHT FOR RAMON: Ortiz was bled for one run in the second on an Evan Longoria dribbler down the line, a groundout that advanced him to third and a 5-3 by Luke Scott that brought him home, but promptly served up a solo blast to Kelly Johnson for a 2-0 Rays lead.
They doubled that in the third, when Jennings led off with a solo shot on the first pitch, and two hits and a fielder’s choice later, Gibbons came to fetch Ortiz. Luke Scott’s two-out RBI single off Aaron Loup cashed in Longoria to make it 4-0, although had the Blue Jays turned two on either of the two fielder’s choices they had in the inning, that run wouldn’t have come around.
The short start for Ortiz comes after outings of five innings versus the Red Sox and seven innings against the World Series champion San Francisco Giants.
“He didn’t have it tonight, his command was off and that’s what he needs,” Gibbons said in explaining the quick hook. “It was up, if it was down it’d be a little bit different but it was up. But he has pitched great for us, he really has, it was just one of those nights.”
Said Ortiz: “I feel so good today. I miss a couple pitches up in the zone, but I feel good. It’s baseball. … I didn’t have my best game today but I feel so happy and I have a lot of confidence in all my pitches. I know that everything (will) change. In five days I’ll be fine.”
—
MORE GOOD THAN BAD: Four straight walks to open the sixth inning spoiled what had been an otherwise strong start for Ricky Romero at triple-A Buffalo, who had allowed a run on only four hits and two walks through his first five frames before losing the zone.
Three of the four walks ended up scoring, making Romero’s line look far worse than it was. Either way, it was still the best of his three outings for the Bisons thus far, and should give him something positive to build upon, despite the wild end.
The night wasn’t as good for Dustin McGowan, who lasted only a third of an inning, allowing three runs on two hits and four walks.
Buffalo beat Charlotte 8-7 in 10 innings.
