TORONTO, Ont. – It was another one of those ugly, frustrating losses for the Blue Jays. One of many that we’ve seen so far this season.
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Here are three things that stood out to me about the latest Jays defeat:
QUIT LETTING GUYS OFF THE HOOK
Ryan Dempster, who went six innings to pick up his second win of the season, was extremely gettable in the early-going, but Brett Lawrie was the only one who got him.
Lawrie led off the bottom of the first inning with his third home run of the season, and the Blue Jays managed to get five of their next 11 hitters on base, but none of them came around to score, thanks in large part to a couple of double plays bounced into by Edwin Encarnacion.
In fairness, Encarnacion has been far and away the Blue Jays’ best hitter over the last couple of weeks, but Thursday wasn’t his night. He bounced into a twin-killing to end the first, then, after Dempster walked the bases loaded in the third, Edwin got ahead in the count 2-0 and, after a mound visit from Red Sox pitching coach Juan Nieves, swung at the next pitch and bounced into another double play. Dempster then retired nine of the next ten hitters he faced and the Blue Jays didn’t threaten again until the seventh inning.
The Blue Jays have spent most of this not-so-young-anymore season letting pitchers off the hook – and this isn’t to pin the loss on Encarnacion, not at all. Again, six of the Jays’ first dozen hitters reached base, then only one of the next eleven.
J.A. HOUDINI
J.A. Happ had been the Blue Jays’ most effective starter so far this season, a major surprise given the other four guys who make up the rotation, but he had a terrible outing against the Red Sox, saved miraculously by the Sox’ inability to cash in on their early opportunities.
Happ retired the side in order in the first, on three fly balls to Jose Bautista, and was pretty terrible the rest of the way. Happ didn’t make it out of the fourth inning and tied his career-worst with seven walks – four of them coming in the fourth, an inning in which the Red Sox failed to score, thanks to a well-timed double-play ball off the bat of David Ross and Brad Lincoln coming in to get Dustin Pedroia to ground out and end the inning.
In recording just 11 outs, Happ allowed ten baserunners and threw 95 pitches, with more balls than strikes. Somehow, he managed to dance between the raindrops enough to only allow two runs, but that was just an awful start.
COLBY’S HEATING UP
With the Blue Jays’ offence shooting blanks, aside from Encarnacion and Adam Lind, Colby Rasmus has quietly started to get things going.
The much-maligned centrefielder, who has struck out 40 times in only 91 at-bats this season, had a three-hit night in Thursday’s loss. Rasmus has six hits in his last 12 at-bats and, believe it or not, now has the second-best batting average among active Blue Jays, trailing only Rajai Davis.