CLEVELAND, Oh. – The Blue Jays got off to a rough start to their final road trip of the unofficial first half, wasting a strong starting pitching performance and getting blanked by the Indians.
Here are three things that stood out to me about the loss in Cleveland (well, two things, and one other thing about something else):
ONE LITTLE BLIP
The much-maligned Josh Johnson had one of his better outings for the Blue Jays in his 11th start of the season, dominating the Indians but for a four-batter run in the bottom of the fourth.
Johnson has taken a lot of grief from Blue Jays fans and observers so far this season, and with good reason. Once one of the best pitchers in the game, he was expected to be a key piece of what was supposed to be a tremendous Blue Jays’ rotation this season, and he hasn’t delivered. He’s allowed four or more runs six times and had pitched more than six innings only three times going into Tuesday night’s start.
But Johnson was excellent in the opener against the Indians. He retired the first 10 batters he faced and eleven of the last twelve, the only blemish over those runs being a two-out walk to Nick Swisher in the sixth. In between, though, four straight Indians reached base in that fourth.
Asdrubal Cabrera walked to take away Johnson’s very early shot at perfection, then Jason Kipnis singled up the middle on the next pitch to break up the no-hit bid. Swisher and Michael Brantley followed with RBI singles to right field to put the Tribe on the board and they didn’t get another hit off Johnson as he went on to complete seven innings of work.
Johnson wound up with nothing to show for it, though, because…
A CLUTCH HIT WOULD BE NICE
While the Indians managed to cash three runs despite having only two real opportunities to score in the ballgame, the Blue Jays made sport of leaving men on base early in the game.
The Jays had at least one runner on in each of the first five innings, including back to back frames in which they had a runner at second base with nobody out, and couldn’t manage to score. No well-timed fly balls, no bloop hits that fell in, no nothing. The Jays were 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position through those first five innings, and they didn’t get a runner past first again until the ninth.
The best chance came in the fourth, with the game still locked up 0-0. Colby Rasmus led the inning off with a double and Maicer Izturis followed with a single – his sixth hit in nine at-bats. With nobody out and a potentially close play at the plate, Rasmus was held at third, so the Blue Jays had runners on the corners. Rajai Davis was next, and he hit a little tapper back to the mound. Ubaldo Jimenez froze Rasmus at third and threw to second to get Izturis. Davis was safe at first, and didn’t wait long to steal second.
J.P. Arencibia, who earlier walked and later singled, struck out looking to leave it up to Emilio Bonifacio, who flied out to the warning track in the right-field corner on a 3-2 pitch, and the opportunity had slipped away.
That was the bottom of the line-up, and that can happen with your poorest hitters up (though Izturis is on fire right now, at the very least), but in the fifth the Blue Jays had Jose Reyes lead off with a single and steal second for the meat of the order.
But Jose Bautista flied to left and both Edwin Encarnacion and Adam Lind grounded out.
The ninth inning rally got the tying run to the plate thanks to singles by Izturis (who is 10 for his last 17) and Davis, but Arencibia struck out on three pitches and pinch-hitter Josh Thole lined to short to end it.
LAWRIE A BISON
Brett Lawrie’s debut with the Blue Jays’ top farm club in Buffalo went awfully well. Lawrie had a two-hit night in the Bisons’ win in Syracuse, with an RBI single, a stolen base and a two-run homer, backing a strong start by Ricky Romero.
The surprising thing is that Lawrie was the Bisons’ second baseman.
He’d played second before this season, while he was rehabbing his original ribcage strain with the Dunedin Blue Jays back in April, but hasn’t done it in the big leagues yet. General manager Alex Anthopoulos told me that it was just another chance for the Jays to take a look at him at the position.
The Blue Jays add some flexibility by keeping Lawrie able to play second, and he told Bisons’ broadcaster Ben Wagner that he looks forward to the opportunity to share the middle infield with Jose Reyes someday. More importantly, Lawrie also said in that interview that he’s physically fine, and the rehab stint is now all about getting at-bats as opposed to recovering from the injury that has been an issue for him since early March.