LAKELAND, Fla. – Every once in a while, you see one of those games in which the weather is such a huge factor that it almost takes over completely. This was one of those games.
There wasn’t a cloud in the sky over Joker Marchant Stadium Wednesday afternoon and that, coupled with a hard wind blowing almost directly across the stadium from left field to right field, made every single ball hit into the air an incredible adventure.
Five pop flies were dropped – and on two of them, the fielders had absolutely no idea where the ball was. No less than four Tigers surrounded a Lars Anderson pop-up in the seventh, and it fell in anyway. Two batters later, Ryan Langerhans hit a pop-up to shortstop on which Dixon Machado completely bailed.
Lance Zawadzki took an Andy Dirks pop-up off the wrist as he staggered underneath it, and Avisail Garcia raced into right-centre to haul in a Ryan Schimpf fly ball in the ninth, only to have it go off his glove.
That’s not to mention all the other balls in the air that were caught, but still required Yakety Sax to be played over the ballpark P.A. system as the fielders either bobbled it, juggled it or even did the hokey-pokey underneath it before the ball finally settled into a glove.
Brandon Morrow held the Tigers hitless through the first two innings, but a hit batsman, a walk and the dropped pop-up by Zawadzki put Detroit on the board in the first. Morrow gave up a leadoff double to Austin Jackson in the third – a ground ball that took a bad hop and went off the glove of Andy LaRoche at third – and then hit the showers, having reached his prescribed pitch count of 45.
Brett Cecil took over and did a good job to strand that double, though he got a lot of help from Langerhans, who ran down a two-out blast by Prince Fielder at the right-field wall.
Cecil came back out for an unscheduled second inning of work, and got Dirks to hit a high fly into centrefield. Anthony Gose turned a couple of different ways trying to pull it out of the sun but he never could, and the ball fell harmlessly to the ground, about three feet to Gose’s right, for a leadoff double. Two strikeouts and a walk later, Bryan Holaday got the Tigers’ first legitimate hit – a rope double into the gap in left-centre that scored a pair.
Aaron Loup impressed again out of the bullpen, working a scoreless seventh. He struck out a pair and got two ground balls, one of which made it through the infield for a single. Loup has thrown four innings this spring and has yet to be scored on. He hasn’t walked a man, either.
It’s been thought that Loup and Cecil may be competing for the same job in the Blue Jays’ bullpen, but manager John Gibbons says that’s not the case. Gibbons sees Loup as a one-inning guy – not a lefty specialist, but a one-inning reliever – although he may not be aware that Loup threw more than one inning in nearly one-third of his appearances with the Blue Jays last season. With his past as a starting pitcher, Cecil is seen as someone who could fill a long relief role, though his career numbers suggest he’d be much better off being that lefty specialist.
Gibbons mentioned in his pre-game scrum that there was one spot available in the Blue Jays’ bullpen, two if Casey Janssen has to start the season on the disabled list. That’s interesting, because the belief had been that there were two open spots, with Janssen, Sergio Santos, Darren Oliver, Steve Delabar and Esmil Rogers the only relievers having jobs locked up.
If there is a sixth job that has been taken, one wonders if it’s been taken by Loup.
The others in the running for a bullpen job are Cecil, Brad Lincoln, Jeremy Jeffress and J.A. Happ (at least, the Blue Jays say he’s in the running, but in reality, he’s going to be the Opening Day starter in Buffalo), and they’re all people Gibbons sees as potential multiple-inning guys, which is the spot that’s open.
Maybe Loup does have a job locked down, although one can also see Neil Wagner making an out-of-nowhere run for that spot. The 29 year-old righty, a seven-year minor-league veteran who had a bitter cup of big-league coffee with the A’s in 2011, has given up two hits and a walk in four scoreless innings this spring, striking out five and impressing with a fastball that he can run up there at a consistent 97 miles an hour.
It’s much too early in spring for Wagner to have been handed a spot – there are still more than three weeks of games remaining – but he’s certainly making his presence felt.
Adam Lind is doing likewise, so far taking advantage of what might well be his last shot at full-time big-league work with the Blue Jays. Lind was the only Jay to reach base against Justin Verlander, drawing a walk and ripping a double into the gap in left-centre. The double was Lind’s third of the spring, his fourth extra-base hit in 19 Grapefruit at-bats. He’s now hitting .474/.478/.842, third on the team behind Jose Reyes and Mark DeRosa, both of whom are hitting over .600.
The Blue Jays will try to get back to the .500 mark for the spring as they hit the road to Sarasota for a date with the Orioles on Thursday afternoon. Mark Buehrle will start for the Jays, and is expected to go three innings. Jason Hammel will oppose. Colby Rasmus, who hasn’t played since February 27th thanks to a sore right (non-throwing) shoulder, is expected to be back in the line-up. Sergio Santos was originally slotted to pitch in the game, but was bumped from the outing due to a sore triceps muscle for which the team ordered an MRI, that was done Wednesday and came back clean. The Blue Jays hope Santos can take the ball on Saturday, but will be exceedingly cautious, especially given how much time there is between now and Opening Day.
Dirk Hayhurst and I will have the call for you on sportsnet590.ca, beginning at 1:00pm Eastern – join us, won’t you?