The prospect of a 100-loss season looks all too real for the Blue Jays after an 0-6 road trip ended with a four-game sweep at Tropicana Field.
The Blue Jays are now 55-89 following Sunday’s 8-3 loss, their seventh in a row. That means they’ll have to go 8-10 down the stretch to avoid losing 100 for the first time since 1979. Considering the Blue Jays are about to spend the next week playing the Yankees and Red Sox, that’s not a small ask.
Ultimately, there’s no tangible difference between 99 losses and 100 or between 100 and 101. This has been a tough season either way. An 8-10 finish wouldn’t truly salvage anything and the cynics among us might note that a worse finish actually improves the Blue Jays’ 2019 draft position.
Fair enough – draft position does matter. At the same time, you can be sure that Charlie Montoyo and his coaching staff would like to avoid the 100-loss threshold if at all possible. Here are some observations after the Blue Jays’ latest loss in Tampa…
[snippet id=4545751]
HERNANDEZ STRUGGLES
With two on and one out in the bottom of the fifth inning, Avisail Garcia hit a fly ball to centre field. The ball left Garcia’s bat at 101.3 m.p.h., so it was definitely well-struck, but there was still ample time and space for a major-league centre fielder to make a play on this ball. Kevin Kiermaier makes this catch every time.
For Teoscar Hernandez, however, this play proved problematic. He appeared to misread the ball off the bat and it landed over his head for a run-scoring double.
That missed opportunity cost Jacob Waguespack, who had been reasonably effective through his first four innings of work. By the time the Blue Jays escaped the fifth, Waguespack had been charged with six earned runs, raising his season ERA to 4.55. While it wasn’t the right-hander’s best outing, better defence would have helped his cause.
At the plate, the day didn’t go much better for Hernandez, who struck out swinging three times. He batted 12 times during Toronto’s four-game set in Tampa, striking out in 10 of those trips to the plate.
MATCHING A CAREER HIGH
Randal Grichuk’s second-inning home run was no cheap shot. He turned around a 97 m.p.h. fastball from Tyler Glasnow, sending it over the centre field wall at Tropicana Field to match his career high with 25 homers.
With three weeks left in the season, Grichuk’s positioned to surpass last year’s total and approach 30 homers on the season. But while Grichuk was an above-average hitter last year (115 wRC+), his overall production has fallen off in 2019 (86 wRC+).
… AND SOME CONTEXT
Those 25 home runs lead the Blue Jays, though Hernandez (21) and Justin Smoak (20) aren’t so far behind.
Outside of Toronto, however, those home run totals wouldn’t stand out as much. At a time that home runs are leaving ballparks like never before, most teams already have a 30-homer hitter. And around baseball, only four other teams began the day without a 25-homer bat.
Rangers – (Danny Santana, 24)
Marlins – (Brian Anderson, 20)
Giants – (Kevin Pillar, 21)
Tigers – (Brandon Dixon, 15)
Next year, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. should spend the whole season in the majors, at which point the Blue Jays might start returning to prominence on home run leaderboards. In the meantime, Grichuk’s likely to pace the team in homers for the second consecutive year.
OBP, PLEASE
If you watched this game and had the sense that the Blue Jays never really threatened, well, you were right. They collected just six hits and two walks Sunday.
That’s partly because of the Rays’ impressive pitching staff, but the Blue Jays have had trouble reaching base all season. Entering play Sunday, they ranked 14th among the 15 American League teams with a .301 on-base percentage. That’s not entirely surprising considering the rebuilding Blue Jays give lots of playing time to developing players, but it’ll have to change for this team to compete in 2020.
[relatedlinks]
