TORONTO – A close game flipped in the Astros’ favour Wednesday when Jeff Hoffman threw a pickoff attempt past third baseman Kazuma Okamoto in the top of the eighth inning.
Joey Loperfido jogged home as the ball skidded into foul territory along the left-field line at Rogers Centre and for the second day in a row the Blue Jays lost a close game late.
With that, Loperfido’s revenge series continued against his former team and the Blue Jays fell to 39-41 on the season with a 3-1 loss.
“It's frustrating when you feel like you leave a couple wins on the table against an American League team,” Schneider said. “That’s baseball sometimes, but there's definitely some areas where you can get a little bit tighter.”
Starter Trey Yesavage kept the game close early, but it unraveled in the eighth when Loperfido hit a triple that evaded Daulton Varsho and Hoffman made that ill-advised pickoff attempt, throwing the baseball to the shortstop side of Okamoto, who wasn’t anticipating it.
Afterwards, Schneider chalked the play up to miscommunication between Okamoto, who expected the throw to come from catcher Alejandro Kirk, and Hoffman, who was counting on Okamoto to break for the base.
“I think with Kaz not covering, it kind of threw Jeff off a little bit,” Schneider said. “So just miscommunication with Kaz, really.”
Regardless, there’s a bigger picture question: Was the pickoff play even necessary? While there’s something to be said for keeping Loperfido close, it’s not as though he was about to steal home and holding runners is a known weakness of Hoffman as the Blue Jays have acknowledged at multiple points this season.
Next time, a couple quick steps toward the bag by Okamoto would have comparable benefits with far less risk.
As Yesavage said: “Just gotta do the little things right.”
Of course a couple more home runs would have changed things, but the Blue Jays managed just one run on four hits against starter Mike Burrows and the Houston bullpen.
There are tip-your-cap games and there are didn’t-get-it-done games. This one was clearly in the latter category for the Blue Jays.
Entering play Wednesday, no qualified big-league starter had a higher ERA than Burrows at 5.79. Yet the Blue Jays managed just one run against the right-hander – a Nathan Lukes solo shot in the bottom of the first.
Otherwise, it was a quiet night for the lineup with George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. each having hitless nights. The Blue Jays had a chance to tie the game late, but Luis Urias got doubled off second on a Springer fly ball, ending the threat.
“You'd like to do more against any starter, really,” Schneider said. “We made a lot of contact, but not a whole lot of quality contact. So, you know, you give credit there, but I think you got to kind of grind a little bit more in those middle innings.”
Facing the Astros for the first time ever, Yesavage completed 5.2 innings of one-run ball, but the command issues that he’s battled at times this season returned. Though Houston managed just two hits against Yesavage, he walked five, forcing himself to work out of trouble every inning but the second.
“It was all right,” Yesavage said. “Just a lot of two-out out walks, which kind of killed me, but it was all right.”
From a stuff standpoint, there were positives for Yesavage, who threw his slider more than any other pitch Wednesday. He generated 13 total swinging strikes on his way to five strikeouts, showing off his ability to miss bats.
Yet this marks the third time Yesavage has walked five or more in his last five starts, and that’s a trend the Blue Jays want to stop. Not only does it create the risk of a big inning for the opposition, it costs Yesavage valuable pitches and prevents him from pitching deeper into games.
“Just elevated pitch count,” Schneider said. “He made big pitches when he had to, but I thought his stuff was good … love the fact that he went out in the sixth, and gave us some extra outs, but I think the walks are always going to get you.”
Here on Wednesday, he threw a career-high 105 pitches before giving way to Tommy Nance with two outs in the sixth.
“I was hoping they’d send me back out,” Yesavage said. “It felt good. I feel good now, and hope we can do it again.”
Next up, the 38-42 Rangers visit Toronto for four games and the Blue Jays’ season-long quest to climb above the .500 mark will continue.
“There's some things to learn from and things to tighten up a little bit in all phases of the game,” Schneider said. “You want to generate some more offence against a starter, and if you don't, then things have to be a little bit tighter.”
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