PHOENIX – Regardless of score, Jeff Hoffman was going to pitch Saturday as part of the Toronto Blue Jays’ plan to get him regular work this season, so his usage in the eighth inning of a 2-2 game wasn’t indicative of any role change.
But then a second straight rough outing for the 33-year-old – who served up a grand slam to Corbin Carroll in a 6-2 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks – refreshed the discourse about his status as closer, and a team already with 99 problems found another one.
“There may be people that don't want to hear this, but I've got a lot of trust and a lot of confidence in Jeff Hoffman and I've said that for, as long as he's been here,” manager John Schneider said after his team’s fourth straight loss. “He's going to continue to be a big part of our team and my job is to find spots to put him in and have success. I'm very confident that he will continue to have success, so we'll just make the best decisions going forward.”
Does that mean Hoffman is still the team’s closer?
“Yeah. Yeah,” said Schneider. “I know that's a that's a hot topic, or if you're moving a batting order or you're taking a guy out of a role, man. Again, I have a lot of confidence in Jeff Hoffman. I feel for him right now because he's going through it and I get it. When you're in that spot, it gets magnified. And that's part of it. He's man enough to handle it. So, yeah, if there's a situation to close out a game, I'll take Jeff Hoffman.”
Between that pull quote at the end and the more subtle comment about putting him in spots to have success, there’s some manoeuvrability for Schneider and the Blue Jays.
Regardless, the obvious priority is getting Hoffman back on track as, like against Milwaukee in Tuesday’s 9-7, 10-inning win, he struggled to locate his splitter and slider which made him too dependent on his fastball.
In a sombre clubhouse after a fourth straight loss dropped the Blue Jays to 7-13, Hoffman pointed to being too fine with his secondary offerings, trying to hit corners rather than “staying through the middle of the plate,” and “making sure that I'm taking care of those big counts and making sure to put guys away.”
“I just haven't put myself in a position to even get to the point where I can put somebody away,” he added. “I'm giving up hits early in the count and behind in counts and I’m not even a position where I have a chance to get a punchout or anything like that. I've got to get to two strikes as fast as possible, and then put guys away.”
That’s something he did through his first eight outings of the season, when he struck out 17 of the 34 batters he faced, but even then he had mixed results, with two blown saves.
A third blown save came against the Brewers, while against Arizona, he was pitching in a spot he’d likely be in if he was pulled from the closer’s role, which only makes the situation more complicated.
There is a burden to pitching in leverage, especially in the ninth, as “usually I'm the reason we win or lose, so it definitely carries some weight and you feel terrible when outings like this happen,” said Hoffman. “The guys played a great game and they definitely didn't deserve to lose by four, so it’s heavy, but it's over now and I've already shifted my mindset to tomorrow and getting ready to be back out there.
“Whether I pitched good or bad tonight, it's not going to help me tomorrow, so, I've got to go out there and do what I do and get back on track.”
To that end, he and the Blue Jays will explore all avenues.
Schneider wondered if there was “something going on at that second base, is he giving anything away,” although Hoffman felt he and the Blue Jays would have discovered already if that were the case.
The point he kept coming back to was “attacking the big part of the zone” rather than pitching to corners and “not allowing the situation to dictate what I'm going to do, kind of just be the same guy, no matter what.”
“I feel like the past couple of outings, I've just gotten away from that a little bit,” he continued. “Got to get back to throwing a lot of strikes and not a lot of balls. When I'm attacking the big part of the zone, everybody's in swing mode and that's when everything starts to kind of fall together and I get chase and I get the whiff. Just got to get myself ahead in counts.”
These things are always easier said than done and Max Scherzer, who’s pitched alongside a more than fair share of closers during his career, sympathized with Hoffman, noting that “I've gotten blasted around, giving up homers and it stinks.”
That being said, a necessity is carrying an “evolve-or-die mentality,” added Scherzer. “The league's finding something out on him and so you've got to find a way to counteract that. It's a never-ending game, and it stinks when it happens. But everybody goes through it. We all believe in him. We all love him. We all believe he's going to figure it out and get big outs for us. That's never going to change.”
The supportive words from Schneider, Scherzer and other others “help a lot,” said Hoffman, who is vital to what the Blue Jays are trying to accomplish this season.
“I know that I had a lot of people in my corner, and I'm in their corner, too,” he said. “I want the best for everybody and I want to come through 100 per cent of the time for everybody. The past couple have been tough. But we have a great group and a great staff that are that are in my corner and we're all trying to get better every day. Looking forward to my next one and I know that these guys have my back.”
