Sanchez has rare bad Fenway outing
BOSTON Until Wednesday night, there wasn’t much about historic Fenway Park that intimidated Aaron Sanchez.
Not the vaunted Green Monster that dominates left field. Not the good-hitting team he usually faces here. And not the prospect of playing in a contest with added meaning.
Past successes here tumbled quickly from memory in the young pitcher’s latest trip to the mound as Sanchez’s command must have been left behind in the cramped visitor’s clubhouse.
The result was a disarmingly easy 5-1 Boston victory allowing the Sox to take a 2-1 lead in this four-game series between the first- and last-place teams in the American League East.
It certainly was another demoralizing result for a Jays team unable to find any traction both on offence or from its starting rotation.
Sanchez was shaky from the opening batter and especially through the first two innings in which no less than eight Red Sox runners reached and four of them crossed the plate.
Sensing the struggles from Sanchez, the Boston batters were barely swinging, forcing the recovering righty to throw 49 pitches through two innings. That too was an ominous development given the weary arms chilling in the right-field visitor’s bullpen.
With such a slow start and an offence that is essentially dormant, it was clear early that this was going to be a beatdown for a Red Sox team that should have been weary from an excruciating previous four days.
The demoralizing night for Sanchez was in sharp contrast to his previous visits to Boston. In fact, in six career starts at Fenway he had never lost (3-0) and had a dominating 2.05 ERA.
It was just the eighth start for Sanchez in a season interrupted by three trips to the disabled list. But it was also his third start back from the latest DL stint.
And it certainly was a dramatically different outcome than his most recent start here. Sanchez was on the mound last Oct. 2 for a 2-1 Jays win on the day the team clinched a wild-card berth.
With losses the past two days, the Jays are once again distancing themselves from such jubilation at the end of the 2017 season. They are now a prohibitive 10 games behind the Red Sox in the division and 5½ out of a wild-card spot with little prospect for climbing out of such a hole soon.
Sanchez settled down some after the first two innings, but with the pitch count climbing and his best stuff on hold, his night was done after four innings. Though only three of the runs he allowed were earned, Sanchez gave up six hits and a concerning five walks to the Red Sox.
And it’s back to the drawing board for a pitcher many felt would be the ace of the staff this season and now has a record of a mere 1-3.
NOW WHAT?
From manager John Gibbons to pitching coach Pete Walker to general manager Ross Atkins, the Jays were hoping for much more from Sanchez on Wednesday.
The expectation was that in his third start back from his latest medical leave he would return to the form that earned him the ERA title last season. With that not happening, beyond Marcus Stroman and perhaps J.A. Happ, the Jays starting rotation is in rough shape.
As Walker mused earlier in the week, the team desperately needs a nice clean run through the starting five. Hard to imagine that happening based on recent efforts.
We caught up with Atkins between innings late in Wednesday’s and he too was at a loss for the rugged outing from Sanchez.
Is it more fallout from the blister? Is it the up and down from the DL destroying any chance at momentum? Is it a confidence issue with the 25-year-old right hander?
Tough to say precisely what got to Sanchez on Wednesday, but his location was a definite concern. The Red Sox hitters took advantage of it as well, forcing Sanchez to find the zone on his own. And we saw how that worked.