Start ’n’ stop
Over-throwing Biagini can’t get it going in the early going against Twins
Back To School Day at the ball park unfortunately meant back to the drawing board for Joe Biagini and the Blue Jays.
After nurturing Biagini in triple-A Buffalo this month for another audition as starter, the club saw him get knocked around in 3.2 innings on Sunday in a 7-2 slide to the Minnesota Twins, with three Byron Buxton home run bops to punctuate the win. The visitors twice loaded the bases on Biagini, who couldn’t be a genie and escape that much trouble. Three of the five earned runs against him resulted.
“Tough day for him, obviously,” manager John Gibbons said as the Jays dropped the rubber match of the series. “I thought maybe he was over-throwing a little bit too much, because his ball was definitely up in the zone and they barreled pretty good. But he put in a lot of hard work to get back here and his last outing (with the Bisons) was really, really good.
“He’s better than (he showed on Sunday), but you know when he’s on that everything is working the right way, he’s getting ground balls. That certainly didn’t happen today. That starter’s role is new to him. He’s going to take his lumps along the way until he gains confidence and figures it out all over again.”
The introspective Biagini, 3-9 this year, 2-8 as starter with a 6.02 ERA, had his own take on finding the right bridge between the physics of starting and relieving.
“The process for me is trying to marry the stretch and windup. Going back and forth, it’s hard to maintain the consistency of those. I thought I made progress in Buffalo (1-1 in four starts with a 3.12 ERA). but I think I have to use the experience of today.
“It’s fun to get the chances from an organization that believes I can develop into something good. The jury is still out, I guess.”
Defence and run support were not quite working for him, either. Shortstop Ryan Goins’ great throw to Miguel Montero at the plate gunned down Joe Mauer in the first, but Josh Donaldson’s throwing error helped put Biagini into his first bases-full scenario. Biagini escaped with a strikeout, the first of a season-best 17 by the staff that was overlooked in defeat. Another run was prevented in a third-inning rundown, but six Twins reached base that inning and two scored.
With two Jays outfielders resting — Kevin Pillar and Jose Bautista — Nori Aoki miscalculated the surface spring of a Mauer hit that went over his head in right for a triple.
Two batters later, Buxton walloped the first of his home run hat trick.
Aaron Loup and Matt Dermody came in and silenced the Twins until Buxton touched Dermody in the seventh for his second homer. Tim Mayza gave up the third.
Toronto’s offence could not keep pace, after 10 runs the day before in a bizarre one-run win over the wild card-contending Twins.
The first five in the Jays order didn’t get past first base. Minnesota starter Kyle Gibson’s finest moment came in the second inning when he won a prolonged battle with the bases loaded and leadoff hitter Ezequiel Carrera up, eventually getting him to ground into a double play.
Montero had a one-out double in the second and chugged all the way around from second to score on an Aoki single, but Donaldson got himself picked off first the next inning. Aoki atoned for his fielding gaffe with his fifth home run of the season.
Toronto missed a chance to win its fourth straight series at home and sustain hope of reaching .500 before the end of the season. Now 61-69, they’ll be hard pressed to take the next set, against the division leading Boston Red Sox starting Monday night.