>INSIDE
Offence goes cold vs. O’s behind up-and-down Biagini with Sanchez nearing return
The Blue Jays’ bats went cold in a 3-1 loss to the Baltimore Orioles, the opener of a key three-game set.
> ORIOLES 3 > BLUE JAYS 1
The Blue Jays are drifting further and further south of .500, and making it look effortless.
On Tuesday night, facing a struggling Orioles team that had allowed five-plus runs in 21 of its past 22 games, the Jays came out firing blanks, scoring only on a late homer by Troy Tulowitzki in a 3-1 loss behind starter Joe Biagini.
It was the opener of a series they have to win, on a homestand that is crucial to their short-term future. The Jays are now four games under .500, with the break-even mark disappearing quickly in the rearview mirror.
With the injured Aaron Sanchez making a rehab start at Class-A Dunedin and now seemingly one more healthy minor-league outing away from rejoining the major-league rotation, the experiment of transforming Biagini into a full-time starter could end before the all-star break.
“I don’t think I try to think about it that much,” Biagini said. “Knowing the talent of our starting staff that we have here, and hoping that everybody’s healthy because that’s what would be best for our team, obviously everybody’s rooting for (Sanchez) to stay healthy and keep that finger healthy and strong and get back as soon as possible. We all hope that he’s healthy and we have our full force back. I kind of try and don’t let it get too tangential.”
The former setup man for closer Roberto Osuna pitched 51⁄ innings,
3 allowing three runs on five hits with four walks and three strikeouts. In 10 starts since his May 7 debut with a controlled pitch count, the quirky right-hander has averaged 41⁄ in
3 nings and 78 pitches per start.
“I feel like there’s an infinite amount of things to learn through each game,” Biagini said of his mound metamorphosis. “I felt like it was kind of a struggle for me to make sure that I was limiting the damage and staying efficient after that first inning. It felt like I battled well the rest of the game, tried to keep the runs to a minimum, more or less.”
Biagini is 2-6 with a pair of nodecisions. Opponents with runners in scoring position are hitting 19for-45 (.422) off him, just .203 otherwise.
“I thought he was good down there in Texas,” manager John Gibbons said of Biagini’s bounce-back start, after managing just one inning against the White Sox. “The key for Joe is, keep it in the strike zone. We built him up to go out and start, so now he’s got everything working there. Just throw strikes, because he’s got great stuff.
“They’ve got a good hitting team. They’ve got a power-hitting team. And he’s a ground-ball guy, so if he’s on we should be getting some ground balls. Stay ahead in the count. Get ahead, then use your stuff, really.”
The Jays are 10-13 in the month of June with three games left, after posting a season-saving18-10 mark in May. Despite that, the Jays have stayed within striking distance of the division lead and even the second wild card.
“Overall, I still think it’s up for grabs,” Gibbons said of the parity in the AL East. “We’ve been pretty fortunate. The teams up top have taken their lumps lately. New York’s been on that tough stretch. They’ve done us a favour, but we’ve got to get going. We’ve got to get rolling. This stretch and you look at the whole month of July, even coming out of the all-star break, facing some of the top teams, we’ll have a better idea who we are. I think it’s up for grabs.” Newly promoted right-hander Chris Smith made his major-league debut for the Jays in the ninth, retiring the side on just one hit.
The O’s were without first baseman Chris Davis, shortstop J.J. Hardy and closer Zach Britton because of injuries.
The Jays are 2-8 against Baltimore this year and 12-20 against the AL East.