THE LEAST IN THE EAST
The Blue Jays are losing touch in the division after being swept by the Red Sox,
“Sometimes this game can knock you pretty good.”
There wasn’t much else for Toronto Blue Jays manager John Gibbons to say on Sunday evening after his team suffered its worst loss of the season at the hands of the Boston Red Sox, a 15-1 drubbing at the Rogers Centre that included a career-high eightRBI afternoon for visiting rightfielder Mookie Betts and an eightrun seventh inning for the American League East leaders, off a tandem of relievers Glenn Sparkman and Jeff Beliveau.
It wasn’t just the blowout game — Toronto’s 81st of the year, the mid- way point of its season — that put the Jays down for the count.
The loss wrapped up a 1-5 homestand against the Red Sox and Balti- more Orioles, a set of games that was supposed to be an opportunity for the Jays to make up ground in the division. But Toronto was outscored 34-11in those six games, finally swept in a series of three games or more for the first time this season.
And then there were the standings at day’s end: The Jays were 9 1⁄
2 games back of Boston with six teams between them and the second wildcard spot.
Catcher Russell Martin wouldn’t say Toronto’s 14-run loss signalled rock bottom for the Jays; the team has been as many as 10 1⁄ games
2 back. But that was in early May, toward the end of the team’s first slump this season. At the time, Toronto made it clear that was the only rut it could afford if it wanted to be a playoff team.
“We didn’t play well today,” Martin said. “We didn’t really have a good series at all. We got outplayed, so we’ve got to bounce back.”
Joe Biagini was on the mound for what could be his final start this year, should Aaron Sanchez rejoin the rotation on Friday after finishing a rehab assignment with the Buffalo Bisons.
The converted reliever had his fourth consecutive start where he failed to complete six innings. Boston scored in each of the first two innings, with Hanley Ramirez singling home Dustin Pedroia in the first and Betts bringing in Tzu-Wei Lin in the second. Betts followed back-to-back bunts by Lin and Deven Marrero with a three-run homer in the fourth to open a 5-1 lead, then hit a two-run shot in the sixth to make it 7-1.
Things went from bad to worse an inning later, when Sparkman allowed seven runs on seven hits before Gibbons put the Rule 5 pick out of his misery.
Toronto notched just five hits in response to Boston’s 21; the team hadn’t given up 20 or more hits since an August 2014 game against the Detroit Tigers.
“We tend to rely on that big inning. We’re usually able to at least rally once throughout a game and it hasn’t been the case for us, not really getting it done with guys in scoring position,” Martin said. “You have to string hits together, you have to be tough on the pitchers, you have to battle through at-bats.
“I feel like right now we’re just not getting it done. I can’t really say it’s one thing; collectively I think overall we can just be better as a group.”