BLUE JAYS’ BATS QUIETED BY ROYALS
Morales hits grand slam and Ventura pitches a gem in Kansas City win, writes Ken Fidlin.
For most of this road trip, the Toronto Blue Jays’ pitching staff was able to make up for what the offence could not deliver. But there was no way to mask it Sunday.
After winning four out of five games early in this trip, the Jays hit a wall on the weekend, losing 4-2 Saturday before suffering a crushing defeat in the finale.
Kendrys Morales delivered a grand slam home run and Yordano Ventura shut down the Blue Jays offence as the Kansas City Royals rolled to a 7-1 victory and a 2-1 series win.
The loss sends the Blue Jays back home with a winning record on this road trip, but the last two games left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
“Our goal is to win every series,” said Marcus Stroman, who started for Toronto on Sunday and was tagged with the loss, allowing three runs and seven hits over five innings.
“Winning the Houston series was where we wanted to be. But I don’t think leaving here we’re satisfied at all. You go into every series looking to win and that’s the only mentality that we have.”
The Jays managed just six hits against Ventura and relievers Peter Moylan and Chris Young and that’s been typical of what has ailed the Toronto offence recently.
In the finale, Morales’s slammer in the seventh put this thing to bed for the Royals. The homer was his 18th of the season and his second career grand slam.
Against an aggressive Royals team, the Blue Jays and their anemic bats had no answers, especially with runners on base.
The Blue Jays had runners on base in each of the first four innings and in three of those four, had two runners on, but could not convert those opportunities into even one run.
The Royals got all they would need in the second inning and could have had more but for some bad base running.
Morales led off by working Stroman for a walk. Alex Gordon’s comebacker could have been a double-play ball but Stroman’s high throw to shortstop Troy Tulowitzki covering second prevented a relay to first. Paul Orlando singled into right field, as Gordon moved up to second. Catcher Drew Butera followed with a single into right field, scoring Gordon and sending Orlando to third.
Raul Mondesi then laid down a perfect bunt that Stroman fielded, but his throw to Devon Travis covering first was wide left and sailed into right field. Orlando scored on the play, leaving runners at second and third with one out and the Royals leading 2-0.
Alcides Escobar then hit a sharp grounder to Encarnacion at first and he alertly stepped on the bag. Mondesi had broken for third, even though the bag was occupied by Butera and in the ensuing rundown, Butera was tagged out to end the inning.
The Royals added to their lead in the top of the fifth when Escobar drilled his second home run of the season just into the first row of seats in centre. The Jays asked for a review of the play, believing that a fan touched the ball before it left the field of play, but the appeal was denied.
Stroman was gone after five innings, having thrown 95 pitches, walking a pair and striking out four.
“They are a dynamic team with their speed,” he said. “They don’t look to beat you with homers. They’re looking to move the ball, move players. They’re very fast and they put the ball in play. It’s one of those teams where you really have to lock in against and limit what they can do. We weren’t able to do that the last two days.
“I didn’t feel bad. I battled all day and my pitch count kind of rose. They kept fouling off and fouling off good pitches I was making. They kept spoiling until they got a good pitch to hit. Just one of those days when I felt like I was battling,” Stroman added.
After allowing seven Toronto baserunners through the first four innings, Ventura settled into lockdown mode, retiring the next 10 men he faced before issuing a two-out walk to Darwin Barney in the top of the seventh. When Travis followed with a single into centre field, it signalled the end of Ventura’s day.
With Jose Bautista at the plate, representing the potential tying run, reliever Peter Moylan uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Barney to score from third, one pitch before he struck out Bautista for the third out.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Royals loaded the bases against reliever Scott Feldman with consecutive singles by Mondesi, Escobar and Cuthbert. After Feldman fanned Cain for the first out, Brett Cecil was summoned to face left-handed hitter Eric Hosmer and struck him out, giving the Jays hope they might dodge a big bullet.
But Morales crushed that though with his slammer on Cecil’s first-pitch fastball, sending it out at the deepest part of the park.
The Blue Jays now head home for six games, three against Tampa Bay and three against the Houston Astros.