STARTERS DOING JOB
Jays get some fine outings
The fact that the Toronto Blue Jays’ starting pitching has wildly exceeded expectations stopped being novel about four months ago.
But even in light of the fact that good starts are common, what the Toronto rotation has done over the past two weeks to help pull the Blue Jays out of a September nosedive has been remarkable.
On Wednesday night, it was Francisco Liriano’s turn to deliver a gem: six-plus innings of shutout ball, which was the seventh straight game in which the Toronto starter had allowed one earned run or less — a franchise record.
It was also the 13th straight game in which the starter surrendered no more than two earned runs, also a franchise record. Liriano’s 10 strikeouts against Baltimore — against only one walk — followed Aaron Sanchez’s 10 strikeouts a day earlier against the Orioles, which marked the first time in five seasons that the Jays had starters who fanned 10 batters in back-to-back starts.
The authors of the previous performances might give Toronto fans pause: Brandon Morrow and Ricky Romero, who back in 2011 looked like they were sure to anchor the Jays rotation for many years to come. Or, as it turned out, not.
Unfortunately for the Blue Jays, all of that excellent starting pitching has translated only into a decent run, not the kind of winning streak that could have wrapped up a playoff berth by now. The Toronto bullpen, particularly its late-inning corps, is in the midst of a dreadful slump: three blown leads in four games heading into the closer against the Orioles on Thursday night, including ninth-inning losses on Monday and Wednesday when Jason Grilli and then Roberto Osuna surrendered go-ahead home runs to New York and then Baltimore, each of them of the no-doubt variety.
Despite the good stretch from the starters, none has lasted nine innings. In fact, no Toronto pitcher has done that all season, and so the bullpen has still seen a heavy workload. Before Thursday’s game against the Orioles, manager John Gibbons said Grilli would be unavailable and on a rest day, while Osuna was potentially available.
Asked if he had any concerns about going back to the 21-yearold closer after the blown save on Wednesday night, which itself followed a shaky ninth inning on Tuesday, Gibbons did not hesitate: “If he’s your guy, you can’t shy away from that.”
Osuna has 35 saves in 40 opportunities this season and a 2.79 ERA with 82 strikeouts in 71 innings. Last season, as a rookie, he was 20-for-23 in save chances, a conversion rate of 87 per cent, almost identical to this year’s 88 per cent.
As the Blue Jays ponder their potential opponents in the wild-card playoff game, should they make it that far, a thorough analysis of which team would provide the best — which is to say, easiest — foil reaches the following conclusion: Who knows?
OK, we’re being a little facetious here: Seattle and Toronto have each scored 750 runs, tied for fourth-most in the league, Ubaldo Jimenez dazzled through 6⅔ innings as the Baltimore Orioles blanked the Toronto Blue Jays 4-0 on Thursday in a matchup between the top teams in the American League wild card race.
Jimenez (8-12) allowed just one hit — to the first batter he faced — walked three and struck out five to help Baltimore pull even with the Blue Jays atop the AL wild card standings with three games remaining on both teams’ schedules. and Seattle has the fourth-best earned-run average (4.01) while the Jays lead the AL in ERA (3.79).
Detroit is sixth in runs scored and 11th in team ERA, while Baltimore is seventh in runs scored and 10th in team ERA.
A reasonable person could look at those numbers and conclude that the Detroit Tigers are the most desirable opponent, but a reasonable person would also have to note that Justin Verlander pitches for the Tigers and that Verlander is very good at what he does: 246 strikeouts this season in 220 innings pitched, and a 3.10 ERA.
No one on the Orioles has numbers that leap out like that, and Seattle has Felix Hernandez, a Cy Young winner who is, for him, having something of a down year (3.71 ERA with 119 strikeouts in 150⅓ innings pitched). Of the three teams, only the Tigers and Verlander would send a shiver
Hyun Soo Kim and Matt Wieters drove in a run apiece on base hits and Manny Machado hit a sacrifice fly for the Orioles (87-72).
Toronto closes out the regular season with a three-game road series in Boston starting Friday. The Orioles play the Yankees in New York. Detroit, which is 1.5 games back of Toronto and Baltimore, had its home game against Cleveland postponed due to rain earlier Thursday. down the collective spine of the Toronto lineup, but there’s also this: he probably won’t be available, at least not on normal rest.
The Tigers are a game out of a tie for the second wild-card with four to play and will almost certainly have to use Verlander (he’s due to pitch Sunday) to try to get themselves into the playoffs. In summary: best not to mull potential playoff opponents too much. The parts are still moving.
Gibbons, as is usually his way, was sanguine about the fact that Toronto had blown late leads in recent nights, which have prevented his team from being in the middle of a long winning streak.
“We’ve got a lot of confident guys out there,” he said before Thursday’s game. “You’re going to get beat at this level.”
“That’s why they call it the big leagues, I guess.”