Blister spoils plan as teams eye Hill
OAKLAND After delivering his fifth pitch of the ball game on Sunday, Oakland starter Rich Hill looked at the index finger of his left hand and signalled for the A’s trainer. His day was done, sabotaged by a broken blister on his pitching hand.
Up in the press box, a trio of scouts dispatched by their respective clubs to evaluate Hill, just shook their heads in disbelief. Move along, fellas, nothing to see here.
“Anybody up for a round of golf ?” muttered one of them.
More than a dozen scouts had converged on the Oakland Coliseum to get a look at Hill, who is considered the best starting pitcher available in this year’s baseball trade market. Now it’s unlikely he’ll get to showcase his talents any more before the Aug. 1 non-waiver deadline.
Hill, 9-3 with a 2.25 ERA, had been originally scheduled to start on Friday night but he was pushed back to Sunday because of the blister. He left the game without retiring a batter, with a 3-2 count on Toronto leadoff man Devon Travis.
Reliever Andrew Triggs eventually retired Travis on a sharp line drive to left field. Next man up, Josh Donaldson, ripped a line drive off Triggs’ left leg for a single. Triggs left the game at the end of the inning with a left calf contusion as result of the Donaldson hit.
LONG BALL BLUES
It’s no secret that R.A. Dickey, with his unpredictable knuckleball, is prone to give up a lot of home runs. It’s just part of the package. Since the start of 2013, he has given up 103 homers, the most in all of Major League Baseball.
To his credit, for the most part Dickey has been able to limit the impact of those bombs. For example, this year, of the 22 he has allowed, 18 have been solo shots. That wasn’t the case on Saturday when the Athletics jacked three out of the Oakland Coliseum, including the first three-run homer he has allowed all season. That came off the bat of Ryon Healy, who was playing in only his second major-league game when he ripped his shot just inside the left-field foul pole.
“The ball was flying,” Dickey said. “If you got the ball up in the air, it was going to go. So, unfortunately, I left one up, but that’s the first slow knuckleball I’ve thrown in four years that has gotten hit out, so I thought it was a safe pitch.”
Despite the home runs, Dickey has limited opponents to a .198 batting average with runners in scoring position. That’s the third-lowest opponents’ RISP batting average in the American League. In fact, the Jays have three of their starting pitchers among the top 10 on that list. J.A. Happ is fourth (.200), and Aaron Sanchez is fifth (.208).
OH, DANNY BOY
File the name Danny Barnes away as a reliever who may be able to impact the Blue Jay bullpen sooner rather than later. Barnes, a left-hander selected in the 35th round of the 2010 draft, has had a sensational season, first at Double-A New Hampshire and now at Triple-A Buffalo.
In 41 games at the two levels, he has worked 47.1 innings, allowing just 21 hits and five walks while striking out 52. Opponents have hit just .130 against him. After 24 appearances at New Hampshire, he was promoted to Buffalo on June 22, and in his seven games with the Bisons, he has allowed four hits and one walk in 11.1 innings, while fanning a dozen. In Buffalo, opponents are hitting just .103 against him.
SHORT HOPS
From the season start through the end of May, Toronto relief pitchers posted a 4.38 ERA, a .265 opponents’ batting average and an 8-18 record. Since the start of July, the Jays bullpen has an ERA of 2.03 and a .200 opponents batting average, best in the AL in both categories ... Rookie reliever Joe Biagini has not allowed a home run in his 34 innings of work, one of only three relievers in MLB not to allow a HR with that many innings pitched ... In each of his most recent 14 games, Jason Grilli has fanned at least one batter. In that span, he has struck out 25 of the 57 batters he’s faced ... After going 1-for-4 Sunday, Troy Tulowitzki is hitting .318 (28-for88) with eight home runs and 23 RBIs over his last 21 games. Over his first 47 games, Tulowitzki was hitting just .199 with eight home runs and a .658 OPS.