Happ leaves early with injury
The Toronto Blue Jays lost yet another game and yet another player to injury Sunday, as starter J.A. Happ exited in the fifth inning with left elbow soreness before the Baltimore Orioles slugged their way to a dominant 11-4 win.
It’s another discouraging blow for the Blue Jays (2-10), whose awful April represents the worst start in franchise history.
Happ (0-3) will undergo an MRI on Monday. More bad news had arrived prior to the game with the announcement that Aaron Sanchez was going on the 10-day disabled list with a blister on his right middle finger. And Josh Donaldson missed his third straight game with a calf strain.
Donaldson’s sorely missed in Toronto’s listless lineup, which looked feeble again Sunday as Baltimore starter Dylan Bundy (2-1) struck out six over six shutout innings in front of 38,188 increasingly dispirited fans at Rogers Centre. Trey Mancini clubbed a three-run homer and a solo shot for the Orioles (8-3), who took three of four this weekend.
Jays manager John Gibbons retained an air of optimism but acknowledged his team’s potentially precarious situation.
“Today was the first time all year that felt like a sloppy game,” Gibbons said. “It’s part of a baseball season. Every team goes through it. You just learn to deal with it,” he added. “You just roll with the punches — the pain, whatever you want to call it.”
This loss was perhaps especially painful given how Happ was rolling prior to hearing a “pop” in his elbow in the fourth inning. He returned for the fifth and after J.J. Hardy drove a ground-rule double past a sprawling Kevin Pillar, Happ threw one pitch to Adam Jones before heading to the clubhouse.
“(It’s) disappointing because I felt … I was establishing myself again, bouncing back from the game before,” said Happ, who tied the team record for left-handers with 20 wins in 2016.
“It’s a little concerning and definitely frustrating,” the injured pitcher said.
Added Gibbons: “I was sitting there thinking he had at least seven innings tonight. He was on.”