Have you seen the Jays’ sluggers?
BATS GO MISSING: Toronto on the verge of going out with a whimper as Cleveland keeps stars in check
Somewhere in time, everything changed for the Blue Jays. It’s hard to know how. It’s even harder to explain why.
The Jays stopped hitting. At times they couldn’t make defensive plays. Through 27 innings of the American League Championship Series, they have never held the lead. Not once. Not for an instant, an inning, a moment in time.
Now this wavering season of mixed expectations and altered agendas is on the verge of being over prematurely. Without so much as a real response by the offence that has at times been the envy of baseball.
This doesn’t feel good. It doesn’t feel right — nor should it.
This Jays team should be better than this. This Jays team should be more competitive than this. This Jays team, before being reconstructed like a bad knee in the months to come, lost again in Game 3, 4-2 to the Indians, looking tired, lifeless, seemingly unworthy of playing on this stage at this time of year.
There is almost a feeling the fans have been cheated here, if not let down — the fans that led the American League in attendance.
They had every reason to believe in this team, every reason to expect more. But in three straight losses to the impressive Indians, the Jays have scored three runs.
They didn’t hit against Cy Young winner Corey Kluber. That makes sense.
They didn’t hit against location pitcher Josh Tomlin. That makes less sense.
They didn’t hit against the hamand-eggers of the Indians bullpen, forced to enter the game in the first inning Monday when starter Trevor Bauer was removed with blood all over his finger, his hand and his pants. That makes no sense.
The Jays lost to Dan Otero, Jeff Manship, Zach McAllister, Bryan Shaw, Cody Allen and a reliever to be named later. They lost before the incredible Andrew Miller came in to close.
The Jays led off the second, third, fifth and seventh innings with hits and barely found a way to muster any offence — outhitting, but not outscoring Cleveland again.
The Jays lost with their third start of consequence from their pitching staff and nothing to show for it. The box score won’t be kind to Marcus Stroman this morning. He gave up leadoff home runs to Mike Napoli and Jason Kipnis in the top of the fourth and sixth innings and that was basically it for the Jays. Stroman only gave up three hits, but four earned runs, the fourth the kind of inexcusable, mindless play that has plagued the Jays throughout the series.
They lost to a team that has just 17 hits in three wins — only two innings of the 27 in the series with more than one. That is next to impossible: Cleveland has basically played mistake-free baseball managed beautifully by Terry Francona.
Napoli became the hitting hero and running hero for Cleveland in Game 3 after Rajai Davis ran them into a win in Game 2 and Francisco Lindor did it in Game 1.
Stroman walked Napoli, the last batter he faced. Napoli, who has stolen 38 bases over 11 big-league seasons, took advantage of the Jays’ lack of focus and looked like he stole second base. The official scorer ruled it a wild pitch on Joe Biagini. Scoring aside, the less-than-speedy Napoli scored on Jose Ramirez’s line-drive single. If he doesn’t make it to second base, there’s no run.
That’s the way this series has gone. The Indians have made things happen.
The Jays have not pushed back in any meaningful way.
Their season could be over by Tuesday afternoon. Kluber is starting for the Indians. The challenge is now more than enormous.
The Jays got a good start from Marco Estrada, a good start from J.A. Happ, a decent start from Stroman and have nothing to show for it. Some Jays have looked old. Some have looked tired. Some have looked like they’re hurt. Some just haven’t got the job done.
The old playoff axiom: Your best players have to be your best players. The top four in the Jays’ batting order, with Jose Bautista leading off, had two hits, no runs, no RBIs, no extra-base hits. It didn’t help that Bautista has a catchable ball dropped in the first inning — granted, it would have been a difficult catch — but this is the playoffs. The winning teams make those plays.
The Blue Jays didn’t. They dropped balls through three games. They threw wild pitches. They had passed balls. They didn’t hold runners on. They have been on the wrong side of the home-run scale, 4-1 for Cleveland, after clobbering Texas 8-2 in the previous round.
The season and the World Series hopes are all but over. The thought was they were better than this. The thought, apparently, was wrong.