Soggy bottoms
Jays come up short on rainy Ohio evening
CLEVELAND — There will be a day — soon, apparently — when Teoscar Hernandez is back in the Blue Jays lineup serving up a boost to some of what ails his team's offensive attack.
While the Jays have done well enough in a now-20game injury absence of their cleanup hitter, the success likely isn't sustainable with the recent sluggish output at the plate.
It certainly wasn't on Thursday night at Progressive Field, where a first-inning home run by Vlad Guerrero
Jr. wasn't enough to spark the visitors, who fell 6-5 in the first of four scheduled meetings with the Guardians.
And the imminent return of Hernandez became even more tantalizing when the Jays cleanup hitter belted a home run in Dunedin on Thursday as he winds up his rehab assignment in Florida.
Though the Jays were able to make things interesting on a rainy night, they're still waiting for that breakout stretch of high-flying offence.
There were moments, most notably that two-run shot by Guerrero that triggered a brief flashback to his virtuoso performance here in the 2019 Home Run Derby.
There was Alejandro
Kirk's first homer of the season — a solo shot in the seventh — and a clutch Zack Collins two-out double that scored a pair in the sixth.
But there was also the familiar playback of Jays hitters going just one-for-10 with runners in scoring position. And with losses in three of their past four, the Jays' record has slipped to 16-11.
Manager Charlie Montoyo maintains that the lag on runs will eventually sort itself out — and he's likely right.
For now, though, the Jays continue to seek for new ways to grind out one-run wins.
“It's going to get to the point where we are going to start doing it because there is a track record of us hitting,” Montoyo said after Thursday's defeat.
“I don't get frustrated.
I'm the ultimate believer.”
Of course, even before the rain started to fall, the Jays efforts were being compromised by a gloomy effort from starter Jose Berrios.
The righty had trouble attacking the strike zone as he lasted just 4.2 innings while allowing eight hits and six earned runs. It was hardly the ace-like effort expected from the Opening Day starter, who didn't manage a strikeout in his 82-pitch (59 strikes) outing.
TEO TIME?
Montoyo said the Jays are still hopeful Hernandez will rejoin the team before the weekend series in Cleveland concludes. So why not Thursday?
The manager said Hernandez wanted one more outing in Florida, ostensibly to play a full game in the field. He added a single to his homer in that contest against Clearwater, further indicating his near readiness to return.
And here's just a snippet of how it might help the offence overall, specifically in the case of the Hernandez effect on Guerrero:
From April 8-14 when those two were hitting 3-4 in the Jays lineup, Guerrero hit .333 in 28 plate appearances with four homers. In the 75 plate appearances (prior to Thursday) with Hernandez out of the lineup, he was hitting just .266 with two homers.
Before the Hernandez injury, Guerrero's slugging percentage was .815 and afterward .406.
“He's been one of our best hitters and he protects Vladdy,” Montoyo said. “If you don't want to pitch to Vladdy, go ahead and pitch to Teoscar.
“He's a big part of our team. We do miss him and we can't wait to see him back.”
BORDER DELAYS
What should have been one of the shortest trips of the Jays season was anything but as they didn't arrive to their downtown hotel here until almost 4 a.m. on Thursday.
The reason? A caravan of buses transporting world-class athletes clogging the Canada-U.S. border at Buffalo. Included were the Jays, Yankees and Tampa Bay Lightning, flying out of Buffalo International following Wednesday night games in Toronto.
Pro teams have been using this strategy for the past several weeks because for land border crossings proof of negative COVID19 tests are not required for entry into the U.S.