Injury bug hits Jays again
For Blue Jays’ fans who, a month ago, were urging the club to bring up all their kids and have them play every day — be careful what you wish for.
The Jays have certainly not given up on the current season, but with the batting orders that they have been running out daily in an attempt to compete, they might as well have. On Wednesday, the Jays continued their recent woes, losing 3-2 to the Tigers at Comerica Park. It was their fourth loss in a row and seventh in the last eight games.
In this game, the Jays came close to tying it up but ended with 45year-old Omar Vizquel being thrown out stealing at second base by catcher Alex Avila.
“Trying to manufacture a run,” manager John Farrell called it, in way of explaining the unorthodox game-ending strategy.
“(Detroit pitcher Jose) Valverde’s a guy who relatively has slow release times. We felt that even our medium speed we’re going to force him to make a perfect throw. He did. And just the way we’re struggling to score runs, trying to create something, trying to make something happen.” Every day it seems there’s another reason for the Jays to struggle. On Monday, it was injured third baseman Brett Lawrie waking up in Florida with a flare-up of his injured oblique. On Tuesday it was Jose Bautista and Adam Lind being rained out of a rehab start at A-Dunedin. On Wednesday Yunel Escobar headed to Miami for the birth of a child — but was placed on paternity leave for the next two days. What could be next? The answer came early. In the fourth inning, first base-- man David Cooper, one of the lone offensive bright spots, batting .329 in August, crashed a single off the right field fence, slammed on the brakes rounding first and suffered a jammed neck as he jackknifed back to the bag. He was replaced by catcher Yorvit Torrealba, making his career debut at first base. “The back spasms (Cooper) experienced (Sunday) reaggravated it after he dove back into first base,” Farrell said. “The jarring action caused that spasm to reappear. We’ll check him in the morning.” Since July 29, the Jays, without the bats of Bautista or catcher J.P. Arencibia and with a virtual revolving door around the rest of the diamond, have scored three runs or fewer in 18 of 23 games, with a 3-15 mark in those games. The Jays have confirmed that Bautista, despite the rain in Florida, will rejoin the team Friday in Baltimore, along with new dad Escobar. Lind remains in the minors. The Tigers took a 2-0 lead with runs in the fourth and fifth innings against left-hander Aaron Laffey. With Omar Infante on third base, Laffey hooked a 54-foot breaking ball into the dirt that got by Torrealba. Then in the fifth, Jeff Baker drove in Delmon Young with a single. But Laffey pitched effectively, recording a quality start, making it into the seventh inning with just two earned runs. He credited a continuing off-season mental training that has helped him with mechanics and direction. “You don’t have to be on a mound, you don’t even have to have a ball,” Laffey said. “A lot of dry drills, a lot of dry work in the mirror. . . . You don’t need to be throwing a baseball to get better. If you have a quiet mind and you’re working from a deeper level of the mind, it’s going to be easier for your body to make that adjustment.” These days the Jays are forced to grind out their runs one at a time. In the fifth, Rajai Davis and Edwin Encarnacion manufactured a run on a walk, a hit, a stolen base and two errors. After the Tigers added a third run, the Jays closed in on a sacrifice fly by Adeiny Hechavarria.
The Jays are now into a six-man rotation, at least until next Tuesday in New York, when a decision must be made how to shorten the starters back to five. With Brandon Morrow reinserted into the mix as of Saturday, that means Henderson Alvarez will be working on his seventh day, Sunday, at Camden Yards. Ricky Romero gets an extra day, going on Monday in the Bronx.
At that point, Laffey, J.A. Happ and Carlos Villanueva are up next — but one must be removed from the rotation unless Farrell stays with six the next time through.
One thing is certain. Any fix involving Romero will involve neither option nor demotion.
“We’re not turning from Ricky,” Farrell said. “I believe in him. We believe in him, and we’re not going to run from Ricky Romero.”
There are interesting splits regarding Romero’s numbers when one looks at days between starts. He has made eight starts this year pitching on his sixth day, with a 4-2 record and a 3.61 ERA in 52 1⁄3 innings, allowing 46 hits, with 21 walks and 39 strikeouts.
On his normal four days rest, including his last dismal outing in Detroit, with eight walks and no strikeouts, Romero has a 3-8 record, with a 6.20 ERA in 16 starts. He has allowed 100 hits and 59 walks in 941⁄ innings, striking out
3 60. In the two starts on his seventh day he has an 11.88 ERA, with one of those two being the disastrous 16-0 loss to the A’s at home.