JAYS-TWINS: Jenkins gets win,
Poised Jenkins picks up pitching-challenged side
John Farrell says his wish list for off-season upgrades hasn’t changed from a year ago: “starting pitching.”
On that front, the Blue Jays’ second-year manager says he’s on the same page as his boss, GM Alex Anthopoulos, who has reiterated his plans to seek improvements to the Jays’ rotation via trade and or free agency this year.
Last year Anthopoulos didn’t add any proven starters, choosing to forge ahead with a rotation led by Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow and filled out by a trio of youngsters, Henderson Alvarez, Kyle Drabek and Drew Hutchison, who began the year with fewer than 160 big-league innings between them.
Anthopoulos’s indecision proved costly this season — the team’s second-worst since 1980 — which began its death spiral in mid-June when Morrow, Drabek and Hutchison all went down with injuries in the same week, sending the Jays scrambling for replacements and exposing their lack of mound depth.
“You look at the teams in the playoff hunt, they’ve pitched very well,” Farrell said. “Not every team is going to be like the New York Yankees and seemingly lead the league every year in runs scored. It comes down to pitching.”
Rookie Chad Jenkins, who started Tuesday on just three days’ rest in place of Carlos Villanueva, made another strong case to be considered part of the Jays’ pitching future. The 24-year-old, who debuted earlier this year in the bullpen, earned his first career win by leading the Jays to a 4-3 victory over the visiting Minnesota Twins.
Jenkins, making just his third major-league start, held the Twins scoreless through five innings before giving up a two-run home run to Denard Span in the sixth.
Kelly Johnson, who tied Jose Canseco’s single-season Jays strikeout record in the second inning, also hit a two-run homer in the fourth, his 16th of the year but just his sixth since the all-star break.
“Seems odd to not know about that until just now,” Johnson said when asked about tying Canseco’s club record. “I can’t say I put a whole lot of thought into that, but the home run was good.” With the win, the Jays fend off 90 losses for another day and clinch fourth place in the AL East, ensuring the Boston Red Sox finish in the basement. The Jays end their season Wednesday against the Twins. In addition to more starting pitching, Farrell said it would be “a plus” to add another offensive threat to the lineup, preferably one who gets on base more and strikes out less than those currently at his disposal. The team doesn’t need another power hitter, he said. “We’ve got a number of guys that can drive the ball out of the ballpark. But that line-drive guy that’s a low-strikeout, higher-average (hitter), that would be the profile.” The Jays have hit just .246 as a team this season, fourth-lowest in the AL. They have the fifth-most home runs in the league, but also the fifth-most strikeouts and second-lowest on-base percentage. “We knew going into spring training we had the potential for anywhere from five to seven guys to hit 20 home runs, but we knew there were going to be strikeout totals that were going to be a little above average as well, relative to the league,” said Farrell.
OMAR AND OUT: After 24 seasons in the majors, Omar Vizquel will play his final game Wednesday at the Rogers Centre. Farrell said the 45year-old infielder will definitely start. ESPN Desportes, the U.S. sports network’s Spanish-language arm, plans to broadcast the game live in Vizquel’s native Venezuela.