DEEP TROUBLE
Jays lose another, right-hander Johnson scratched with sore arm
Encarnacion launches two homers at Yankee Stadium but Jays lose again, righty Johnson misses start,
NEW YORK— The good news for the Jays is that Josh Johnson says the soreness in his throwing arm is neither in his elbow nor his shoulder.
“It’s in, I guess, a good spot, if there is one,” the Jays’ towering righthander offered on Friday, after it was announced he would miss the night’s start due to tightness in his right triceps.
The bad news? They still needed left-hander Aaron Laffey to fill in against the Yankees.
Laffey, who helped stabilize the Jays’ injury-riddled rotation a year ago and was claimed off waivers from the New York Mets earlier this week, lasted only 22⁄ innings as the
3 Jays suffered their eighth loss in 11 games, falling 6-4 to New York in front of an announced crowd of 36,151 at Yankee Stadium.
Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion helped keep it interesting, combining for a trio of homers. Encarnacion, who led off the second and sixth innings with solo bombs, has now homered in four straight.
But the Jays continue to be undone by sloppy defence, which was the case again on Friday as the Yankees’ winning run crossed the plate on a passed ball charged to catcher J.P. Arencibia in the seventh inning.
“We’re just playing good enough to lose, we’re not playing good enough to win,” said Jays manager John Gibbons.
Laffey was designated for assignment following the game, meaning he is dropped from the Jays’ 40-man roster and the club must either trade him or put him back on waivers within the next10 days. The Jays said they would add another pitcher to the roster on Saturday.
Laffey’s short outing put even more strain on an overworked bullpen that has pitched more innings than every team other than the woeful Houston Astros. The Jays’ ’pen has been one of the club’s surprise strengths so far this season, but if they continue to be worked like this that will certainly change.
“There’s no question we need a good one out of (J.A.) Happ (on Saturday),” Gibbons said.
Fortunately for the Jays, Johnson said he doesn’t expect to miss more than the one start. His agent, Matt Sosnick, said the doctors who studied his MRI told the pitcher that aside from a little inflammation in the triceps area, his arm is in good shape. “They said there’s no chance he’d miss more than one start,” Sosnick said.
But Johnson’s injury, however minor, still exposes the Jays’ lack of mound depth, which may become an ever-increasing problem.
R.A. Dickey is expected to make his start as scheduled on Sunday, but he is still dealing with the neck and back tightness that caused him to be pulled early from his last outing. Gibbons wouldn’t speculate Friday on who would be called upon to make Sunday’s start if Dickey can’t. “We think R.A. will make the start,” is all he would say. Forty-two-year-old Miguel Batista is scheduled to pitch for Triple-A Buffalo on Sunday, while Edgar Gonzalez and Justin Germano would be available on four days rest. Meanwhile, Ricky Romero is making his first minor-league start of the season on Saturday, but Gibbons said there are no plans to recall Romero any time soon. Besides, with Monday’s off-day, the Jays could simply skip Johnson’s spot in the rotation, at least until May 4. This is a big year for Johnson, who will become a free agent at the end of the season. Staying healthy has been the 29-year-old’s biggest obstacle. He missed most of 2011 with shoulder inflammation and spent large parts of the 2007 and 2008 seasons on the DL following Tom- my John elbow-ligament surgery. “I’ve been there before and it’s definitely not that feeling,” Johnson said, reassuringly on Friday. He added later: “It’s not even close to the shoulder, shoulder feels great.” Johnson said he and the Jays are hoping to nip this little setback in the bud, before it turns into anything more. “I’ve been on the other side of this before where hopefully I’ll be back in a couple of weeks or whatever and it ends up being five months.” Yankees catcher Francisco Cervelli broke his right hand on a foul tip from leadoff hitter Rajai Davis in the first at-bat of the game. He will be out at least six weeks. Two innings later, Yankees starter Ivan Nova left with what the club described as “elbow pain.”