Jays bullpen melts down in chilly Minny
Dickey hit hard in first game as Toronto drops both ends of disappointing twin bill
MINNEAPOLIS— The Blue Jays could have taken advantage of a bad team this week in snowy Minnesota.
That’s what they looked poised to do as they took a 5-3 lead into the eighth inning on Thursday night — a lead that was built upon a couple of defensive gaffes by the Twins.
Their starting pitchers had combined to throw just 12 innings in the three-game set, but in spite of that the Jays were still on their way to securing their third straight series win, with a chance to feel really good about themselves on their first road trip of the season.
Then what has to be one of the worst-pitched innings in team history happened. Reliever Steve Delabar walked the first two batters he faced to put the tying run aboard. Then Sergio Santos came along, walked the bases loaded and proceeded to give away the game, allowing three runs on three wild pitches.
Somehow it got worse from there, as J.A. Happ, the starter who couldn’t make the club out of spring training but was by this point the only option available out of the bullpen, entered and walked another two batters and gave up a two-run single.
In all, Delabar, Santos and Happ allowed six runs on eight walks, three wild pitches and one hit.
It was a complete unravelling, which led to life-sucking 9-5 loss and a series defeat to a very bad team. Now instead of heading to Cleveland needing just a single victory for a winning road trip, they’re dispirited, demoralized and back at .500.
Jose Bautista, at least, continues to send balls into the seats at a staggering pace, crushing his AL-leading sixth home run of the season in the second half of Thursday’s doubleheader.
The dinger was Bautista’s 11th here at Target Field — the most among any opposition player — and he did it in just his 14th game.
R.A. Dickey’s early-season struggles continued in the first half of the chilly double-dip against the Twins.
The temperature at first pitch for the afternoon game was just a touch above freezing — officially the coldest game ever played in Minnesota baseball history — but Dickey said that while the cold “wasn’t ideal,” it wasn’t the cause of his problems.
“I didn’t execute when I needed to make a big pitch and they put good swings on it.”
Even with a generous strike zone from home plate umpire Chris Guccione, Dickey issued five walks in his four and one-third innings. He now leads the American League with 15 walks through four starts.
Josh Thole, Dickey’s catcher, said the high number of walks have been the result of the knuckleball actually moving too much and darting out of the zone, rather than Dickey being erratic.
“I take great pride in trying to go at least six innings in every start, and so far this year in two of my four I haven’t been able to do that.” JAYS’ R.A. DICKEY
“It’s certainly moving better at this point, believe it or not, than it was last year,” Dickey said. “But I feel like over the course of this season — I’ve got 190 innings left — I truly believe all the peripheral numbers are going to even out. But I’m traditionally a slow starter and hopefully I can get back on track next time.” Dickey laboured from the game’s first at-bat — needing 30 pitches to get through the opening frame alone — but he battled to keep the game scoreless through the first four innings. But as he struggled to throw his signature pitch for strikes, Dickey was forced to throw more fastballs — four times more than normal — which only got him into more trouble. The fatal blow came with the bases loaded in the fifth, when he threw an 82 m.p.h. fastball to Twins’ designated hitter Josmil Pinto, who promptly crushed it off the wall in left-centre for a two-run double to give the Twins a 4-0 lead. The home side eventually ran away with it, winning 7-0 when it was all over. Dickey has now lost three of his four starts, while his ERA has ballooned to 6.26. While Jays’ manager John Gibbons had to think about preserving his bullpen for the second half of Thurs- day’s double-header, it sure seemed like he could have given Dickey the hook before Pinto had a chance to do his damage.
“Dickey’s our guy,” Gibbons said. “It’s early. He’s here to get out of those innings and win games.”
Dickey said he appreciated the opportunity his manager gave him to try to get out of the jam himself, even if it didn’t pan out. “I take great pride in trying to go at least six innings in every start and so far this year in two of my four I haven’t been able to do that and he’s given me every opportunity. As the season progresses ... I’ll make those (decisions) pay off.”
With Dickey’s five walks in the first half of the double-header and the six issued by Jays pitchers on Tuesday night, the staff combined to issue 23 walks over the course of the series.