Gray outpitches Sanchez in opener
Thin bullpen, Colabello ban leave Jays looking for help, Hutchison starts Sunday
The Blue Jays didn’t need any more bad news Friday night.
They’d lost Chris Colabello, a clubhouse favourite, to a drug suspension. Then they lost their third straight game, 8-5, to a scrappy Oakland A’s club which is now a perfect 7-0 on the road.
They were also without shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, nursing a sore hip after a diving stab on a ground ball in Baltimore on Thursday, and left fielder Michael Saunders, whose hamstring tightened up.
So, given that manpower shortage, plus a lingering power outage on offence — especially with runners in scoring position — and an overused bullpen, the Jays were in no position to absorb more tough news.
It looked like catcher Russell Martin, who left in the sixth inning, might have been added to that list, but he pronounced himself in reasonably good shape after the game following treatments on a stiff neck.
“It got worse as the game went along,” said Martin. “It’s nothing that I was too worried about, but as I played it got tighter and tighter. So, just go inside and get some treatment, don’t let it lead to something where I’ll miss any games.”
The Jays remain very much out of sync, though.
Friday’s starter, Aaron Sanchez, who had been near-unhittable to start the season, gave up 10 hits and six earned runs in just 41⁄ innings.
3 The anticipated duel with Oakland starter Sonny Gray, a matchup of two of the best young right-handers in the American League, fizzled.
Gray went seven innings, struck out seven and allowed six hits — two by No. 9 hitter Darwin Barney, including his first homer of the season.
While Sanchez wasn’t his dominating self, what grabbed the Jays’ attention was the fact that Oakland loaded
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its lineup with six left-handed hitters — plus a switch-hitter. They combined for eight hits.
“I was up in the (strike) zone. I can’t be up in the zone like that,” said the righty Sanchez, who gave up a threerun homer to Chris Coghlan in Oakland’s three-run second inning.
“Every ball was hit hard that inning. I tried to make adjustments, but I felt like they were taking big swings at everything. I’ll work on it.”
Jays manager John Gibbons had Ezequiel Carrera batting leadoff and Barney in the nine-hole. The home side didn’t get to Gray until the sixth, when the Jays loaded the bases twice — but only scored one run, off a Jose Bautista sacrifice fly to centre. Gray needed 31pitches to escape, by far his most strenuous inning, and he was over 80 pitches for the game by the time he coaxed Josh Thole into an inning-ending groundout off a full count with the bases loaded.
The Jays continue to strike out more often than they should, and leave more runners in scoring position than fans are accustomed to.
Chad Girodo, a strike-throwing lefty reliever called up to take Colabello’s roster spot for now, went two scoreless frames in his major league debut. The Jays needed that. The bullpen was taxed on a seven-game road trip and a run of 16 consecutive game days doesn’t end April 28.
“I felt really good,” Girodo said. “It was a dream come true to pitch in the big leagues.”
Looking ahead, Gibbons said Drew Hutchison will make Sunday’s start — a one-off appearance to give the rest of the staff a breather.
Gibbons added that after Hutchison’s start the Jays will likely bring up a first baseman-DH type from Triple-A Buffalo. Candidates include Jesus Montero (who has a .328/.354/ .813 slash line) and Casey Kotchman.