FEELING BLUE
Hometown fans feel the pain as Jays’ offence comes up short — again — in 6-2 loss to Rays,
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons admitted before Tuesday’s game that he’s not so different from the rest of the jittery masses this time of year. He watches the out-of-town scoreboard like everybody else, rising and falling with the good and bad news.
“I’m looking all year long, but you really start locking in now because so much matters,” he said. “It’s basically staring right at you.”
Heading into Tuesday’s games, the American League East was more bunched up than it has ever been in the wild-card era as four teams opened the day within five games of the division lead. Not to mention the seven-team race for the two wild-card spots, one of which is currently held by the Jays.
“It’s actually pretty exciting,” Gibbons said, adding an important qualifier: “for the outside world.”
As compelling as it is to watch how your rivals are faring, “the key,” Gibbons said, “is that you’re winning your game.”
The Jays couldn’t do that on Tuesday night, with the offence once again coming up short in a 6-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays in front of an announced crowd of 38,338, which put the Jays — who lead the American League in attendance this season — over the 3-million mark in total attendance for the first time since 1993.
If Gibbons was watching the scoreboard he would have noticed Baltimore leading Boston as the Jays made their final out, so it looked as if it would be a missed opportunity for his club to gain ground on the first-place Red Sox. The Orioles won 6-3 and joined Toronto two games back of Boston.
With Josh Donaldson on the bench for the second straight game nursing a sore hip, the offence continued to struggle, managing just a pair of runs thanks to a two-run homer by Russell Martin, who snapped an 0-for-17 slump with a nodoubter into the second deck to draw within one of the Rays’ lead. Toronto managed just five hits in 52⁄
3 innings off Rays starter Drew Smyly, who entered the game with a 5.05 ERA.
Gibbons said Donaldson “jarred” his right hip on Sunday when he stepped on first base after running out a ground ball.
“We’ll take it day by day,” Gibbons said. “Hopefully he’s okay to go tomorrow.”
It’s a shame Marcus Stroman’s teammates couldn’t do more to help him out on Tuesday, because he did his part. The 24-year-old right-hander’s only blemish was a three-run homer to the usually light-hitting Alexei Ramirez, which proved to be the game-winning blast.
Otherwise Stroman allowed just two other hits in his six innings, while earning nine ground-ball outs. He did walk four batters on Tuesday, one of which came around to score. But he did a good job of containing the Rays.
Meanwhile, the Jays’ offence had its chances, notably in the seventh when Edwin Encarnacion struck out with the bases loaded. But Tuesday marked the seventh time in the last11 games that they failed to score more than three runs.
They had some lousy batted-ball luck early in the game.
In the first three innings, they hit into outs on three occasions on balls with exit velocities of 99.7 m.p.h. or harder, including a 109.6 m.p.h. rocket by Jose Bautista.
Batted balls of a similar profile more often than not land for hits, and in Bautista’s case, shots of his trajectory land for hits more than nine out of 10 times. Such is baseball.
The Rays extended their lead against the Jays’ bullpen when Steven Souza Jr. — who came a couple feet shy of a go-ahead home run in the ninth inning on Monday night — took rookie right-hander Joe Biagini deep.
Biagini, the Rule 5 pick who has been a revelation in much of this, his first big-league season, appears to be running into a wall in the season’s final month.
The 25-year-old, who has never pitched into September in his professional career, gave up his first home run of the season on Sept. 3. He has allowed two more in three outings since then.
The Jays, who have lost three straight series, will now try not to lose a fourth in Wednesday’s matinee rubber match against the Rays.