Bullpen blow-up buries Blue Jays
When Marcus Stroman left the mound with one out in the top of the eighth inning, handing a one-run lead over to the Blue Jays bullpen, the Rogers Centre crowd held its collective breath. There would be no exhale of relief. The Jays bullpen corps blew a save for the eighth time in 12 opportunities, allowing five runs the rest of the way in a 7-4 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, in the opener of a three-game series.
Before the game, manager John Gibbons had lamented the mounting number of close defeats. It’s not like his club, now 6-17, hasn’t had chances.
Does coming so close make losing more difficult?
“Yeah, I think so,” Gibbons said, “because you’re right there. You get blown out some nights. That’s just the way it goes. Yeah, definitely.”
In the fateful eighth inning, Stroman had allowed a solo home run to leadoff hitter Corey Dickerson before striking out the last batter he’d face, Kevin Kiermaier.
Jason Grilli got the call from the bullpen and served up a game-tying solo homer to Evan Longoria, then walked Brad Miller.
After striking out Steven Souza Jr., Grilli handed off to Dominic Leone — whose first batter, Logan Morrison, drilled a two-run homer to right-centre.
It was another devastating collapse by the bullpen following a strong outing by a Toronto starter. Stroman struck out 10 batters and walked a pair in his 71⁄ innings of work. He
3 allowed four singles plus the Dickerson homer.
In the second inning, he struck out Souza Jr. and Morrison in quick succession. But after walking Tim Beck- ham, Shane Peterson and Derek Norris singled, cashing in Beckham for the game’s opening run.
The Jays stranded two runners in both the third and fourth frames before they managed to get on the scoreboard in the fifth.
Kevin Pillar — who jacked his average up to .326 with a 4-for-4 night, plus a walk — got it going with a leadoff double in the fifth. While the Jays offence as a whole has struggled, he has reached safely in 16 straight games.
Pillar came around to score the first Jays run after singles by Darwin Barney and Jose Bautista. Designated hitter Kendrys Morales then grounded into a double play, scoring Barney to put the home team up 2-1.
In the seventh, Pillar made it 3-1 with a solo homer. From there, the Jays’ pitching unraveled. A rally in the bottom of the ninth — sparked by a Pillar double leading to the Jays’ fourth run — fell short.
Francisco Liriano gets the start for the Jays in the second game of the series on Saturday against Matt Andriese of the Rays.