And the losses just keep coming for the Jays
Toronto drops No. 20, and might not be getting help from Donaldson soon
Blue Jays the first to lose 20,
ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.— In a ballpark with 30,700 empty seats, chances are pretty good that a hard-hit ball over the fence would slam against one of them. And ricochet back on to the field. Which is what happened to the fullcount fastball Ezequiel Carrera blistered over the right-field wall of Tropicana Field in the first inning Saturday.
For the Jays, it was pretty much downhill after that, all the way south to a 6-1 drubbing by the Rays. That’s loss No. 20 — a full score, only May 6.
As the sun sank slowly over the ocean (not that you can see anything from under this ugly big top), confusion still surrounded Carrera’s second home run of the season, simultaneously stretching his career-high hitting streak to a dozen games. The official scorer, upon scrutinizing vid-
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eo, ruled it had indeed left the yard. But the Elias Sports Bureau isn’t so sure and will not make an official determination until Monday.
So, maybe an inside-the-park home run, because the second-base umpire never made a call. Fair, foul, outside, inside. Which is why Carrera raced around the bases like he was being chased by the hounds of hell, unsure if he could risk a trot.
“To be honest, I hit the ball and then I saw the signal from the umpire, that he said the ball was in play,” Carrera said through an interpreter.
What signal? Manager John Gibbons believed he saw something too from the dugout. “I saw one of them signal safe . . . so he just kept running.’’
In any event, that put the Jays quickly up 1-0, a lead extinguished by Logan Morrison’s two-run jack — the first of two surrendered by Toronto starter Marco Estrada, snapping a 29-inning homerless streak for the changeup maestro.
From a Blue Jays fan perspective, Carrera’s now-you-see-it-now-youdon’t homer was the last interesting thing to happen on a grim afternoon.
Which is why we take you directly now to the visitors’ clubhouse and an impromptu media scrum with the calf-injury rehabbing offensive stud, Josh Donaldson. Because the update bulletin was even more depressing than the game’s outcome.
Spinning it as positively as he might, the takeaway was still this: We’re not going to see the MVP third baseman back for a good while yet — and it is highly unlikely it will be during the team’s upcoming ninegame home stand, as Gibbons had hopefully suggested.
“Things are coming along pretty well,” Donaldson said. “Slowly.”
Yesterday, Donaldson got on the AlterG anti-gravity treadmill and did some light running. “I’ve been able to do some baseball activities, hitting and taking ground balls and playing catch. But ultimately we want to make sure my calf has the workload, running and running around and be- ing on it. It’s going to be gradual but hopefully progressing in the right manner.”
He is at 60 per cent on the treadmill. He needs to be 100 per cent. He can swing in the cage but he hasn’t been running the bases at all.
He has learned lessons from his spring training rehab, and from coming back too soon and ending up on the DL again. There’s no compensating for a bad calf. Only causes other injuries.
“It’s frustrating for sure,” Donaldson said.
“It’s not something that I wanted. It’s not something that I saw coming. You’ve got to play the cards that you’re dealt. These are the cards that I’ve been dealt right now. Hopefully, playing the right way (now) so that the next time I get out there I’m able to stay out there a lot longer than I was this past time.’’
Donaldson, along with Troy Tulowitzki (hamstring) and Aaron Sanchez (split nail) have been continuing their rehab at the Dunedin complex but came over to hang with the team this weekend.
It’s hard, though, watching the club go in fits and starts.
“It’s frustrating being out there and losing games, it’s even more frustrating when you’re having to watch from outside and not being able to help. You try to give your thoughts of what you see and where people can improve and help their mind set. But at the end of the day, when you’re not able to go out there and be on the field and help your team win, it’s definitely frustrating.” When you coming back, Josh? “I don’t know.” And in between Donaldson and Carrera: a second loss for Estrada in his seventh start. Despite striking out seven, the right-hander was victimized by the long ball, including one by ex-Jays Colby Rasmus that followed a couple of Rays doubles in the sixth.
“I kept making mistakes and they kept hitting them,” said Estrada. “Just one of those days. Weird outing.”
Meanwhile, Tampa starter Jake Odorizzi held Toronto to three hits and one run over seven innings.