Jays’ bullpen blows up against Boston,
Stroman is strong but Boston gets to relievers for four runs in decisive seventh inning
The reality should have set in by now. The post-season isn’t going to happen for the Blue Jays in 2017.
It’s reached the point, following Monday’s 6-5 loss to the first-place Red Sox, where manager John Gibbons is forced to use a 40-per-cent makeshift rotation, with two of the five starters changing constantly.
On Tuesday it will be lefthander Brett Anderson’s turn to make his first start for the Jays.
He will become the 55th player to suit up for the major-league team this year, tying the club’s all-time mark set in 2012 and tied in 2014. It’s still August.
If the Jays do not win Marcus Stroman’s start every fifth day, they are not going to gain ground that calendar week.
That the Jays are 16-11 in Stroman’s starts and nine games under .500 overall demonstrates the importance of the Stro Show.
On this night it was a collapse of the Jays’ overworked bullpen that spelled the difference. Entering the seventh inning with a 3-2 lead and nine outs to go, it was Danny Barnes, Aaron Loup and Ryan Tepera that torched the lead via a four-run Sox rally. It was the pen’s 22nd blown save. The wall has been hit and hit hard.
Barnes was into his 17th game since the all-star break and his personal difference between halves has been especially dramatic.
Following a single and a Christian Vazquez homer and the blown save, Barnes has allowed 12 earned runs in 16 2/3 innings since the break for a 6.48 ERA. He had a 2.31 ERA in 32 appearances before the all-star game.
Even Justin Smoak’s two-run homer in the ninth, his 36th, off Boston closer Craig Kimbrel was not enough to overcome the four-run seventh inning.
There was one Jays highlight, a jawdropping catch by Kevin Pillar diving headlong onto the warning track just shy of the fence in right-centre field to rob Mookie Betts of a leadoff triple in the sixth.
The crowd rose to its feet for 90 seconds, even Stroman and Ryan Goins applauded.
Stroman on this night went six innings, throwing 99 pitches, allowing two runs, just one earned, on seven hits, with a walk and four strikeouts. It was a bounce-back start after allowing five runs in a 7-6 win at Tampa Bay.
For the season, Stroman is fourth in ERA (3.11) among AL pitchers and third in innings pitched (170 2/3).
The Jays scored quickly against left-hander Drew Pomeranz in the first. With two out and nobody on, Smoak drew a walk, followed by a Jose Bautitsa opposite-field double that put runners on second and third. For Bautista it was his 214th two-base hit in a Jays’ uniform, passing John Olerud into eighth place all-time. Hitting right-handed, Kendrys Morales doubled to right field to score both runners and give Stroman a two-run lead. Morales entered the game hitting .171 with runners in scoring position.
The first run for the Red Sox to cut the early lead in half was not the fault of Stroman. With two men out, Hanley Ramirez drove a ball to left field that got caught up in the lights, blinding Steve Pearce and rolling past him for a double. Vazquez lined a onehopper to right field with Ramirez stopping at third. Then came the hard-to-explain defensive moment.
A Stroman pitch darted into the dirt, blocked at the feet of catcher Javy Lopez. The catcher came up with the ball, hesitated slightly and fired a one-hopper into centre field, allowing Ramirez to score from third. Stroman retired the next hitter.
The Jays’ lead lasted just one Red Sox batter into the third. Leading off the inning, second baseman Eduardo Nunez lined a Stroman offering that just scraped the top of the fence in left.
The Jays took a 3-2 lead in the fourth on a Ryan Goins single to centre, his 51st RBI of the season in just 322 at-bats.