STRIKING OUT
Stroman still winless, Jays drop series opener against Rangers,
If you are a fan of bad pitching, shoddy baserunning and raggedy defence, then Friday’s 6-4 loss by the Blue Jays to the Rangers was the game for you. The Jays are now 1-3 on this homestand and have lost six of their last eight games.
The biggest concern for the Jays had to be another bobbled start by right-hander Marcus Stroman. The Jays are waiting for Stroman to regain the form that he showed in 2017 when he was the team’s best pitcher.
By the fifth Rangers hitter of the game, after 22 pitches, Stroman and the Jays trailed by four runs. Delino DeShields and Shin-Soo Choo scored on a single to centre by Nomar Mazara and Joey Gallo followed with a two-run homer.
“His stuff’s good, his stuff’s not down at all,” a puzzled manager John Gibbons said before the game. “His velocity’s basically the same. I don’t see him reaching back to throw (harder).”
By the end of the third, the Jays had tied the game 4-4 against Texas left-hander Mike Minor. They should have scored more except that lumbering first baseman Justin Smoak was thrown out at home plate in the first and at third base in the third innings. Smoak posted the most disappointing four-hit game of his career as he raised his average to .275.
The Jays banged out eight hits in the first three innings, including five extra-base hits, plus a hit-by-pitch, yet managed to score just the four runs to temporarily tie the contest at the same time that Stroman had temporarily righted the ship.
In the third inning, Kevin Pillar bounced a fly-ball single over the head of Gallo for a play that was scored a three-base hit. It marked the Jays’ fifth triple of the season tying last year’s team total in just the 25th game.
But in the sixth inning the wheels fell off completely for Stroman, as he allowed a tworun single to rookie first baseman Ronald Guzman following a sacrifice bunt.
In his fifth outing of the year, the 25-year-old failed to record a quality start — at least six innings with three or fewer earned runs — for the fifth time. With a terrible first and a rocky sixth, he allowed six runs on eight hits, with a walk and three strikeouts.
Right-hander John Axford was reinstated from the bereavement list and pitched the eighth inning for the Jays.
Meanwhile, the report on Josh Donaldson was that he is throwing to bases in Dunedin as he continues to rehab his right shoulder inflammation. Injured shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is set to resume baseball activities after bone-spur surgery to both Achilles tendons.