Fans deserve a break, too
The daily formula for the Blue Jays as the all-star break arrives is simple: Stay competitive. Make a key misplay that sets their opponent up for early runs. Then there’s a chance for another error or misplay later, to be sure the starter throws too many pitches and is out of the game. Bring in the bullpen to record maybe as many outs as the starter. Post-game, identify a bright side to the loss. Rinse and repeat.
On Sunday, in a 5-2 loss to the Red Sox, No. 1 starter Marcus Stroman took to the mound for the final game before a four-day break. After a first-inning homer by Xander Bogaerts, second baseman Devon Travis missed a swipe tag and bobbled a grounder before he could make the out at first, setting up the second run.
In the fifth inning, left fielder Teoscar Hernandez raced back and shied away from a catchable ball that landed at the base of the Green Monster for a Sandy Leon double. That play set up another two runs against Stroman, with his day ending after five.
Then Mr. Bright Side emerged to point out that Hernandez homered — his 15th of the year — to tie the game in the third, Ryan Tepera came off the disabled list and threw a shutout inning, and Randal Grichuk batted leadoff and came up with two hits.
There was also bad injury news. Face it, there will be never be any change in the way centre fielder Kevin Pillar plays the position, and that’s the way the Jays like it. It’s that reckless abandon that created the much-hyped Superman persona. On Saturday, he found his Kryptonite while making a diving catch in short centre that turned into a double play but cost him six to eight weeks.
It began as just another day at the office, but immediately after the play Pillar trotted off the field, walked straight into the clubhouse and was out of the game. On Sunday, Pillar was placed on the DL after an MRI that found a sprain of the sternoclavicular joint at the base of his neck.
In addition, infielder Lourdes Gurriel, who had been accidentally kicked in the back of the head by Red Sox pitcher Eduardo Rodriguez on Saturday before making a key error in the 10th inning, suffered postgame concussion symptoms and was placed on the sevenday DL. He’s eligible to return next Sunday.
There is no doubt that it has been a disappointing season for Jays fans. At spring training, there was the promise of a solid five-man rotation and a deep and talented bullpen. There was a motivated Josh Donaldson at third base and a recovering shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, who had already resumed running after a scary ankle injury before being struck down by bone spurs midspring. There was Justin Smoak, a breakout performer at first base in 2017, and Russell Martin, who replaced yoga with a return to weight training that promised to bring his offence back.
How’d all that work out? The Jays enter the break headed in the wrong direction, still slammed by injuries and with little light at the end of the 2018 tunnel. Over the past 20 years, this season may rank as one of the five most disappointing for Jays fans at this point in the schedule. The others since 1998, in chronological order: 2004: They were coming off an 86-76 finish the previous year, in which Roy Halladay posted a 22-7 record and 3.25 ERA. They reached the break at 39-49, with Halladay battling shoulder issues and manager Carlos Tosca on the hot seat. He was fired 26 days after the break and replaced by John Gibbons. 2009: Once again, the Jays were coming off an 86-76 finish the year before, a season in which manager Cito Gaston had returned to replace Gibbons and turn the offence around. But it became apparent that Halladay and GM J.P. Ricciardi had mutually agreed upon a separation, with the Jays exploring trade offers as the team limped into the all- star break by losing 12 of the last 15. Fans understood that Halladay had done everything he could, but needed to go because he had been told the organization was headed into a rebuild. It was the end of an era and Ricciardi was fired in October, replaced by Alex Anthopoulos. The deal was finally made in December, sending Halladay to the Phillies. 2013: Never has there been a more dramatic turnaround in fan expectations than after the 2012 season. The Jays were becoming an afterthought in the Toronto sports scene when, in November, Anthopoulos pulled the trigger on a series of moves that made them the Vegas betting favourites to win the 2013 World Series. The fans’ emotional rise and fall puts 2013 on this list, as they arrived at the unofficial halfway mark in last place in the AL East with a 45-49 record. Starter Josh Johnson was awful. Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey was inconsistent. Shortstop Jose Reyes was injured. Left fielder Melky Cabrera was slow and defensively suspect. Fans fell off the bandwagon in a hurry. 2017: They were coming off seasons of 93 and 89 wins, advancing to the AL Championship Series in both 2015 and 2016. The Jays boasted Stroman with 200 innings, Aaron Sanchez with an AL-leading ERA and J.A. Happ with 20 wins. The team had six players with 20-plus homers, a total of 221 in all. But by opening day in 2017, management had replaced Edwin Encarnacion with Kendrys Morales. Jose Bautista re-signed but his numbers collapsed. They had a horrible April and never reached .500.
By 2018 spring training, optimism had returned. Now this.