TORONTO – Toronto Blue Jays fans recognized the moment and greeted Miguel Cabrera’s 500th career home run with a standing ovation, one that didn’t stop until the Detroit Tigers slugger came out for a curtain call. Once he had ripped through the line of celebratory high fives and hugs in the dugout, out he came, arms raised, helmet in hand, and bowed to the Rogers Centre crowd of 14,685 showing a visiting player some love.
Impressively, they overlooked how Cabrera’s line-drive to right-centre on a Steven Matz changeup off the plate tied the game 1-1 in the sixth inning and threw the Blue Jays into their place of highest peril – late leverage. Despite nine balls off the bat at 101.2 m.p.h. or higher, to that point, they had managed only an unearned run off old friend Drew Hutchison -- the opening day starter on the 2015 AL East champions -- extended their drought hitting with runners in scoring position and didn’t have Tim Mayza or closer Jordan Romano available in the bullpen.
So, all the pieces were there for the type of collapse the Blue Jays have experienced all too often over the past couple of weeks. And just as they were on the verge of flipping the script Sunday afternoon, they found new ways to self-inflict pain, as a Marcus Semien throwing error blew what would have been the final out of a 2-1 win, eventually leading to a 5-3 loss in 11 innings.
The Blue Jays wasted opportunities to win the game in the ninth and the 10th, when Jonathan Schoop and Alejandro Kirk traded sacrifice flies, before Kirby Snead surrendered two-out RBI doubles to Daz Cameron and Willi Castro.
Joe Jimenez, he of the 6.49 ERA and 1.644. WHIP coming in, then retired Bo Bichette, Semien and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in order to close out a series win for the Tigers, another hoof to the delicates for this Blue Jays team that’s lost seven of nine and is a gutting 2-9 in extra innings.
“You have to keep fighting,” said manager Charlie Montoyo. “We've got a good group in there. Of course, we're not swinging the bats right now, but we're in every game still. We're not just going out there losing every game. Today yes, of course it was another tough loss, two outs, we didn’t make the last play. But they're going to keep fighting, I promise you that.”
During the current slide the Blue Jays have been walked off once, lost in the opposing team’s last at-bat twice, blown three late leads and gone 1-4 against the tanking Nationals and rebuilding Tigers.
Pretty gross.
While the bullpen has taken plenty of flak, in dropping two of three to Detroit, the Blue Jays went an unfathomable 1-for-31 with runners in scoring position, the lone hit coming on a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. go-ahead RBI single in the eighth promptly erased by the Semien error.
There’s little time to correct and the opposition goes from mild to stiff with the Chicago White Sox in town for a four-game series beginning Monday night. Only their starting pitching is delivering the goods right now as Robbie Ray, Hyun Jin Ryu and Matz combined to throw 21 innings of two-run ball over the weekend, but with the offence discombobulated, they left two more wins on the table.
“Because no one is swinging the bat well right now, everybody's trying harder – that's what's going on right now,” said Montoyo. “We've got to step back and relax and take one at-bat at a time.”
The issue Sunday wasn’t in creating innings but in realizing them, as the Blue Jays went 1-for-17 – for real, that’s not a typo – with runners in scoring position. Bichette showed signs of life with three hits and Gurriel also had three walks as he extended a second-half resurgence, but the rest of the lineup combined for four hits, none when it mattered.
Worth noting is that two of Bichette’s hits went to right and the other up the middle, while Gurriel also went to the opposite field three times, an approach that can prevent the type of pull-side rollovers that have been commonplace. Fatigue may also be a factor in some cases, although Montoyo wasn’t having that as a diagnosis.
“In baseball right now, everybody's tired – that's just what it is in August and September. It's a grind,” he said. “We didn't expect this from a good lineup like we have. We haven't been hitting and it's contagious. Hopefully when somebody gets going, that's going to spread throughout the lineup.”
The late ending masked some of the good the Blue Jays saw Sunday.
With Romano and Mayza down for the day, Trent Thornton and Trevor Richards each delivered a scoreless inning of close-and-late relief, while Adam Cimber quickly got two outs before surrendering a two-out double in the ninth. When Harold Castro pinch hit for Dustin Garneau, Montoyo brought in fellow lefty Tayler Saucedo, who induced a routine ground ball to second.
Semien fielded it cleanly and had time but bounced a throw that Guerrero couldn’t scoop, allowing Willi Castro to score and tie the game 1-1. In essence, the bullpen did the job, even in the absence of a result.
“He’s played a Gold Glove-calibre second base, he just made an error on that one,” Montoyo said of Semien. “We made all the right moves. We're in the game. It's obvious we're not swinging the bats but our pitching is giving us a chance, the bullpen did a good job before extra innings. It just didn't work out.”
The Blue Jays opened the scoring in the third, with Bichette scoring from third when Jeimer Candelario booted a Teoscar Hernandez grounder. Matz held it there until Cabrera had his moment in the sixth, the only mistake the lefty paid for in an outing when he struck out just one and had a lot of plays made behind him.
“Well, not really,” Matz replied when asked if he had any reflections on giving up Cabrera’s 500th. “It was a 1-0 game and you're just trying to keep runs off the board. I threw a changeup there and it was pretty far outside, it wasn't even a strike. He's a pretty good hitter.”
Cabrera had hoped to deliver the big moment in Detroit but noted that “it’s tough to hit home runs” at spacious Comerica Park. When he made contact Sunday, “I said ‘Come on, get up, get up,’” he relayed. “I’m glad I hit that fly ball here because if I hit it in Comerica, it’s going to be two outs (in the inning).”
“It’s something special for my country, for my family, to be able to do this,” he added. “I’m really happy.”
So, too, were Blue Jays fans, who had just witnessed a future Hall of Famer doing something that’s only being accomplished 28 other times. The only problem was it set the stage for an ending that’s become all too familiar.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMia2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNwb3J0c25ldC5jYS9tbGIvYXJ0aWNsZS9ibHVlLWpheXMtZmluZC1uZXctd2F5cy1zZWxmLWluZmxpY3QtcGFpbi1sYXRlc3QtbGF0ZS1pbm5pbmctY29sbGFwc2Uv0gFqaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc3BvcnRzbmV0LmNhL21sYi9ibHVlLWpheXMtZmluZC1uZXctd2F5cy1zZWxmLWluZmxpY3QtcGFpbi1sYXRlc3QtbGF0ZS1pbm5pbmctY29sbGFwc2Uvc24tYW1wLw?oc=5
2021-08-22 21:24:00Z
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