August 22: Jays 2, Tigers 3

Laffey has best outing, defence, Jays offense lacking

Aaron Laffey, in his 11th start as the Jays #2 starter, was looking for his second quality start in a row after being touched up by the Yankees, White Sox, and Oakland. He pitched wonderfully but his defense really let him down tonight.

Laffey pitched to the mininum through 13 batters, fooling the Detroit offence, keeping the ball down with only one fly ball out. Then, Omar Infante hit a verifiable double into the gap in left-centre. Davis bobbled the ball and this allowed Infante to stretch the double into a triple. Laffey then pitched a couple of wild pitches to the newly minted Blue Jay catcher Torrealba, and on the second one Infante scored.

Then in the bottom of the fifth, a Delmon Young single and a hit-and-run out put Delmon into scoring position. A solid Jeff Baker single to right put the ball into Moises Sierra's hands with Delmon rounding third. Unfortunately, Moises airmailed the ball about 30 feet left of home, and Delmon easily scored. If that throw would have been anywhere near the plate, Delmon would have been dead to rights.

And in the bottom of the sixth, Hechavarria, playing short, bobbled a ball, allowing Austin Jackson to reach. A sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk put Jackson and Cabrera at 2nd and 1st with one out. Fielder than singled, and Rajai got the ball with time to throw out Jackson who was running home. The ball did get there in time even though Rajai threw the ball short. The umpire did call Jackson out, but Mathis (who was now catching as Torrealba was forced to play 1st when Cooper hurt his neck diving back to first on a tagup) dropped the ball.

So, though Laffey pitched great, the defense let him down on three separate plays, and it cost him the game.

Laffey's line was 6 innings + one batter, 5 hits, 2 ER (3R), over 90 pitches (51 strikes), striking out 2 and walking 3. But really, perhaps one run of three should have scored. Laffey, for the most part kept his composure and pitched well.

The Jays offense on the other hand featured a missing Escobar (who is now a proud father) whose offense won't be missed (in his last 21 games he his hitting to an OPS of .457 and a sub .200 batting average) and an infield of McCoy - Hechavarria - Johnson - Cooper (replaced by Torrealba). It was good to see Torrealba playing and perhaps he can absolutely platoon with Mathis until Arencibia returns.

The Jays threatened in the 2nd with a double by Sierra and a walk to Torrealba with one out but Johnson nor McCoy could not cash Sierra in. The Detroit defense allowed Toronto to score a run in the 6th as the Rajai Davis show (walk, stolen base, pickoff attempt airmailed to centerfield) was on. Edwin cashed Davis and advanced to 2nd on a fielding error, but Mathis and Sierra couldn't score Encarnacion.

Hechavarria then RBId (a sacrifice fly) in Torreabla who singled to lead off the 7th and advanced to third on a McCoy single. McCoy then stole 2nd base. Rajai couldn't cash in McCoy.

The Jays threatened again in the 8th with an Encarnacion walk and a Moises Sierra single putting runners on first and second with two out, but Torrealba flied out.

And finally, an Omar Visquel single with two out in the top of the ninth with a faint home and Rajai Davis out. But the Jays sent Omar to steal second and he was caught. A steal of course is a play in desparation but probably not a bad call. Omar has stolen 3 bags and never got caught, and the throw was absolutely perfect. Still, you gotta scratch your head.

Colby and Kelly Johnson went 0 - 4 as Colby continues his hitless streak to 0-26. Colby looked absolutely fooled tonight and couldn't pick up pitches, striking out swinging 3 times, not even coming close to some pitches in the Sanchez 5 hit gem.

The Jays are in very tough against Verlander, who isn't perfect. Let's hope JA Happ can rise to the challenge and the offense wakes up later.

August 21: Jays 3, Tigers 5

Romero fails in valiant Toronto effort

Romero "fails" is a weak term. He stank. He is no longer an ace because he can't pitch consistently and leads the AL in walks. Walks have always been an issue for Romero and despite his low ERA from last year, he was close to the top in walks allowed. Much of this is due to pitches that fall outside of the strike zone and his inability to place a fastball well. He also seems to have a lot of frustration when a pitch doesn't get called his way.

Farrell has commented that Romero's problems are as mental as they are physical. Let's face it, if you are a major league starter, or any aspiring sports player, your head needs to be focused on the task at hand. In the case of a pitcher, it's getting the batter to do what you want him to do, which is not get on base (unless the siutation calls for it). It's a consistent battle that an ace should win more than 70% of the time. That's what Verlander, Price, Sale, Weaver, Hernandez, Peavy, Vargas, and Sabathia do -- they all have OBPs of under .300 batting against. Romero: .366.

To start the game, Romero, with two out, walked Prince Fielder on four pitches, then walked Peralta on 8 pitches, then walked Delmon Young to score Jackson's leadoff single. Ridiculous. Two more walks opened the 2nd inning, and then a third walk with the bases loaded scored the Andy Dirks walk. Six walks in two innings. The third, fourth, and fifth innings were clean, with one hit each inning, but Romero walked two again to start the bottom of the 6th and two more scored. All five runs were due to the walk. You are not going to win games when you walk 8.

In the past 11 starts, Romero has had four decent starts, but last night's start was just poor. It demonstrates exactly what is wrong with him -- when his head is not screwed on right, he loses his command and control. He still has great stuff and is able to get batters out, but when he is fuming about a call, a bad pitch, a bad play, he can't get it back together. I hope that Romero is seeing the best of spanish speaking sports psychiatrists -- he needs the mental help. I think the fans want to see him success as he did in 2011.

So fandom, it's not the time to take Romero out back and shoot him. I also don't believe that a stint in A ball will not help either. The Jays season is shot, and he needs to try and resolve the problems he is having on the field, if he can. There are plenty of other aces who have had less than successful seasons, and this is another example of that.

The Jays offence was inconsistent as always: a couple of singles, a couple of walks, an Edwin home run in the the top of the 6th. Then, in the 7th a spurt of life as four hits in a row (thank you, ex-Jay Dotel) scores two with two out, but Visquel ended the streak. And that was the Jays offense: Too little, too late, as usual.

I think that if you want to put together an offensive line up at this point in the season, you've got to go with a crazy line up such as Davis 7 - Sierra 9 - Cooper 3- Encarnacion DH - Mathis / Torrealba 2 - Johnson 4 - Escobar 6 - Hechavarria / Visquel 5 - Gose 8. Keep Rasmus out of the line up as he is still clearly hurt or needs rehab. Lind might not make it back. Baustista and Rasmus can replace Gose and Sierra or Davis when they return and Rasmus can hit a ball.

The Jays last 20: 5-15. Why the slide?

It's not just the injuries -- everyone is underperforming

When the Jays left for Seattle at the end of July, the team was still one game over .500 despite Jose Bautista's injury and the decimation of their starting rotation over one week. The reason that the Jays were able to stay afloat from the starting rotation injuries until the end of July was amazing run production, at 5.38 / game over 37 games from June 16 to July 29, with a .270 / .335 / .475 line for an OPS of .811. When you bat that well, you are going to win games, and indeed the Jays needed on average 6 runs or more to win games during that time, because the starters (including Romero's meltdowns) and the bullpen just were not good at all.

But over the last twenty, beginning from the time that many team members gathered at Travis Snider's home in Mill Valley, Washington on what turned out to be a farewell barbecue, the team has gone 5 and 15. Perhaps Travis' steaks had some formula in it to make the Jays' bats useless, because this is exactly what has happened to most of the Jays bats, including the regulars.
 
When you look at the individual efforts of the Blue Jays in the last 20 games against Seattle, Oakland, Tampa, the Yankees, the White Sox, and the Rangers, you see a very disappointing effort that goes beyond injuries.

The team since July 29: 144 for 681 with 29 2B, 1 3B, 16 HR -- .211 / .264 / .327 for an OPS of .591

Average stats of teams pitching against (Tampa, Oakland, Seattle, Yankees, White Sox): .246 / .308 / .394 for an OPS of .702.

Team Leaders:

Moises Sierra*: 14 for 44 with 1 2B, 2HR -- .318 / .347 / .477 for an OPS of .824
Enwin Encarnacion: 17 for 70, 2 doubles, 3 HR -- .242 / .349 / .400 for an OPS of .749
David Cooper: 19 for 70, 6 2B, 2HR -- .275 / .286 / .449 for an OPS of .735

Underperformers:

Rajai Davis: 20 for 80 with 8 2B, 1 HR, plus 10 SB -- .250 / .298 / .387 for an OPS of .685.
Kelly Johnson: 11 for 64 with 4 2B, 3 HR -- .172 / .254 / .375. for an OPS .629Anthony Gose*: 10 for 48, 2 2B, 1 3B (8 SB) -- .208 / .296 / .292 for an OPS of .588
Colby Rasmus: 11 for 56, 1 2B, 2 HR -- .196 / .224 / .321 for an OPS of .545
Mike McCoy: 2 for 16 -- .125 / .176 / .294 for an OPS of .470
Yunel Escobar: 14 for 72 with 1 2B -- .194 / .256 / .208 for an OPS of .464
Jeff Mathis: 10 for 60, 1 2B, 2 HR -- .167 / .172 / .283 for an OPS of .455
Adeiny Hechavarria*: 5 for 30 with 2 2B -- .167 / .218 / .233 for an OPS of .451
Omar Visquel: 5 for 24 -- .208 / .208 / .208 for an OPS of .416
Brett Lawrie: 3 for 18 with 1 2B -- .167 / .167 / .222 for an OPS of .389
Yan Gomes*: 2 for 27 -- .074 / .138 / .074 for an OPS of .212

Missing is Travis' 1 for 3 on his last night as a Jay and the Aaron Loup AB in the 15 inning affair against Oakland.

The team for sure ran into some tough pitching but they didn't run into David Price, CC Sabathia, Felix Hernandez, or Chris Sale.

So, in as much as the media wants to blame the injuries for their woes, one needs to look at the performances of Colby Rasmus, Yunel Escobar, Kelly Johnson, and Jeff Mathis to see why the team is lacking in production. Rajai Davis, when he gets on the bases, does well. But even Edwin is seeing a big slump in production over the last 20 games. Only three players are outperforming the league average.

It's expected to see the rookies underperform. But when your veterans are also underperforming, it is easy to see why the Jays are 5-15 since they went to Seattle. There are five games that the Blue Jays should have won with a performing and healthy team: The 2-1 loss to Texas on August 18; the 3-2 loss to the White Sox on August 14; the 3-2 loss to Tampa on August 8, the 5-3 loss to Seattle on August 1st, and the 4-1 loss to Oakland on July 30.

So, when the media challenges the fans and blames the injuries, here's the evidence to show you that the veterans left on the team have been terrible, too.

August 19: Rangers 11, Jays 2

Alverez blows up; Jays pummel Rangers with 2 hit effort.

It's difficult to win games when three base runners get on base for the Jays team in a completely underwhelming effort by the Blue Jays.

Henderson told the club after the game that he had heard before game time that a family member had passed away. Really Henderson, even if you had pitched a five hitter, it would be difficult to win this one when your team's offence is absent without leave.

The team's offence was led by Air Canada spokesman (he seems to always be on the plane between Vegas and Toronto) Mike McCoy with both RBIs, one on a solo home run and another on a ground ball out.

Henderson first couple of innings looked fine but his concentration and his game started to fall apart in the 3rd inning with 4 hits in a row (Murphy double, Soto RBI single, Moreland RBI single, and Kinsler double). In the fourth, Texas scored another run with a three hit combination (Young - Murphy (RBI) - Soto) before getting out of the jam. The fifth was the end of him. With one out, Andrus singled, Hamilton got an RBI double, Beltre walked, Nelson Cruz singled (RBI), and Michael Young belted a 3 run homer. A final David Murphy walk knocked Alvarez out of the game.

It was Alvarez' worst start ever, allowing 8 ER and 12 hits over 4 1/3 innings (and 3 walks). Really, though, no matter, because the Jays offence was absolutely absent, as Matt Harrison had a great start going 8 innings of 2 hit ball. Texas retired fourteen batters in a row from Mike McCoy's solo shot in the 5th to the end of the game.

The Jays are now 5-15 in their last 20, beginning from the time that many team members gathered at Travis Snider's home in Mill Valley, Washington, for what turned out to be a farewell barbecue. Perhaps Travis' steaks had some formula in it to make the Jays' bats useless, because this is exactly what has happened to most of the Jays bats, including the regulars.