The Blue Jays’ hitting woes continued today, and that’s why we lost, plain and simple. Let’s face it, they weren’t going to keep winning at a good pace with the offensive production they’ve gotten during this road trip. They’d managed to win four out of six, which is the pace they need to win everything, while scoring only 16 runs so far in Houston and Kansas City.
They’ve been saved by terrific pitching, both from the starters and from the bullpen. But pitching can only take you so far when you just score one run in a game, as they did in the first game of the Houston series, and as they did again today. Regardless of the outcome of today’s game, if the hitters didn’t break out today, they would have been best advised to take the money—a 4-3 record on the trip—and run.
So why does it stick in my craw so much that Manager John Gibbons risked turning a still-winnable game today into a sure loss by making a really bone-headed pitching decision? Well, for starters, because being down 3-1 after seven innings is a far cry from being down 7-1 after seven innings, and since you never know with the Jays’ hitters who might come up big, and when (witness the Travis homer off Kelvin Herrera Friday night in the ninth inning), it’s always a really good idea to keep it close right to the end.
Let’s take some time and see how we got to the point in the seventh inning when we lost all hope, courtesy of a grand slam home run by Kendrys Morales.
When you look at the pitching lines and the lost scoring opportunities by both teams in the early going, it’s pretty amazing, really, that the game got to the seventh only 3-1 for the Royals. Neither Marcus Stroman nor the volatile Yordano Ventura was particularly sharp today, as evidenced by the number of walks they issued, four by Ventura and two by Stroman, who didn’t walk anybody in his last outing. The high pitch counts for both were also a pretty good clue. When Stroman finished up after five innings, he had already logged 95 pitches, and when Funkmaster Moylan came in with two outs in the bottom of the seventh, Ventura had reached 106 pitches. Not one of which, I should add, was directed at the heads of any of the Jays’ hitters, so that was a good thing, I guess. Ventura’s behavioural therapy must be helping . . .
Marcus Stroman’s performance today continued to demonstrate the frustrating inconsistency that he has shown almost the entire season. Although this was far from his worst outing, in no circumstances would anyone call it masterful. When you look at his line, it wasn’t that bad, until you get to the pitch count, and realize that he was scuffling the whole five innings. He gave up three runs on seven hits with two walks and four strikeouts. In fact, only in the third inning did he retire the side in order. In the other four innings, he was either working around trouble, or not working around it, as the case may be. And some of the trouble he made for himself came from his own fielding miscues, two spectacular throwing errors from the usually sure-handed former NCAA infielder, neither of which entered into the scoring, but both making his life a whole lot more difficult on the mound.
In the first inning after starting off on the right foot by fanning Alcides Escobar, he gave up a double to the rookie Cheslor Cuthbert, but looked like he’d get out of it when he fanned Lorenzo Cain, who’s been striking out a lot in this series, on a foul tip. But then for no particularly good reason Stroman decided to try a pickoff at second, and bounced the ball past Tulo. He was lucky Cuthbert didn’t score on the play, and luckier still that Hosmer grounded out to end the inning.
In the second he gave up two runs through a bizarre series of events that somewhat resembled Sanchez’ Death by a Thousand Cuts fifth inning on Saturday night. He walked Kendrys Morales leading off, and then had Alex Gordon ground into a fielder’s choice, replacing the slow Morales on first with the speedy Gordon. Paulo Orlando singled to right, advancing Gordon to second. Catcher Drew Butera hit a blooper that dropped in front of centre fielder Melvin Upton, scoring Gordon and sending Orlando to third. I complain about the dink-hitting KC offence, but one thing I admire is their team speed. They manage to make a lot of things happen on the bases. As when the Raul Mondesi that’s not a “junior” and wreaked havoc on us yesterday followed with a bunt single back to Stroman that scored Orlando and sent Butera to third because Stroman let go with a wild, no-hoper throw to try to get Mondesi. Stroman was now two for two in the error department, with the second inning not yet over.
Mondesi proceeded to steal second—speed again—which set up the very strange double play that saved Stroman from even worse damage than the two runs that scored. So far Mondesi’s been all good, but on a grounder to first by Escobar he made a rookie running mistake that ended the inning. As Encarnacion recorded the out at first, Mondesi, presumably forgetting that Butera was ahead of him, broke hard for third. This forced Butera to abandon the base and head for the plate. Encarnacion looked at Mondesi making third, and fired to Josh Thole at the plate. Thole, who clearly ranks ahead of Butera in the catchers’ foot speed sweepstakes, ran him down to tag him out to end the inning on a bizarre double play.
After his clean third, Stroman chewed through another 22 pitches in the fourth, yielding a walk and a base hit before fanning Butera and getting Mondesi, finally, on a grounder to second.
Going into the fifth, Stroman was already at 77 pitches, but still in the game. By the end of the inning he had given up a leadoff homer to Escobar and a two-out single to Eric Hosmer, he had allowed the Royals’ lead to increase to 3-0, and checked out with 95 pitches.
Like Stroman, Ventura didn’t throw any lights out tonight, and frankly was lucky that the Jays left their bats behind in Toronto for the whole trip, or he wouldn’t have gotten the win. In only the fifth and sixth did he retire the side in order. In three of the first four innings he had two baserunners on, and only one runner in the third. When Royals’ Manager Ned Yost sent him out for the seventh, he managed to get two outs, but also put two more runners aboard before being pulled for Peter Moylan. Moylan let one of his inherited runners score, in fact showed Darwin Barney the way to the plate with a wild pitch, completing Ventura’s record with only one earned run allowed on five hits with four walks and four strikeouts for his 106 pitches.
If this one had played out from this point, a KC 3-1 win, I’d have thought, “Okay, we didn’t hit, they scratched out a couple and hit a homer, the two pitchers weren’t great but they kept their teams in the game. No big deal in the long run.”
But the thing is it didn’t end like that. John Gibbons brought Scott Feldman in to pick up Stroman in the sixth, and he did such a good job of retiring the side that he was given a second inning for his trouble. This one did not go so well. A bloop single to centre, a bunt single to third, a real single to right, loaded the bases with nobody out. Feldman fought back, and struck Lorenzo Cain on a foul tip, bringing the left-handed hitting Eric Hosmer to the plate. Of course Gibbie went to the pen for Brett Cecil, who came in and struck out Hosmer for the second out. This brought the switch-hitter Kendrys Morales to the plate.
Now this is what fries my frijoles. Normally, you don’t bother pulling your situational lefty when the batter’s a switch-hitter. And because Morales would be followed by another lefty, Alex Gordon, it made sense to leave Cecil in. Except. Except. Except that according to Morales’ splits, which are instantly obtainable by any fan with access to the internet, he hits a lot better right handed than left so it would have made eminent sense to bring in a righty to turn him around.
For the record, in 2016 Morales is hitting .284 against lefties, and .224 against righties. He has more homers and RBI’s against righties, but he’s had more than twice as many at bats against righties. Here’s what really stands out: against left-handed pitchers, Morales has only 28 strikeouts, while against righties he has 61. There was plenty of statistical evidence to support turning him around, but Gibbie didn’t do it, and Morales hit a grand slam off Cecil for a six-run lead over the Jays.
Former palooka starter Chris Young came in to retire six of seven for the Royals, giving up only a single in the ninth to finish off the dispirited Jays. Joe Biagini pitched a clean eighth for the Jays and that was the ball game.
Okay, Morales might have hit a grand slam off a righty, or knocked in a couple of insurance runs, but we’ll never know that. What we do know is that it was absolutely the wrong decision to let Cecil pitch to him. And that the Jays never had a chance to try to tie up a close ball game in the last couple of innings, because Morales, with John Gibbons’ help, put it out of reach.
FSo we come home 4-3 instead of maybe 5-2, and that’s not a bad thing, when you get right down to it, but annoying just the same. Gibbie, next time you decide to go with your gut instinct, just don’t. Read your numbers. Please.
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