Stray Thoughts... - Bronx Tears
Saving the heroics until late on Friday plus a grim doubleheader Sunday equal, like, one genuinely fun inning out of 27 in New York for your sliding Toronto Blue Jays. Not ideal.
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There’s more nuance to how the Jays’ season and these last three series have gone than the statement I’m about to make, but as they make their way home from New York the Toronto Blue Jays have hit the second-fewest home runs and baseball, and given up the second-most. That is simply untenable if you want to be a winning team.
The Jays have won once in eight tries, with only the existence of the hilariously 10-17 Orioles keeping them from being the AL East’s current laughingstock. It’s early, and their roster—with George Springer seemingly resurrected, Anthony Santander essentially in place of Justin Turner, and Daulton Varsho on the verge of returning—is better equipped to discover its power stroke than the one that got buried so quickly last year, but they really need to… you know… start doing that.
Let’s get straight into the stray thoughts…
The Kirk Game
The less said about the Jays’ 9-for-90 midweek series in Houston the better, and that goes for the preceding weekend’s visit from the Mariners, too. Well, except for maybe this…
But this just-completed trip to the Bronx certainly started decently. Sort of.
I mean, if you’d asked anyone during the eighth inning on Friday night if things had been going better you probably wouldn’t have received many affirmative replies. Sure, Vladdy picked up his second homer of the year with a frozen rope to left field, and José Berríos danced through traffic for 5 1/3 shutout innings, with help from the suddenly elite throwing arm of Alejandro Kirk.
But with that first game winding down those old and all-too-familiar feelings were creeping in. In a 1-0 game, nothing came of a lead-off single from Kirk in the top of the seventh, then the Yankees evened things up in the bottom of the frame. Another lead-off single opened the eighth, but Bo, Vlad, and Santander left Nathan Lukes stranded at third. Mason Fluharty then couldn’t keep the Yankees off the board in the bottom of the inning, and so the Jays entered the ninth down a run with their best hitters six batters away, and Devin Williams heading into the game.
Williams, of course, had been a dominant reliever for the Brewers throughout his career, coming into the season with a ridiculous 1.83 ERA over 241 career games, and a remarkable 375 strikeouts in just 235 1/3 innings. He was acquired by the Yankees over the winter for starter Nestor Cortes and a prospect—quite a coup for New York, considering that “Nasty Nestor” lasted just two brutal starts before going down with a flexor strain in his throwing arm, and was recently placed on the 60-day IL, meaning he’ll be out until June at the earliest.
Or it would have been a coup if not for the fact that Williams has also sucked thus far—a great bit if his aim was to further piss off reactionary Yankees weirdos who already hated him for getting the club to finally change its absurd facial hair policy, but not so great on the field. Unless you’re an opponent of the Yankees, of course.
Williams entered Friday's game with the Jays sitting on a 7.88 ERA, managing just one strikeout in his previous three innings. He exited it having failed again to record a strikeout, and with his ERA for the season at 11.25.
A Springer single, a Giménez HBP, and a rocket of an Alejandro Kirk double over the head of CF Trent Grisham gave the Jays the lead. And, thanks to Giménez chasing down Springer on the base paths, one of the most fun plays of their season so far.
(Clip via Sportsnet)
“I think we maybe saw more emotion from (Kirk) out at second base than maybe in is whole MLB career,” quipped Sportsnet’s Dan Shulman early in Sundays telecast.
An Addison Barger single off of new pitcher Mark Leiter Jr. cashed pinch runner Tyler Heineman to push the Jays’ lead to two. Jeff Hoffman ultimately closed it out. Williams’ career ERA jumped up to 2.14. And the clouds that had been surrounding the Jays felt like they had maybe lifted.
Maybe. (FORESHADOWING!)
The Gausman Game
With Saturday’s game having been rained out the Jays, somewhat ironically, got a little extra time with those clear skies above them. What they didn’t get by having a surprise off-day handed to them, however, was momentum. Their late win on Friday was supposed to be followed a little over 12 hours later by another game, but instead they had to cool for an additional 24. Theoretically that could at least have been helpful by getting Kevin Gausman extra rest. Unfortunately, it was not.
When I wrote about Gausman two starts ago, my focus was on some of the warning signs in the numbers underlying his strong start to the season—primary among them the fact that he seemed to be struggling to locate his splitter. Location, overall, wasn't necessarily my concern then, as I wrote more about the way he’d been struggling to get swing-and-miss with his one truly elite pitch. However, both those things—location and the inability to put guys away—bit him in a big way in this one.
Gausman pitched well in the first two innings, and as the bottom of the third began things were going reasonably well for the Jays, even though they’d failed to punish Yankees starter Max Fried for more than a single run, despite loading the basis in the first and at one point having runners at first and second with one out in the second.
Sadly, though, Gausman came unglued from there, leading to one of the truly weirdest innings in recent memory—thanks in no small part, but not entirely, to home plate umpire Chris Conroy.
It started with a one-out walk to Oswaldo Cabrera in an at-bat that hinged on a brutal call on the 1-1 pitch—the first of four consecutive at-bats to feature questionable umpiring before the wheels truly fell off.
Next up was Ben Rice. Gausman struggled to find the zone against him, but likely—a term I use in fairness to Conroy because the public-facing one-size-fits-all visualizations from Statcast we're using here don't necessarily line up precisely with the actual top and bottom of the zone, as every player has a unique height and stance that determines the zone—was robbed of a strikeout that also would have changed the inning and the game itself significantly.
“Ball three! Take your base!”
Then we have Aaron Judge, who immediately got ahead of Gausman thanks to what appears to have been another at-bat-changing gift from Conroy—though, if we’re being honest, the Jays got lucky on this one too, as Judge’s eventual rocket to the base of the wall looked enough like it might be caught that Cabrera and Rice could only advance one base each, keeping the score 1-0.
Cody Bellinger changed that, tying the game with a sac fly. But not until he got yet another gift from the umpire!
Don’t worry, though! Conroy eventually figured out that part of the zone!
Infuriating stuff, to be sure. And it definitely got to Gausman, who could still have limited the damage but actually lost the zone after that. He laboured through three straight run-scoring walks before Austin Wells smashed a bases-clearing double at the end of a nine-pitch at-bat to end Gausman’s day, and essentially the game. All it took was a team-record-tying 53 pitches in the frame.
As he left the field, Gausman exchanged words with Conroy and got himself ejected. He then nearly added injury to insult by slipping down the dugout steps.
“I told him I was going to go (inside and) watch his bad umpiring. I didn’t see the stairs.”
Funny stuff if you’re Conroy, I’d imagine. Less so I’m sure for the rotation-thin Blue Jays.
Fortunately, he’ll be fine.
The Dumb Game
Less fortunately, the Jays’ bats fared no better in the second game of the doubleheader. Chris Bassitt pitched well, but eventually succumbed to the need to be perfect. The Jays leaked a few runs late and ended up losing 5-1, meaning they lost by an aggregate score of 16-3 on the day.
Not great!
Quickly…
• Gausman’s 53 pitches in the third inning of Sunday’s first game was the most in an inning by a Blue Jays pitcher since Jesse Chavez went flyout, double, flyout, double, walk, walk, HBP, walk, walk for 48 pitches in the third inning of a game in Milwaukee back in 2012. The Jays would ultimately win that one 10-9 behind home runs from Brett Lawrie, Colby Rasmus (x2), José Bautista (x2), Edwin Encarnacion. Remember home runs?
• John Schneider and Pete Walker were certainly pushing Gausman’s pitch count by allowing him to stay out there, but I’m honestly fine with that. It seemed like he was so close to getting out of it—and that he was, by far, the best option they had. It sucks that they had to do it anyway, but trying to avoid going to the ‘pen so early in a doubleheader made the most sense to me. Ya win some, ya lose some.
• Though I did keep on hoping to see Gausman stay in the game—and Paxton Schultz out of it—as long as the score remained close, despite the obviousness of his struggles, I must admit to wondering why John Schneider and Pete Walker kept on refusing to come out for a mound visit during the meltdown, if only to give their beleaguered starter a momentary break. I saw on Twitter later that I wasn’t alone.
It turns out, however, there was actually very good reason for that. Though it wasn’t noted at the time on the Sportsnet broadcast (as far as I heard)—and may not have been pointed out later, either—MLB.com’s Gameday feature noted a mound visit after Judge’s long single.
The broadcast focused on the replay and the conversation between Judge and Vladdy at first base, but if you were watching closely you could see a brief flash of Pete Walker coming off the field at that moment.
Of course, had Schneider or Walker come out for a second mound visit in the inning, Gausman would have been required to leave the game. So there’s your explanation for that.
• Pre-doubleheader notes included the fact that Daulton Varsho needed “one more game” in Buffalo and should be back with the club on Tuesday; Erik Swanson should begin a rehab assignment of his own on Tuesday in Dunedin; Jacob Barnes, who was designated for assignment and elected free agency last week, has signed on for Buffalo; and Bowden Francis will get the start Tuesday as the Jays begin a six-game homestand against the Red Sox and Guardians.
• Anthony Santander will be fine. The Jays may not, and he may not quite be the 44 HR guy he was last year, but I think he'll be fine.
• Prospects are for poor people, but this Blue Jays team doesn't exactly have a fat wallet at the moment—except when they need to give half-a-billion to a singles hitter AMIRIGHT HEYO!!!!!—so some of the stuff going on down on the farm seems increasingly interesting, even if the guys to be most excited about aren’t going to be helping the big league team any time soon.
Specifically I mean a few guys, but specifically specifically I mean Arjun Nimmala, who came into Sunday’s game slashing .282/.346/.507 despite being just one of ten 19-year-olds at High-A or above. Then he did this—for the third straight game…
(Clip via MLB Pipeline)
• Meanwhile, Trey Yesavage has 28 Ks in 17 1/3 innings for Dunedin with a 2.07 FIP, and Gage Stanifer pitched behind him on Friday and continued to be brilliant himself (21 Ks in 16 IP and just 1 ER). Khal Stephen got roughed up a little on Sunday, but he's been turning heads as well (and still has an ERA of just 2.19).
• Speaking of DM Fox, check out his latest Future Blue Jays Newsletter, which contains a great conversation with Jays minor league pitching coordinator Ricky Meinhold.
• Hey, and speaking of the Guardians (weren’t we?) this piece of trash needs to be banned for life from every ballpark.
• Curious to see what the Jays do when Varsho is activated on Tuesday, because they don’t necessarily have to send Jonatan Clase back down—he didn’t get a chance to show much as the 27th man on the doubleheader roster, but his 148 wRC+ in Buffalo so far (and .452 OBP) is impressive, even if it’s belied by an outlandish .462 BABIP and an unimpressive .057 ISO. They’re also not getting a ton out of guys like Alan Roden, Will Wagner, or Addison Barger—though the latter’s loud tools continue to intrigue me.
• They have a 40-man spot open now that they’ve transferred Ryan Burr to the 60-day IL, as was announced on Sunday. Maybe a waiver claim can soothe our jangled nerves? Maybe??
• I’m way late on this one, and I don’t particularly want to say anything nice about Cal fucking Raleigh, but I though his response to the Berríos incident last week was actually pretty good.
“They thought I was relaying. I wasn't. I mean, if you just look at the results, Rowdy was way off-balance. I didn't have the pitches. But that's just how it is. I'd want my pitchers doing the same thing if somebody thought they were tipping.”
• Don’t make me tap the sign…
• Couple days ago by now, but Mitch Bannon of the Athletic reports that the Jays have signed Connor Overton to a minor league deal and sent him to Buffalo. Congrats to Overton, who made four appearances for the Jays back in 2021—and to Mitch on the new gig!
• Nick Ashbourne suggesting for Sportsnet that we not panic yet about Anthony Santander’s slow starts is still worth a read—and soon to become prescient, I’d wager.
• Max Scherzer was throwing on the field in the Bronx early on Sunday, under the watchful eye of Pete Walker, according to MLB.com’s Keegan Matheson. Remember Max Scherzer??
• Lol. And, if I may be so bold as to add, Lmao.
• Lastly… I stand by it!
• OK, that’s it for now!
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We are playing such a boring brand of baseball at the moment. It’s a bad sign when I can’t even be bothered to watch the condensed game recaps. We are only 2 games under .500, but it feels like it’s a house of cards.
I'm not seeing improvement from Schneider on in-game decisions. He seems to suffer from a lot of bad luck, but he also goes against the grain a lot, and it typically backfires. I'm just not seeing leadership material from him, but hey, I'm not in the building and not in the meetings, so who knows. Something just hasn't seemed right since Gibby left, I just can't put my finger on it.