Record-low crowd watches Jays romp
The Royals entered Monday’s game batting a major league-leading .309, but Morrow limited them to just three hits seven innings in the Jays’ 8-1 win.
That’s a huge improvement for a pitcher who totalled nine innings and 12 earned runs over his first two starts. Between outings, pitching coach Bruce Walton pulled Morrow aside and adjusted this throwing motion.
Straightening Morrow’s torso a few degrees dropped his arm a shade upon delivery, a subtle change that profoundly improved the movement and accuracy of his pitches.
“My ball was moving a lot more and (I was) keeping the ball down and everything just seemed to be a lot better,” said Morrow, who struck out eight batters in earning his first Blue Jay win. “To me it feels like I’m throwing sidearm (but) it’s really not much at all.”
Former star closer Eric Gagne retires
Unable to catch on with a major league team, Quebec pitcher and former NL Cy Young winner Eric Gagne is calling it a career at age 34.
Gagne told Ruefrontenac.com in an interview that he no longer had it in him to fight for a major league job after being cut by the Los Angeles Dodgers during spring training.
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Attempting to revive his career, Gagne admitted he had a miserable spring training.
In three appearances, he gave up six earned-runs on eight hits in just 2 1-3 innings for a 20.25 ERA.
Gagne initially accepted the minor league assignment from the Dodgers to work on his mechanics, but a week later asked for his release.
Gagne said that he decided he didn’t want to take a spot away from a younger pitcher with a chance to crack the major league roster.
Globe and Mail
Morrow on the mark for Jays
After Morrow got blown out last week with seven runs in four innings against the Chicago White Sox in his second start of the season, Gaston said he met with pitching coach Bruce Walton and bullpen coach Rick Langford to discuss what might be going wrong.
“And they decided to drop his arm slot down a little bit,” Gaston said. “You have to give the kid all the credit for listening and trying it. You can suggest sometimes to guys and they won’t try it.”
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Lyle Overbay, who has been target of plenty of fan resentment for his tepid hitting to begin the season, appears to be getting back on track.
He doubled in his first at-bat in the second inning and would finish the game going 2-for-2 with two walks.
Mike McCoy, hitting out of the nine-hole, also had a nice game, collecting three hits in four trips to the plate while stealing two bases.
“Good for him,” Gaston said about the performance of Overbay, whose batting average rose to .115 from .080 with his effort. “It’s certainly not going to hurt his confidence. Hopefully he’s off and rolling. We could really use him.”
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/baseball/tallet-to-miss-start/article1539725/
Brian Tallet will miss his next major-league start for the Toronto Blue Jays the American League club announced earlier on Monday.
Tallet, who came out of his last start on Saturday with some forearm stiffness to his left (pitching) arm will be allowed to rest for a few extra days according to Toronto manager Cito Gaston.
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Instead, that start will go to Ricky Romero who will be working on his regular five-day schedule as the Blue Jays have an off-day on Thursday.
Gaston said Tallet’s next start will be back in Toronto on April 26th when they play the Boston Red Sox.
Toronto Sun
Note: There's really only one story here that isn't redundant, entitled Lyle Overbay is killing the Blue Jays, and it's not loading for me, but there's the link if you want to try.
National Post
Bautista homers twice, Blue Jays beat Royals 8-1
Brian Bannister blamed himself. So did Brayan Pena.
The way Brandon Morrow pitched, though, Bannister may have had to shut out the Toronto Blue Jays, anyway.
Jose Bautista hit two home runs, Morrow pitched seven innings for his first good start of the season, and the Blue Jays beat the Kansas City Royals 8-1 Monday night.
"I was not prepared for that game and it clearly showed out there," Bannister said. "I didn't give us a chance to win. I got exactly what I deserved and I take all the blame."
Pena, making his first start of the year, tried to take the heat off his pitcher.
"I have to do a better job calling games," Pena said. "It's my fault. I let my team down and I really feel bad for it. I apologize to my teammates and I apologize to my team."
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Bannister (0-1) allowed six runs and seven hits in 5 1-3 innings, raising his ERA from 2.19 to 4.58. He walked four and struck out six. He acknowledged being so angry that he didn't stay in the dugout after being pulled, but otherwise declined to elaborate on his lack of preparation.
"The game needed to be planned for better," Bannister said. "They're a good team, a good hitting team and it was a very sub-par effort out there. I take all the blame for it. It wasn't how I wanted to go out there and pitch."
Bannister spoke briefly with Pena on his way out of the clubhouse, and the two exchanged a fist-bump before Bannister left.
"I don't blame him, I blame myself," Pena said. "It's my fault and I should have called a better game. He's taking responsibility because he's a good teammate but I have to do a better job."
Miked Up
Now That’s More Like It
Morrow became the third Jays starter so far this season - a season that has yet to see three full trips through the rotation - to take a no-hitter into at least the 6th inning. Maybe that should be the Jays’ new marketing strategy: “The 2010 Blue Jays - we might just throw a no-hitter tonight and you don’t want to miss that.”
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Jose Bautista swung the bat tonight the way he did in the spring. All March long, start to finish, he was driving pitches to left field with authority, and he did that tonight with two prodigious home runs - one of them off the facing of the 300 level. He’s been doing a terrific job of getting on base all season long, not so terrific a job of actually hitting, so that was nice to see.
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We had to wait about an hour longer than usual before the Jays’ line-up was posted, because the Jays were hopeful that Edwin Encarnacion might be able to answer the bell. That surprised me, because he wasn’t even throwing while taking grounders during batting practice as recently as yesterday morning. He wasn’t able to go, and one wonders if he’ll wind up on the disabled list as the reciprocal move when Hill comes off on Friday. Brian Tallet has a sore left forearm, but he’s not going on the DL. With his next scheduled start falling on Thursday’s off-day, they’ll just skip over him rather than giving everyone in the rotation an extra day of rest. That will buy Tallet an extra four days to get set.
MLBastian
Covering the Bases: Game 14
Who believes in Lyle O? Well apparently some fans who put up this big banner out in center field. If I'm to believe the twittersphere, then apparently the people who put it up did not have the seats behind the sign, so they weren't allowed to sit there...
Obviously, I don't know that for a fact. And as the game went on, a few fans did wander over behind the sign to root on Overbay and the Jays. There were plenty of seats available for this one -- roughly 39,000 or so. Toronto set another dubious record with a Rogers Centre-low 10,314 in attendance for the 8-1 romp of the Royals.
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Aaron Hill is due back from the disabled list on Friday. This begs the question: who gets bumped off the roster? The two main choices seem to be McCoy and Randy Ruiz, who each have plenty of options left, so there's no worrying about exposing them to waivers and all that.
In Monday's win, all McCoy did was go 3-for-4 with two stolen bases and two runs scored. One of those runs came when McCoy sprinted from second based and scored on a wild pitch in the third inning. He's fast. He's versatile. He's going to be a hard guy to send to the Minors if he has more games like this one.
With Overbay struggling, there's an argument to be made for keeping Ruiz around. If Overbay starts showing more signs of snapping out of his slump, well... we'll see. McCoy could wind up being expendible, especially with an extra outfielder (Fred Lewis) and extra infielder (John McDonald) already in the fold.
Then again, it's Randy Ruiz bobblehead night for Triple-A Vegas on Saturday...
Random thoughts: If anyone has any other good Jays blogs to suggest then by all means do so; I don't really know any others besides DJF... It's nice to see Morrow bust out of his chasm, but I'm not yet sold. A game against the Royals can make a lot of guys look good. Guys with live arms can look fantastic on any given night, but it's when they show consistency that they move up to that next level... It's a good thing that guys like Bautista and McCoy have started to hit. People keep talking about how Lind, Wells and Gonzalez are the team's only producers right now. Well I've got some news: Alez Gonzalez ain't gonna hit .300 with 46 homers as he's on pace to do now, so other people need to step up. I'm a little torn on the Ruiz-McCoy debate right now. Obviously the latter is more versatile and playing well, but from what we saw Ruiz can really hit. I think Ruiz should be playing a whole lot more, if not starting, but if Cito isn't going to use him then maybe it is better to keep McCoy.
That's all I got. Have a frank and productive 4/20.
RGM Girl
SS Girl
