Jays lose again, but getting healthier
The Blue Jays wrap up a four-game set with the Tigers Monday night with what could be their first fully healthy lineup since opening day.
Adam Lind, who missed Sunday’s 5-2 loss to Detroit with lower back pains, expects to play Monday. Lind’s presence, combined with the return from injury of Jose Bautista and Aaron Hill on Sunday, gives the Jays a platform of hope for a better overall performance from the team.
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Many of the issues this club is facing surfaced in Sunday’s game, beginning with starter Jo Jo Reyes, who made one big mistake in an otherwise decent, seven-inning outing.
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Farrell has been forced to compensate for the injuries by writing out 30 different lineups over 34 games this season. Naturally, that wasn’t the plan coming out of Dunedin. Poor at-bats have been a major reason the club has averaged just 2.4 runs per game since Bautista dropped out of the lineup a week ago Sunday with neck stiffness.
Farrell hasn’t seen much out of top-of-the-order hitters Rajai Davis and Corey Patterson. He’s had to drop the .182 hitting Davis to ninth, but he’s been forced to stick with an inconsistent Patterson out of the two hole.
Globe and Mail
Jo-Jo Reyes just wants a win
As Felipe Alou would say: You got to be quite the pitcher to go that long without a win – and still have a manager who wants to run you out there.
“I’m not out there thinking about it,” Reyes said after the Blue Jays lost for the sixth time in eight games in front of 17,392 on a Mother’s Day matinee with the roof open at the Rogers Centre. “I’m competing, pitch to pitch.”
To his credit, Reyes is competing. Unfortunately, he is – as manager John Farrell said – “unable to get away with mistakes over home plate.”
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Jogging past Verlander after grounding out in the seventh, Rivera told the Tigers ace he was “getting lucky.”
Bullpen becomes a source of relief for Blue Jays
...starting pitchers Jo-Jo Reyes and Jesse Litsch have bought Brett Cecil more time at Triple-A Las Vegas – his last two starts suggest Cecil’s making the most of it, to his credit – and the Blue Jays’ bullpen has emerged again as a source of strength. The pen has a 2.77 earned run average that was tops in the American League after Toronto’s game Sunday.
Much like his predecessor J.P. Ricciardi, Blue Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos knows how to put together a bullpen: Carlos Villanueva has gone two plus innings in five of his 10 games and has allowed four hits in those games. Marc Rzepczynski is the new Scott Downs: among the AL leaders in appearances (17) while holding opponents to a .125 average, including limiting lefties to 2-for-25.
Toronto Sun
Francisco shares memories of mom
A successful closer needs to be able to throw strikes, have a fastball in the mid-90s, and a short memory.
Blue Jays Frank Francisco has all of that, but on Mother’s Day he had a long memory of his mother Vicenta, her tribulations, work ethic and sacrifices.
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“I’d be hanging out on the street corner with my friends, joking around and she’d come and grab me by the arm and take me home. It would really embarrass me in front of all my friends.”
And the next day?
“They’d tease me at school ... and the next night she would have to come and get me again,” he said wiping his left eye, sitting at his locker after his Blue Jays fell 5-2 to the Detroit Tigers on Sunday at the Rogers Centre. “It was a good thing she did, she saved me from some bad choices. We’d hangout and smoke cigarettes.”
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Since then, he’s bought his parents a house, put money away and they live off the interest, which he can do earning $4 million US this season. He’s bought 15 acres near the Los Angeles Dodgers academy where he’ll build a house for his brothers to live with a hoops court, swimming pool, ball diamond, barbecue and an area to play dominoes and chess.
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“When my mother used to come and get me off the street corner, she’d say she was doing Œthe right thing and some day I’d understand,’” Francisco said.
“All my friends don’t have what I have thanks to my mother. Now, I understand.”
Miked Up
The last Blue Jay other than Bautista and Lind (currently in uniform with the big club) to go deep was J.P. Arencibia, back on April 29th.
Jo-Jo Reyes really did outpitch his line today - he was in a 2-2 tie with two out and nobody on in the 7th inning when he gave up a single, then a two-run homer by Austin Jackson that just kind of floated out down the left-field line. Through the first 6 2/3, he’d allowed two runs on five hits with only one walk. It got away from him after that, but it was another step in the right direction and the first time as a Blue Jay that he’s put together consecutive solid starts. The arm is there, maybe the results will be as well, and the Jays will be rewarded for their patience. I know I wouldn’t have kept him around this long.
Sunshine Girl
RGM Girl
Random thoughts
Well at least the team is getting healthy. Obviously things haven't gone as well as we might have hoped at the beginning of the year, but it's still very early and if Cecil comes back, Snider contributes and the team stays relatively healthy, I still think this team can compete.
The bullpen has been great and that's encouraging, it really helps to smooth out some of the other issues the team has. Obviously Reyes isn't blowing anyone away, but it does seem that there has been a bit of progress there.
I know the Fransisco story is a bit fluffly, but I thought it was interesting enough to post.
I'm going to try to include more blog stuff. I don't think it would translate well to these posts, but I'm reading Stoeten doing Griffin's mailbag at DJF and it's insightful and funny as usual.
I might be going to the game tonight, which would be my first of the year. The last game I went to was the Baltimore matchup at the end of last season when they kept beaning Bautista. I assume that won't happen tonight.
That's it for now, have a good day guys.
