The disruptive nature of the injuries, roster churn and struggle the Toronto Blue Jays have endured over the past week means that as much as they need some wins, what they really need are some stabilizing forces.
To that end, their latest moves are aimed at restoring some equilibrium, with Patrick Corbin recalled to tentatively start Friday against the Minnesota Twins, filling the rotation spot of Cody Ponce, who will be sidelined six months after right knee surgery next week. Addison Barger, meanwhile, hit the injured list with a left ankle sprain and Tyler Fitzgerald was recalled to cover the absence, giving manager John Schneider another piece to mix and match with as he tries to get his team “just being in sync.”
“Not having games where guys are getting stretched out, you’re making moves, you’re churning through guys, you’re optioning, you’re rotating – you don’t really want that,” he continued. “There have been a lot of pitchers used so far. You never know who it’s going to be. … Last year, Eric (Lauer) was a great story, kind of a shot in the arm when Max (Scherzer) was down. We’ll see who it is. Signing a veteran guy (like Corbin), you know what you’re going to get. You trust the fact that he’s going to be prepared and by no means are we asking him to step in and be our No. 1. You’ve got to get through the rotation a couple times with guys doing what they should, getting the innings they should, putting the guys in the bullpen in the right place and just slowing down the transactional log, if you will.”
The Blue Jays took a step in that direction Tuesday night in a 4-1 setback to the Los Angeles Dodgers that was their sixth loss in a row. While the result was by no means what they wanted, they at least looked more like themselves, getting 5.1 innings from Kevin Gausman, which allowed them to properly deploy their bullpen and avoid the scrambles inherent to their previous losses.
Still, much work remains, especially at the plate, where they loaded the bases with nobody out in the seventh to knock out Yoshinobu Yamamoto but watched Alex Vesia get Andres Gimenez on a fly out to left, strike out Brandon Valenzuela and get George Springer on a fly out to right, preserving a 3-1 lead.
Blake Treinen and Edwin Diaz locked down the final two frames to secure a win in which the Blue Jays had their chances, but went 3-for-12 with runners in scoring position – fittingly, two of those hits didn’t score runs – and are now just 20-for-94 this season.
Gausman pitched better than his final line of three runs over 5.1 innings, as a two-run third was fuelled by his throw on Alex Freeland’s bunt hitting the batter on the helmet, negating an out that would have limited the damage in the inning.
A Shohei Ohtani RBI single then opened the scoring while a potential inning-ending grounder to third by Will Smith was just soft enough for the catcher to touch first safely, allowing a second run to score.
In the fifth, John Schneider was ejected for arguing a balk called on Kevin Gausman, which moved Hyeseong Kim, who walked to lead off the inning, to second. Freeland promptly followed with an RBI single that made it 3-0.
Yamamoto, meanwhile, recorded 12 straight outs between Jesus Sanchez’s leadoff double in the second and Gimenez’s single to open the sixth, which was cashed in by Springer’s double.
