"Well Rodney hadn't done it"

"The Blue Jays had won it"

"With Arencibia swinging all the while"

"Bonifacio's stolen bases made us smile"

"And Kawasaki dancing on the dugout tile"



It's been a very up and down week in Toronto Blue Jay land. The local twenty-five started off by winning three games in a row (two in particularly exciting fashion) but then lost three in row before winning Saturday on Mark Buehrle's best start as a Blue Jay. They were on happy side of a blowout (May 5th versus Seattle) and the unhappy side (May 8th versus Tampa Bay). There was another Ricky Romero implosion, a walk-off walk surrendered against the Rays (side note: I imagine a pitcher feels much worse giving up a game winning walk than giving up a game winning home run.) and an absolutely dominating performance by pitcher Jon Lester where Blue Jay hitters might as well have been swinging hockey sticks instead of bats.

Then of course, there was the second game of the Tampa Bay series, significant and unfortunately memorable because of the line drive that hit J.A. Happ in the side of the head. I was listening to that game on the radio and the grim horror in the voice of Jack Morris is something I won't soon forget. Being hit by a hard line drive is a fear shared by all pitchers who have ever pitched anywhere, anytime, but it is a fear you are not constantly aware of. A pitcher's focus is always to make a good pitch, to induce weak contact or no contact from the hitter, and so the possibility of the ball coming back rudely to meet you is often forgotten in the back of the mind.
Some pitchers (such as R.A. Dickey) finish their deliveries in excellent fielding position (completely square towards the catcher) and are less likely to be compromised by a hard hit directly at them. J.A. Happ, however, tends to have his momentum swing his body to the right so that the left side of his head is exposed to the hitter, with his glove on the other side of him. This is just he way he pitches, the way that is most comfortable and successful for him. It truly is incredibly fortunate, a miracle even, that Happ was able to leave the hospital the very next day by his own power. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery. 

The game of the week, however, can only be May 6th against the Tampa Bay Rays in Tropicana Field. This tilt of sphere twirlers featured the Blue Jays Mark Buehrle and the Rays Jeremy Hellickson in the first of a four game series.

In the early innings, Buehrle flirted with danger but it was the bottom of the third when danger finally came to dance. A walk to Desmond Jennings followed Sam Fuld's leadoff single, bringing up former Blue Jay walk/strikeout machine Kelly Johnson. Johnson hit a high fly ball up into the roof at Tropicana Field which Toronto centerfielder Colby Rasmus appeared to have tracked, until the ball bounced off one of the rails along the roof and dropped several feet behind Rasmus, scoring Fuld and making it 1-0 Tampa Bay. Ryan Roberts, the next batter, hit a slow rolling ball along the first base line that Buehrle jogged beside, wishing it to go foul without luck. The bases were now loaded with nobody out for Evan Longoria.
In this kind of situation, the best-case scenario for a pitcher is to get a soft comebacker right to you: you're likely to get two outs and a run won't score thanks to the force-out at home plate. (I'm not considering a triple play here because those are the kinds of things you cannot expect or depend upon) The worst case scenario is what happened to Buehrle against Longoria: the Tampa third baseman turned his quick hands on an elevated fastball and delivered it into the left field bleachers. 5-0 Tampa Bay.
At this point I changed the channel. Not because I thought all was lost in this one (okay, I did kind of think that) but because the Maple Leafs-Bruins game was also on and it was my plan to switch back and forth. Once I returned to baseball I discovered Luke Scott and Colby Rasmus had traded two run home runs, Melky Cabrera had driven home one and the score was now 7-3 Tampa Bay starting the bottom of the 4th.

Jeremy Hellickson was having a smoother go of it than Buehrle, except Blue Jay hitters were making Hellickson throw a lot of pitches even without getting on base very much. By the fifth inning Hellickson was well over 90 pitches and the Rays bullpen was already warming up. By the sixth inning Hellickson was out and bazooka-armed lefty Jake McGee was in. Of note also here was former Toronto shortstop Yunel Escobar's entry into the game. Maicer Izturis led off for the Blue Jays and sure enough hit a playable ground ball right at Escobar's glove side, except the ball skipped by the glove and into the outfield for what was ruled a single for Izturis. Buck Martinez and Pat Tabler on the television broadcast pointed out a bandage wrapped around Escobar's left wrist, suggesting that an injury there might explain the lack of aggressiveness in fielding that ground ball.
In what was a definitely a fifty points for Gibbons move, J.P. Arencibia came in to pinch hit for Henry Blanco who was the starting catcher, although JP popped up to the second baseman for the first out. Gibbons went to the bench again, this time bringing up righty hitting Mark DeRosa for the lefty Munenori Kawasaki. DeRosa was clearly overmatched by McGee's hard fastball, watching one explode in the strikezone and flicking his wrists helplessly at another. At 0-2. DeRosa flicked his wrists again, but this time connected on a hard low and way fastball and sent it squeaking on gas just over the right field foul corner fence for a two run home run. 7-5 Rays.

The Blue Jays threatened again in the top of the 7th. Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion singled off Kyle Farnsworth and with some agressive baserunning were at 3rd and 2nd with nobody out and Tampa Bay brought the infield in. Adam Lind then bounced a ground ball right to second baseman Ryan Roberts that was hit much too sharply to score a run, except Bautista (Confunded apparently) decided to run for home anyway and was thrown out by fifteen feet. This proceeded to kill the rally and Toronto was unable to score in the inning.
Then came the top of the 8th and the Blue Jays were at it again. Arencibia and Brett Lawrie were on base with one out and Rays manager Joe Maddon decided it was time for his closer Fernando Rodney. Melky Cabrera lumbered up for the Blue Jays in this big spot and without fail knocked a double play ball right at Yunel Escobar, except Yunel again misplayed the ball and wasn't able to get anybody out. The bases were now loaded for Bautista, who knocked a ball into right field deep enough for Arencibia to score. 7-6 Tampa Bay. Rodney however was able to escape the inning still with the lead. 

The top of the 9th was the last chance for the Blue Jays and Adam Lind led off with a walk. In another "Obvious But Still A Good Move" move, Gibbons went to his bench one more time for Emilo Bonifacio to pinch run for Lind. Rodney I imagine is difficult to run on because he pitches without a leg kick, making it more difficult for a base stealer to time his start, yet Bonifacio found a time he liked and jolted off for second. Catcher Jose Molina fired a grenade down but once again Yunel Escobar was unable to catch the ball and it sailed into centrefield. Bonifacio jogged into third base on what was an error on Molina.
Rodney was not keen to surrender the lead so easily. He struck out Colby Rasmus and then got Izturis to ground out to the first baseman playing in, securing the second out for Tampa Bay and keeping Bonifacio standing at third. This brought up J.P. Arencibia for his third at-bat since replacing Blanco. Rodney, who had already thrown over thirty pitches since entering in the 8th, was clearly tiring but worked back to get a 2-2 count on Arencibia.

The thought in the back of my mind was of Rodney's excellent changeup and of JP's likely futility against it. I remarked to the company beside me on the couch: "Changeup low and away" and waited. Rodney threw his 2-2 pitch but instead it was a fastball inside on Arencibia, who had seen enough of it and sent it sailing like an arrow over the left-field wall for a two run home run. The Blue Jays had rallied from being down 7-0 and now were up 8-7. I quipped with a grin: "Shoulda thrown the changeup."
Casey Janssen entered the bottom of the 9th for Toronto and well, he's Casey Janssen. FINAL: 8-7 Toronto.

It was not exactly an exciting game as it was a strange game. There were tons of errors (Yunel Escobar seemed like he was still a Blue Jay the way he was helping us out), bad baserunning and stadium quirks that all came into play. An entertaining game, absolutely, and it was very satisfying to beat Fernando Rodney who always seems to sneak his way out of jams like that.


Random Ramblings

The organization is doing some bizarre and frankly foolish things right now. From the yo-yo they've tied Ricky Romero to, the surprise callup of Chad Jenkins for a spot start after just five (!) rehab innings in AA (although that actually worked out okay) or the carousel of relievers the team employs, it seems to me that General Manager Alex Anthopoulos is very indecisive these days. All these moves are a bit too reactionary for my taste and I think some stability for while might help the team settle down a bit.

Jeremy Hellickson's leg kick reminds me of somebody trying to step up a very big stair.


Stat Line to Chew On of the week:

29/35

That is the number of stolen bases and number of attempts the Blue Jays have as a team this season. They are actually tied for the Major League lead in stolen bases, for whatever that's worth.

Division of The Atrocious -- Standings (as of May 12th)

                                                      GB
Chicago Cubs             15-22         --
Toronto Blue Jays      15-24         1
Los Angeles Angels   14-23       1.5
Miami Marlins             11-27         4
Houston Astros          10-28         5


Overall, a strange but mildly successful (4-3 record) week for the local twenty-five.