4:45 PM Eastern
There are games you’re going to win, there are games that can go either way and there are games you’re going to lose. A subset of the “games you’re going to lose” is one of “games in which you’re going to get thoroughly dominated, and this was one of those.
Derek Holland was absolutely masterful, spoiling a very good season debut from Brad Mills. The Rangers’ starter had the Blue Jays eating out of his left hand all afternoon. Holland picked up his 10th win, a fourth shutout that ties him with Cliff Lee for the major-league lead, and though he allowed four hits, only one of them was legit.
Jose Bautista singled in the first inning, but that was a pop-up to first that Michael Young lost in the sun. John McDonald had a bunt single in the second inning, but he might well have been out had Holland not thrown the ball away. In the 8th, J.P. Arencibia beat out a ground ball into the hole at short on which Omar Quintanilla threw wildly to first.
The only legitimate hit of the afternoon was a grounder that Bautista rocketed between short and third with two out in the 6th.
The two hits for Bautista in this game upped his post-ankle injury average 27 points to .256. He hasn’t hit a home run since coming back from that ugly ankle twistage the first game after the all-star break, but he has posted an OBP of .375 despite the lack of power. He’s in a power slump, to be sure, but the idea that he’s lost at the plate or some such, as was suggested in the live chat, is ridiculous.
Brad Mills was sensational in his season debut, though he was pitching against a Rangers line-up that was missing Adrian Beltre, Nelson Cruz and Josh Hamilton. Mills really made only one mistake, and Mitch Moreland took him deep with a runner on in the second. He threw seven innings of slow and slower, with a nice over-the-top curveball, and allowed just six hits, issuing one unintentional walk and striking out five. It’s a start that will definitely keep him in the rotation, unless he showed enough to the scouts in the stands that he winds up part of a trade before Sunday afternoon’s deadline. If Mills does stick around, his next four starts will be against Baltimore, Seattle and Oakland (twice) so expect him to look awfully good for a while.
Colby Rasmus took the collar again, but so did the overwhelming majority of his new teammates. The centrefielder of the present and future is now 0-for-12 (with a walk) to begin his Blue Jays career and no, I’m not the least bit worried.
There was an ejection in the 6th inning, as Yunel Escobar hit a ground ball to second and then slowly jogged up the line. Ian Kinsler’s throw was wild and Escobar believed it pulled Michael Young off the bag, so when he was called out, Yunel leapt up in the air and complained rather forcefully to the first-base umpire, who threw him out. It’s not difficult to see why the Braves soured on Escobar – he rarely runs out a ground ball (there would have been neither an ejection nor an argument if he’d run out this one, because he’d have beaten the throw) and he can get lazy with his throws from shortstop. When he’s struggling at the plate, as he did the first half of last season, those things are far less easy to slough off. But Escobar is killing it at the plate and in the field, so you have to take the bad with the good.
Here’s today’s brief edition of The JaysTalk, for your listening pleasure:
The series wraps up Sunday afternoon with the rubber match – Brandon Morrow gets the ball for the Blue Jays, coming off his first poor outing in eight starts. He’ll face Texas lefty C.J. Wilson, who is 10-4 with a 3.16 ERA and 1.199 WHIP. While it’s the rubber match of the series, the Blue Jays can also take the season series with the Rangers if they can win it – right now they’re 5-4 this year against the defending A.L. Champs.
There’ll be a big show before the game as well, as the Jays raise Roberto Alomar’s #12 to the rafters, never to be worn again. The ceremony begins at about 12:30 PM Eastern, which is the same time we hit the airwaves for the pre-game show. First pitch will be pushed back to somewhere around 1:30. If you can’t get down to the ballpark, make sure you join us along the Blue Jays Radio Network!
Please give me a follow on The Twitter, you can find me @wilnerness590. If you’re interested in following Sunday’s starting pitchers (though I doubt they’ll be tweeting during the game), you can follow Morrow @2Morrow23 and Wilson @str8edgeracer.
Rational, reasonable comments are always welcome!
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7 Responses to “And The Dutch”
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Hi Mike
I don’t like the lineup Jays fielded today. Yes, Holland was masterful, yes, Holland is a lefty but Davis and McDonald are two easy outs, against lefties and righties, no disrespect to these two players. I rather see Tehan and Snider outthere, even though they are left bats
MW: You do realize that Davis is hittiing .271/.346/.443 against lefties and Teahen is hitting .077/.200/.077 against them, right? And that Teahen doesn’t play second.
- francisThere’s nothing wrong with Rasmus beginning with a little humility, plus, there’s only one direction to go from here…up.
Side note: In my opinion, Lawrie should be up with the big club, especially with Rasmus struggling. ‘New Look Jays’ will have kinks to work out and it would be more palatable to go through the growing pains as a team (for the players and the fans, alike) in addition to getting Lawrie the experience for next year. This, taking into consideration the number of games towards service.
MW: Lawrie will be up soon.
- Bird is the WordIt’s hardly “ridiculous” to suggest that Jose Bautista is in a slump right now, when he’s hitting .256 since the all-star break. No, he’s certainly not lost at the plate and I never suggested he was, and yes, his .OBP is still good over this stretch, because pitchers are still going to pitch around him and he’s going to get his walks because of the respect he’s earned, but don’t honestly try and tell me that when you look at what this guy has done all season that he’s not in a slump right now when he’s hitting .256 with no homers since the all-star break. Am I saying the sky is falling or that he’s lost it? No, of course not. Maybe getting beaned is still fresh in his head and he’s a little wary at the plate right now, and I wouldn’t be surprised his ankle is still hurting him, and he’s not going to be tearing the cover off the ball all year long, he’s going to have slumps, everyone does, he’ll snap out of it, I’m not worried about him at all, but don’t honestly try and tell me that he is not in a slump right now, because I’m sure Jose would be the first to tell you that he is right now.
MW: I didn’t say is was ridiculous to say he’s in a slump, I said it was ridiculous to suggest that he’s lost at the plate.
- JackONot running out ground balls must cost every major league player a handful of hits per year, could never figure out why major league players get lazy.
Two players Escobar could learn from are Bautista (a throwback who just seems to do everything right) and Thames who runs everything out hard, perhaps due as much to his rookie gotta-stay-up-with-the-big-club status.
The Jays are rumoured to be in on a trade for the Rockies catcher Chris Iannetta although he doesn’t appear to be much of a “catch”, hitting just .221 in 80 games this season with one homer and 10 RBIs.
You’d have to figure the Jose Molina is in play if that’s the case but it would have to be in a bigger trade to make sense in my opinion.
I think it’s a fair assumtion that AA has another card to play before today’s trade deadline and it’s not for Jiminez who went to Cleveland of all places…
MW: Cleveland is in a race, good on them for getting Ubaldo. As far as Iannetta goes, he’d be a nice back-up catcher for a couple of years to enable Travis d’Arnaud to continue to develop – Molina isn’t coming back after this season, if he makes it through the deadline.
- GaryHey Mike,
Thanks for a well written commentary on today’s game. Just wondering your thoughts on a couple of things. First while I know AA wants competition at every position. having 5 legit outfielders and 3 potential 3rd basemen (including Lawrie, is a bit of overkill. Plus considering there is really no one available as a FA this off season who is a large upgrade to our starting 5 (assuming CC stays in NY). In my opinion the starting staff has not taken the step forward we all expected them to this year. What are the chances the Jays deal for a front line starter to go with Romero and Morrow? Landing someone of that level would give us a pretty solid front 4 with Cecil and we could use the 5th & 6th (injuries and spot starts) for the kids.
My second question is do you see anyone in the minors who could be the closer of the future that the fans should keep their eyes on? i.e. an older starter with 2 above average pitches? I’m really hoping the Jays don’t deal/ sign a closer. Perhaps I’m once bitten twice shy, but it seems every time we sign an external closer he busts (BJ Ryan, Bill Caudill etc.)
MW: I don’t think he wants competition at every spot so much as he wants an all-star at every spot. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them go after a front-line starting pitcher.
- KeithI know this is off topic but any news on how Drabek is going in thiple A and when is may be coming back to the Jays?
MW: You can find all his numbers, and his game logs, at milb.com!
- RoyceWe certainly wouldn’t have the Jays being the only team active in the AL East for long.
The Red Sox deal for Cdn Rich Harden fell apart but there still after another Cdn, Erik Bedard. Bother are former studs coming off injury issues. They have obtained infielder Mike Aviles from the Kansas City Royals in a move for insurance as he is capable of playing several positions.
AA has one of the better deals done so far but can the Yankees answer be far behind. I’m amazed they weren’t in on the Jiminez deal but maybe they were…
- Gary