2:54AM Eastern
The Blue Jays and Twins waited out a one hour and 51-minute rain delay before getting things started, which made for an awfully long night. Then Kyle Drabek and Carlos Villanueva combined to walk seven batters over the course of the first four innings, which made the odds of losing pretty much impossible to overcome.
Still, the Blue Jays did manage to rally to get back within a run, but their four-homer barrage (two for Jose Bautista, one each for Edwin Encarnacion and Eric Thames) ultimately fell short.
There was plenty of opportunity to interact with yours truly on the phones tonight – here’s the Rain Delay Programme, for your listening pleasure:
And here’s the post-game BlueJaysTalk, also for your listening pleasure, of course:
It’s no fun losing to the Minnesota Twins, and the Blue Jays are going to try to make sure it doesn’t happen again. To that end, they’ll send rookie Drew Hutchison to the mound for his fifth big-league start on Saturday night. He’ll face P.J. Walters, who was a Blue Jay briefly last season – he pitched a hitless inning of relief against the Orioles on July 28th after coming over in the Colby Rasmus trade. We’ll be on the air at 6:30PM Eastern for a scheduled 7:10 first pitch, and the weather is supposed to be lovely. Join us, won’t you?
Please give me a follow on The Twitter, you can find me @wilnerness590.
Comments are welcome – I read them all and respond to most!
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9 Responses to “Long Night, Impossible Odds”
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To what degree would the long rain delay mess with Drabek’s preparation schedule? How early before a game would a pitcher start to get ready?
MW: If it messed with Drabek, it messed with Blackburn, too. Everybody knew ahead of time there was a good chance that there would be rain, and neither pitcher had gone out and started warming up before the delay. Generally you’ll see a pitcher come out and start to get ready on the field about 25 minutes or so before the first pitch.
- Colin D.tough loss last night, tried to stay awake and watch the whole thing but came up short. The pitchers just didn’t execute last night and thats going to happen. I must say I have been pleased with Drabek this year he has made some big strides forward from last year. He still has a away to go but there is some serious talent there and it will be worth the wait. 2 more games left in the series and it would be nice to come back from this road trip with a winning record.
- jamieLong nights…, eh?
From the Styx song: (I’d rather be a) Blue Collar Man.
Doubtful Mr. Wilner.
Win or lose, the Jays seem to always make it interesting.
Two homers by Jose Bautista in his favorite ballpark may not mean he is all the way back but it may scare enough teams to believe he is back for good. We will see in the next couple of games.
MW: You made up the “(I’d rather be a)” part, but you were the oly one to get the Styx reference, so well done!
- Joseph P.When the Jays set out on this road trip, the combined record of the 3 teams they would be facing was 24-43 (.358) and the Jays are only 4-3 thus far. Quite disappointing. Considering that the schedule gets tougher after the Twins, it could be looked back at as an opportunity lost. Jays must win the next 2 or this road trip will have been a failure. No other way to spin it.
- bradMike, I am glad that you are having a blast and are able to do some play-by-play work. Cutting you in for 1/6th of the season action is excellent. You get to call basically one inning per regular season game (4/9 x 1/6), and that’s an excellent start. I’m glad you’re doing the work over Zaun, who is pure color. And you’re the voice of the Blue Jays, both before and after the game. A big, hearty, congratulations to you.
The Jays lost last night for a good reason — poor pitching. It happens, and this really, is one of the few starts that have been terrible for the Jays. (Brandon Morrow’s start against Tampa in Toronto I also think was terrible, as was one of Hutch’s starts). I agree with most of the other callers — had Drabek been pitching against Tampa or the Yankees (as he will on Wednesday), those low pitches wouldn’t be fooling anyone, and there would either be more walks or some serious hitting going on.
Still, great to see Edwin connect with the long ball. Even better to see JoeyBats batting two homers. Also not to be lost is Lawrie, who had his 2nd 3 hit game of the season.
Drabek’s start was terrible, as was Carlos Del V’s relief appearance. Drabek has now lost each of his last four starts, and he is being saved by his RISP OPS of now, .403, which is ridiculously low given the command of the plate that he has (Morrow is much lower at .247, which I think leads the league among both starters and relievers with more than 20 plate appearances with RISP). He’s eighth in the AL in GDPs (behind Alvarez and 6 others at 8). So, this has been saving him. Otherwise, Drabek walks too much and doesn’t pitch to contact.
For me, the game’s turning point was when you let Thames and Mastrionni go at it on the pregame show. You gave both of them the “Wilner bump” — similar to the Colbert bump and although Thames connected with a monster home run to straight away centre, it was outdone by Mastrionni’s 3RBI night as his first hits in the show did some major-league damage. So STOP interviewing the competition!!!!
Anyway, great job. Keep up the great work.
MW: Thanks! Yeah, I thought about giving them both the “bump”, sadly it was more Mastro than Thames. Maybe it was because I had Thames conduct the interview. I’m only doing 3 innings per game, though, so your math is off, but I do appreciate the kind words.
- Tim in Niagara FallsSo I ask you, how bad do you feel for us Twins fans? We are 1-1 against the Blue Jays this season, hoping to make it 3-1 by the end of the series. We’ve been to the playoffs 6 times in the past 10 years so I think we’ll manage.
MW: Even after the split, I still feel pretty badly for you, though your ballpark is lovely indeed. But don’t kid yourself – if the Blue Jays were in the A.L. Central they’d have been a powerhouse in the division for years.
- Twins fanHey Mike,
Got a stats question for ya:
What is the poInt of including intentional walks in a pitcher’s BB stat (WHIP too)? I understand it’s a walk by definition, but goes against the purpose of said metrics. When I’m evaluating a pitcher, it’d be more accurate to eliminate the IBB, given that it has no bearing on his skill. It’s situational, and ordered by the manager – if anything it should be measured against the manager himself. Am I missing something here, or is this just a habit that’s too far gone to reverse? I understand every stat needs to be accounted for, but it’d be easy to just measure IBB separate from BB. And keep IBB out of WHIP, too while we’re at it.
This is the walks equivalent of counting every run against a pitcher, earned or unearned, and seems just a tad silly.
MW: It’s easy enough to separate, it’s true. But remember that some intentional walks are ordered after a pitcher falls behind 2-0 or 3-0. Still, if you want to pull them out, you can!
- goldsacwhat impressed me about the Bautista home runs, was that they were both of the line drive variety. I love that swing! Also, I like to see Lawrie swinging at the first pitch now and again like he has been recently. When he DOES swing eary, he seems to hit it hard. If getting a loss coincides with Bautista’s bat coming alive to stay now, I will be happy to sacrifice last nights game. Go Jays!
- Dan From ElmvaleLOVE you as play by play guy!
Muted my tv to listen to you
And Jerry. But had to stop
That because there is a 4 – 5
Second delay. You say what happened and then I see it on tv. How come?
Hope you become a regular. Love your Insight and enthusiasm.
MW: Thank you very much!!!! I don’t know why the delay is there with the TV broadcast, but you get used to it!
- Christine