Blue | Toronto Blue Jays Blog Fan Site and Schedule with MLB News

Jays looking to maintain hold on slumping Angels

Posted on 05 May 2012. Tags: angel, angel-stadium, angeles-angels, angels, blue, career, games, games-at-angel, howie-kendrick, runs-or-fewer, season, texas, texas-on-monday, toronto

While Albert Pujols’ slump may be most glaring, the rest of the Los Angeles Angels haven’t done much to pick up the slack for their struggling superstar.

After getting shut out in consecutive games, the Angels and Pujols will try to end their woes while denying the Toronto Blue Jays a season-high fifth straight win Saturday night (9:05 p.m. ET).

Pujols’ batting average dropped to .194 – easily a career low through a season’s first 27 games – after he went 0 for 4 in Friday’s 4-0 defeat to Toronto. The three-time NL MVP, 5 for 54 with one RBI over his last 14 games, has no home runs and five RBIs.

His 33-game, 137-at bat homerless drought in regular-season play is the longest in his career.

“I’m fine. I mean, this is baseball. It’s a long year,” Pujols said. “I’ve been in this situation before, so I need to have faith and stay strong, knowing this bad time will pass. If it’s meant to be like this the whole year, I’ll deal with it. But I’m a great hitter and I know I can hit.”

The Angels (10-17), batting .239 as a team, have already been shut out six times and have scored three runs or fewer in 15 games.

A matchup with Kyle Drabek (2-2, 2.40 ERA) might not help them get back on track. The 24-year-old right-hander has yielded two runs or fewer in each of his five starts this season.

However, he’s lost his last two outings while receiving one total run of support. His 4-1 loss to Texas on Monday is the only defeat over the last seven games for the Blue Jays (16-11).

Toronto has outscored opponents 43-18 during its 6-1 stretch, and has homered in eight consecutive contests. Jose Bautista hit his fifth of the season and second of the Blue Jays’ four-game winning streak on Friday, but he’s still batting only .177 in 2012.

“I’m trying to have good at-bats, but I’m not seeing too many pitches over the heart of the plate,” Bautista said. “A lot of bad breaks have been going my way, and I just hope the tide turns soon.”

C.J. Wilson (3-2, 2.70) will get the ball for the Angels on Saturday.

The left-hander lasted a season-high 7 1-3 innings in a 4-3 win over Minnesota on Monday, allowing all three runs but keeping the Twins scoreless until the eighth.

“The first seven innings were about as well as I’ve pitched all year,” Wilson said.

Wilson didn’t pitch well the last time he faced Toronto, getting tagged for seven runs and seven hits over 3 2-3 innings of a 7-3 defeat for Texas on July 31. He’s 0-2 with a 4.86 ERA in three career starts against the Blue Jays.

Drabek did not get a decision in his only start against the Angels on April 8, 2011, allowing two runs over six innings of a 3-2 Blue Jays victory in Anaheim.

Drabek has never faced Pujols, but Torii Hunter and Howie Kendrick are each 3 for 4 in their career against him. Blue Jays slugger Adam Lind is 4 for 7 off Wilson.

Toronto is seeking its first five-game winning streak since July 8-15.

The last four games at Angel Stadium have featured a complete-game shutout, including Jered Weaver’s no-hitter for the home team Wednesday.

Feel free to leave your comments below.

Posted in blue-jays-newsComments Off

Slammin' Saunders: Mariners centre-fielder…

Posted on 28 April 2012. Tags: blue, brandon, fourth, game, jesus, lawrie, mariners, night, ninth, outfield, seventh, thames, toronto

TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays appeared to have turned things around Friday night after closing out a road trip with three straight losses.

Instead, an error-filled ninth inning resulted in one of their toughest defeats of the young season.

The Seattle Mariners took full advantage of the Blue Jays‘ shoddy defence and came back for a 9-5 victory at Rogers Centre. Canadian Michael Saunders delivered the crushing blow, launching a rainbow grand slam over the right-field wall in the 10th inning off Luis Perez (2-1).

“I was just trying to hit a ball to the outfield more than anything,” Saunders said. “He hung me an off-speed pitch and I was able to put it up there.”

The Jays had a chance to end the game in the ninth inning. With two out, third baseman Brett Lawrie fielded a routine grounder but his throw to first was in the dirt, allowing Kyle Seager to reach base.

“I take full responsibility for that,” Lawrie said. “That game should be over. Everyone should be out and celebrating the win and instead we’re all a little bit down after that one, including myself.”

Munenori Kawasaki came on as a pinch-runner for Seager and moved to third when catcher J.P. Arencibia‘s throw to first sailed down the right-field line.

“I thought J.P. in that situation probably didn’t make the right decision with trying to force a throw and trying to force the pickoff attempt,” Farrell said. “Unfortunately that’s what took place.”

Dustin Ackley was intentionally walked before John Jaso drove in Kawasaki with the tying run on a single to centre field.

“It’s a tough game and if you give major-league guys extra outs, you get hurt,” Arencibia said.

Seattle improved to 11-10 with their fourth straight win while the Blue Jays fell to 10-10 with their fourth loss in a row.

Charlie Furbush (2-1) worked two outs for the victory. Former Toronto pitcher Brandon League retired the Blue Jays in order in the 10th inning.

Saunders, a Victoria native, helped force extra innings with a solo homer in the ninth off Francisco Cordero.

“We came back and showed the character that’s in this dressing room,” Saunders said. “It wasn’t just a couple of hits. It was a full team game.”

Eric Thames and Edwin Encarnacion homered for the Blue Jays while Jesus Montero had the other home run for Seattle. Both teams had 11 hits on the night.

Encarnacion opened the scoring in the second with a solo shot to deep centre field off Mariners starter Blake Beavan.

Seattle scratched out a run in the third inning after uncharacteristic back-to-back walks from Jays starter Ricky Romero. Saunders advanced to third on a fielder’s choice and scored when Lawrie booted a grounder to third from Brendan Ryan.

The Jays made it a 3-1 game in the fourth inning. Encarnacion started the rally with a one-out double, Thames followed with an infield hit and Colby Rasmus drove both runners in with a double into the right-field corner.

Ackley led off the sixth inning with a double to end Romero’s no-hit bid. The Blue Jays ace set down the next three Mariners in order.

Seattle chased Romero in the seventh inning. Montero hit a solo homer and Casper Wells drove in Miguel Olivo with a two-out RBI double. Reliever Jason Frasor got Ryan to fly out to end the threat.

Toronto nearly took the lead in the bottom half of the seventh but Mariners right-fielder Ichiro Suzuki threw out Arencibia at home plate to end the inning.

The Jays had built a 5-3 lead in the eighth when Thames hit a solo shot and Lawrie, who’s from Langley, B.C., scored on a sacrifice fly from Arencibia.

Romero allowed two earned runs over six-plus innings. He gave up four hits and three walks while striking out five.

Beavan gave up three earned runs over five-plus innings.

Announced attendance was 24,303 and the game took three hours 35 minutes to play.

Notes: Outfielder Travis Snider underwent an MRI exam Friday after injuring his right wrist a night earlier with the Las Vegas 51s. Snider, who lost the left-fielder job to Thames at spring training, has a .400 batting average after 19 games with Toronto’s triple-A affiliate. … The Blue Jays and Mariners will continue their three-game series Saturday afternoon at 4:07 p.m. Eastern Time. Jays right-hander Brandon Morrow (1-1) is scheduled to start against Kevin Millwood (0-1). … Toronto holds a 187-166 edge in all-time meetings between the teams.

That’s all the news for today.

Posted in blue-jays-newsComments Off

Mariners-Blue Jays Preview

Posted on 28 April 2012. Tags: blue, kansas, kevin-millwood, mariner, ninth, season, series, texas, toronto, white

While the Seattle Mariners continue to surge, the Toronto Blue Jays remain in a rut.

After rallying to win the series opener in extra innings, the visiting Mariners look to extend their winning streak to five games Saturday and hand the Blue Jays a fifth straight defeat.

A week ago, Seattle (11-10) was in the midst of a four-game skid in which it totaled eight runs and was on the wrong end of last Saturday’s perfect game thrown by Chicago’s Philip Humber. However, since losing 7-4 to the White Sox on Sunday, the Mariners have totaled 21 runs during a three-game sweep at Detroit and won 9-5 in 10 innings at Toronto on Friday.

“The perfect game might have been the best thing that happened to us” said Canadian-born outfielder Michael Saunders, who homered twice and drove in five runs in the series opener.

Seattle was no-hit for five innings by Toronto’s Ricky Romero and trailed 5-3 in the ninth, but Saunders opened that inning with a solo shot and John Jaso tied the game with an RBI single. Saunders delivered the knock out blow with his 10th-inning grand slam.

A usually light-hitting fourth year outfielder, Saunders hit .189 (7 for 37) with two RBIs in his first 12 games of the season but is batting .364 (8 for 22) with nine RBIs in his last six.

“I still have a long way to go but I’m seeing results and I’m feeling a lot more comfortable in the box,” Saunders said.

Seattle, which has not won a series at Toronto since 2008, could face a major challenge Saturday against Blue Jays starter and former Mariner Brandon Morrow (1-1, 3.71 ERA).

Morrow, who spent his first three seasons in Seattle mostly working out of the bullpen, went 2-0 with a 2.77 ERA as a starter against the Mariners in 2011.

The right-hander allowed 10 runs in 13 innings over his two previous starts before throwing 6 2-3 innings of a 4-1 win at Kansas City on Monday, allowing the only run on a solo homer.

Now, Morrow will try to help the Blue Jays (10-10) end their longest skid of the season.

After being held to three runs while being swept in three games at Baltimore, Toronto came alive at the plate Friday but the bullpen blew its fifth save in nine chances.

“We’re all a little bit down,” said third baseman Brett Lawrie, who committed a key error in the ninth that led to the tying run.

Eric Thames homered and had three hits while Edwin Encarnacion hit his fifth home run as the Blue Jays lost for just the second time in their last 10 home meetings with the Mariners.

Toronto slugger Jose Bautista’s average dropped to .183 after an 0-for-4 night Friday. The two-time defending major league home run champ hit 97 in the past two seasons but has only three in 71 at-bats thus far in 2012.

However, he’s 7 for 12 (.583) with three homers against scheduled Seattle starter Kevin Millwood (0-1, 7.04).

The right-hander allowed one run, four hits and struck out seven in six innings of a 4-3 win at Texas in his season debut April 11, but has yielded 12 runs and 17 hits in 9.1 innings over his last two outings.

Millwood, who gave up five runs in 5 1-3 innings of a 7-4 loss to Chicago on Sunday, is 2-7 with a 5.17 ERA in 12 career starts against the Blue Jays.

Not a lot else going on in the MLB world today.

Posted in blue-jays-newsComments Off

Toronto Blue Jays slammed by Seattle Mariners, 9-5…

Posted on 28 April 2012. Tags: blue, fourth, game, jays, jesus, mariners, night, ninth, photo, reporter, seattle, team, windows

Brendan Kennedy

Sports Reporter

Another ninth-inning collapse, another blown save, another disappointing loss at home.

It was all too familiar for the Blue Jays in the first of a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners on Friday night. A grand slam in the 10th sealed the defeat — turning the scoreboard an ugly 9-5 in favour of the visiting Mariners — after the Jays missed ending the game on a routine grounder with two out in the ninth.

“Sure enough the baseball gods smile down once again,” said third baseman Brett Lawrie, who made the costly throwing error that allowed the tying run to reach base.

When he says smile, Lawrie means cackle, because he knows that if you make a mistake to let another major-league team into the game, they will rarely disappoint. “We definitely gave one away tonight.”

CLICK HERE FOR JAYS-MARINERS PHOTO GALLERY

The Jays’ late-game collapse wasted another strong performance by their starting pitcher, but on this night it was sloppy defence and a shaky bullpen — not a lack of offence — that undid the quality outing from ace lefty Ricky Romero.

“It’s important for us to kind of just flush it away and just forget about it,” Romero said. “… I know Brett’s going to be fine and this team is too. We believe in each other and it’s just a little rough stretch we’re going through right now.”

The loss, their fourth in a row, evens the Jays’ record to 10-10.

NINTH INNING LETDOWN

The Mariners tied the game in an all-around sloppy ninth inning by the Jays, who have yet to show a consistent killer instinct late in games. Interim closer Francisco Cordero entered the final frame with a 5-3 lead, but coughed up a solo home run to the second batter he faced, Michael Saunders. But Cordero settled down, made a second out and the Jays looked to be on their way out of the game when pinch-hitter Kyle Seager grounded the ball to Lawrie, who threw the ball into the dirt in front of first baseman Adam Lind. J.P. Arencibia then doubled-down on Lawrie’s error by making one of his own, missing the mark on a pickoff attempt that sailed into right field and allowed pinch-runner Munenori Kawasaki to advance to third. Kawasaki tied the game on a single to centre by pinch-hitter John Jaso.

“I thought J.P. in that situation probably didn’t make the right decision,” said manager John Farrell after the game.

While admitting he missed on the throw, the team’s young catcher was unrepentant.

“I play the game to win,” he said. “… Is it a tough situation? Yeah, but I don’t shy away from it. If I make that throw, get the guy out, game’s over, that’s it, don’t give the guy a chance. I don’t play scared. I play aggressive. Sometimes you get burned, but sometimes it works. Today it obviously backfired. It’s a high-risk play, but I’d do it again.”

TROUBLE IN THE 10TH

Usually dependable Luis Perez, who had yet to give up a run in more than 12 innings of relief, took the mound in the 10th inning. He has been by far the team’s most effective reliever, but gave up three straight singles to the middle of the Mariners order, before Saunders stepped up to the plate and cleared the bases with his second long ball in as many innings.

THE LEAD THAT WAS

The Jays took a two-run lead in the eighth, when they mounted a collective offensive attack for the first time in the game. Eric Thames plastered the first pitch he saw in the inning with a laser of a line-drive home run to right-centre field. Lawrie then scored what looked to be the insurance run on a sacrifice fly by Arencibia.

ROMERO vs. BEAVAN

It took until the sixth inning before the Mariners registered a hit against Romero, though he battled through a sloppy third inning in which he walked the first two batters on eight consecutive balls, the lead runner advanced on a missed double-play opportunity and then scored on Lawrie’s first error of the game. Romero gave up two earned runs, both in the seventh, off a home run to Jesus Montero and a pair of hits by Miguel Olivo and Casper Wells, but otherwise delivered a stellar performance in his fifth start of the season. In all, Romero pitched 6? innings, giving up four hits and three walks, with five strikeouts. Mariners starter Blake Beavan, meanwhile, only put up two clean innings, giving up seven hits and three runs in 5?.

ENCARNACION KEEPS ROLLING

Edwin Encarnacion, who has been the Jays most consistent hitter, opened the scoring in the second inning with his team-leading fifth home run. Encarnacion, who has hit 12 of his 24 hits for extra bases, took Beavan deep to centre field, landing the ball in the lap of a couple eating dinner in the Windows restaurant. Encarnacion added a double in the fourth inning, and was driven home by Colby Rasmus, who snapped his 0-for-10 hitless streak with back-to-back extra-base hits in his first two at-bats. Rasmus used his speed to lengthen a hit into the alley in right centre into a triple; and in the fourth, drove home Encarnacion and Thames with a double down the right-field line.

UP NEXT

The Jays’ No. 2 starter Brandon Morrow, who is 1-1 with a 3.71 ERA in four starts, goes up against veteran right-hander Kevin Millwood in a 4:07 p.m. start on Saturday at the Rogers Centre.

That’s all for today guys, i’ll be back to blog you tomorrow.

Posted in blue-jays-newsComments Off

Blue Jays self-destruct in loss to Mariners

Posted on 28 April 2012. Tags: blue, charlie-furbush, former-toronto, fourth, game, jesus, night, ninth, outfield, reliever-jason, seattle, seventh, toronto

The Toronto Blue Jays appeared to have turned things around Friday night after closing out a road trip with three straight losses.

Instead, an error-filled ninth inning resulted in one of their toughest defeats of the young season.

The Seattle Mariners took full advantage of the Blue Jays’ shoddy defence and came back for a 9-5 victory at Rogers Centre. Canadian Michael Saunders delivered the crushing blow, launching a rainbow grand slam over the right-field wall in the 10th inning off Luis Perez (2-1).

“I was just trying to hit a ball to the outfield more than anything,” Saunders said. “He hung me an off-speed pitch and I was able to put it up there.”

The Jays had a chance to end the game in the ninth inning. With two out, third baseman Brett Lawrie fielded a routine grounder but his throw to first was in the dirt, allowing Kyle Seager to reach base.

“I take full responsibility for that,” Lawrie said. “That game should be over. Everyone should be out and celebrating the win and instead we’re all a little bit down after that one, including myself.”

Munenori Kawasaki came on as a pinch-runner for Seager and moved to third when catcher J.P. Arencibia’s throw to first sailed down the right-field line.

“I thought J.P. in that situation probably didn’t make the right decision with trying to force a throw and trying to force the pickoff attempt,” Farrell said. “Unfortunately that’s what took place.”

Dustin Ackley was intentionally walked before John Jaso drove in Kawasaki with the tying run on a single to centre field.

“It’s a tough game and if you give major-league guys extra outs, you get hurt,” Arencibia said.

Seattle improved to 11-10 with their fourth straight win while the Blue Jays fell to 10-10 with their fourth loss in a row.

Charlie Furbush (2-1) worked two outs for the victory. Former Toronto pitcher Brandon League retired the Blue Jays in order in the 10th inning.

Saunders, a Victoria native, helped force extra innings with a solo homer in the ninth off Francisco Cordero.

Showing character