Exorcised
The past weekend in Texas was an ugly one for the Jays. I'm not sure which of the last two losses were worse, the extra inning walk-off loss or the second blow out in three games. Texas is a great team, but they have been a great team the past few seasons and the Jays have played them well. The pitching, an early strength this season, seemed lost. “I wouldn’t call it a crisis,” Farrell said before Monday's game. “We’ve come off a tough road trip. I think the effort that we continually show every night, even though the outcome might not be what we would desire or like, there is never a question with our effort or our intent.”
In a way, the fact that that series was a result of maximum effort and the best of intentions makes that series worse. A half-assed effort when one's ass is kicked is more of a confidence builder.
A few posts ago, I mused about the restorative power of baseball. Well, last night was more than restorative. Last night felt like an exorcism.
The Orioles that played list night reminded me more of the Orioles of the past few seasons. Providers of a shot in the arm of confidence and a re-affirmation that the Jays could actually pitch.
Drew Hutchison turned in the best performance of his very young career, throwing seven shut out innings. “I was able to find my release point tonight and got in a rhythm, really for the first time this year,” Hutchison said. “That definitely had a lot to do with it.” Hutchison, usually a low-90s fastball type pitcher, got up to 95 mph, which makes me suspect the Rogers Centre gun is a little hot. It doesn't matter much, because no matter the number, Hutchison pitched with a lot of swag.
Kelly Johnson has been a huge asset to this team this season and he demonstrated that last night. Despite his cortisone injected hammy, Johnson had two doubles and a homer last night. He hobbled around the bases, but as Johnson puts it,“If it’s going to hurt while I’m running bases, then I hope it hurts all game long."
Encarnacion, charter member of the Dominican Dynamic Duo, hit his 16th homer last night. Bill Parker, over on Getting Blanked, wonders if Encarnacion is Bautista 2.0 . The short answer is not really, but he's still cool. In other DDD news, Bautista shaved the beard down to a kind of soul patch thing. The beard was nearly back up to it's full power by the later innings.
Omar Vizquel, in for Yunel "sore groin" Escobar, hit a single to tie Brooks Robinson for 43rd on the all-time hit list. There was a great interview with Vizquel and Elvis Andrus in Texas over the weekend.
Vizquel's energy is amazing, and I loved the sacrifice bunt he put down to move the runners up. It's the type of small ball I normally hate, but it felt selfless instead of wasteful.
Fans were rending garments over the past weekend, but despite the disaster of the road trip and the Jays flirting with the cellar, there is only 4.5 games separating the top Baltimore Orioles from the bottom Boston Red Sox. That's drum-like tightness.