TORONTO – Judging how the Toronto Blue Jays fared during their just completed 10-game homestand depends largely on whether you’re a glass half full, or a glass half empty type of person.
The glass half full outlook is that the Blue Jays came home reeling from a dreadful 1-6 road trip, steadied themselves with a 5-5 stretch capped by Wednesday’s 5-3, 10-inning loss to the Chicago White Sox despite another ninth-inning homer from Josh Donaldson, and watched their rotation begin to straighten out.
All are good signs.
The glass half empty set can point to a pair of late blown leads against the Los Angeles Angels, some stunningly poor defence – including an inexcusable Ezequiel Carrera miscue in the third inning that cost Marco Estrada two runs, and in reality, the game Wednesday – and the ongoing woes of the bullpen.
All are worrying trends.
Either way, the Blue Jays head out for a six-game swing through Minnesota and Washington that starts Friday in better shape than when they arrived home from Houston, although much work still remains.
"Good and bad," manager John Gibbons said of the 10 days. "We didn’t play particularly well early in the homestand, we finished up playing pretty good. Won the last two going into today, after falling behind today made a run, tied it up late, so we’re feeling pretty good right now.
"There’s a long way to go, but we’re feeling pretty good."
Added Donaldson: "We feel like we’re playing pretty well. I’m not here to make excuses but a ball gets in the sun and scores two runs, that’s just baseball, you know? At the end of the day, we kept pushing and gave ourselves a chance to win. Obviously they ended up scoring a few more runs at the end."
The looming returns of Devon Travis, expected to start a rehab assignment this weekend, and Dioner Navarro, on rehab at Buffalo right now, plus Jose Bautista’s continued progress throwing after Sunday’s cortisone shot should bolster the roster, although other issues still must be sorted through.
"Things are going to change for us," said Estrada. "Like I’ve said before, this team is too good to lose as much as we have. We’ve got a great team and I know it’s going to turn around."
The sudden defensive troubles in the outfield may be the matter most pressing at the moment.
While Bautista’s possible return to right field Monday in Washington should resolve some of the issues, the Blue Jays will still be using a combination of Carrera and Chris Colabello in left field, and both have had their troubles.
Carrera, channelling the fielding spirit of Moises Sierra, lost a routine Jose Abreu fly ball in the sun that if caught would have ended the third. Instead, it grazed his glove, bounced in and scored two to put the White Sox ahead.
Then in the 10th, Danny Valencia misplayed an Abreu drive into the right-field corner and what should have been a double ended up a triple.
In isolation, the plays wouldn’t be so egregious. But given that a two-run triple by Logan Morrison dropped in front of an awkwardly diving Colabello for two runs Friday, a ground-rule double by Chris Taylor that Colabello chased poorly set the stage for a two-run inning Saturday, and the overall mess Tuesday, it’s an area the Blue Jays must urgently shore up.
Colabello and Valencia, infielders being forced into the outfield out of necessity, deserve some leeway – they’re doing their best in an uncomfortable spot – but Carrera simply can’t make such mistakes.
"They kind of got lucky," said Russell Martin, who ended up playing two innings at second base after some offensive substitutions because Steve Tolleson tweaked his groin Tuesday. "They got a couple of runs early in the game where if they don’t get those, we probably end up getting the W.
"But it’s part of baseball. You’ve got to overcome that kind of stuff, which I thought we did, they just were a little bit more resilient than we were today."
The only other run Estrada allowed over seven strong innings came in the sixth on a J.B. Shuck RBI single – he gave up three runs on eight hits with two strikeouts, even though he felt his fastball, changeup, curveball and cutter weren’t very sharp.
"Obviously I wanted to go deeper and throw a little better, but we’re going to have days like this where you just don’t have your stuff," said Estrada. "If you can come out going seven innings giving them a quality start, just go with it."
The Blue Jays broke through against Jeff Samardzija in the seventh on Josh Donaldson’s sacrifice fly to the warning track in right field and added another run in the eighth on Justin Smoak’s pinch-hit RBI single. Abreu made a great pick at first base on pinch-hitter Danny Valencia’s one-hopper to end that rally, but David Robertson, who surrendered Donaldson’s walk-off homer Tuesday, got beaten again by the all-star third baseman.
"It was a cutter again, it’s just this one was a little bit up," said Donaldson. "From my at-bat earlier, I hit one to right field (for the sacrifice fly) that I thought I hit pretty well. I figured I should maybe try to pull it."
Roberto Osuna, pitching for the fourth time in five days, gave up the triple to Abreu to open the 10th, and Adam LaRoche followed with a solid single to right to bring home the go-ahead run. An RBI double by Gordon Beckham later in the inning added some insurance.
Osuna has been the bullpen’s rock and he’s certainly due a rough day, but without another right-hander to share the burden with him, the Blue Jays will drive the 20-year-old phenom into the ground. There’s opportunity there for Liam Hendriks or Steve Delabar, and it’s on them to capitalize.
"Nobody goes unscathed in this business," said Gibbons.
That’s true, but the Blue Jays still need to start dishing out more than they take. Whether they do that or not will determine whether this homestand was a meaningful starting point, or just more of the same.