NEW YORK – Simply put, the Toronto Blue Jays don’t have the organizational depth to survive an extended absence from one, let alone two of their starting pitchers, a vulnerability exposed multiple times in recent days. Much the way Casey Lawrence did last week in St. Louis, Mat Latos had to stand on the mound and take a beating Tuesday night as innings logged took precedence over runs allowed due to a worn-out bullpen, an inevitable by-product when the rotation falters.
The four-homer, 10-hit, seven-run smack down the New York Yankees laid on the right-hander over four innings carried the day in an 11-5 victory, rendering moot a better-than-normal night against nemesis Masahiro Tanaka for the Blue Jays offence.
Steve Pearce hit his first two homers among a season-high four hits and the Blue Jays brought the tying run to the plate in the seventh when they loaded the bases with two out for Kendrys Morales. But Dellin Betances struck him out on three pitches, the last a called strike the slugger disputed, and the Yankees put things to rest in the bottom half of the frame when Aaron Judge capped a 10-pitch duel with Jason Grilli by ripping a slider over the wall in left for a three-run shot that made it 11-4, his second homer of the night.
So, no improbable comeback on this night, especially with Brett Gardner also hitting two homers, Aaron Hicks going deep, too, and the Blue Jays pitching staff still playing catch-up from a heavy recent workload.
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“We gave up too many too early and with Tanaka on the mound, although I thought we battled him pretty good, it was just too much to overcome,” said manager John Gibbons. “They hit (Latos) around pretty good. He snuck a few strikeouts in there, but I think a lot of times that ball was up, in a bad spot.”
Marco Estrada did his team a major solid with seven dominant innings Monday night after the bullpen had to cover eight frames Sunday when a split fingernail limited Aaron Sanchez to one inning and sent him back to the disabled list.
But even with nine relievers on the roster, Gibbons was strapped, which meant Latos needed to be good. The right-hander, making his third start since Sanchez and J.A. Happ landed on the disabled list and coming off six shutout innings versus the Cardinals, wasn’t.
He surrendered three straight hits to begin his outing, retired the fourth, Starlin Castro, on a dart right at Jose Bautista in right field, and escaped the frame only thanks to some brain-dead baserunning, as Chase Headley gifted the Blue Jays an out at home after a Didi Gregorius comebacker led to a hard to fathom 1-3-6-2 double-play.
No matter, the knocks kept coming in the second when Hicks and Gardner both hit two-run homers to open up a 5-0 lead, and solo shots by Judge in the third and Gardner in the fourth added on.
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That was the end for Latos, who survived longer than might have been expected, but still not nearly long enough to give his team a chance. Dominic Leone and Aaron Loup each threw a couple of innings each around the three batters Grilli faced without recording an out.
Latos was unavailable for comment as he left before the game’s end to deal with a personal matter.
“I think he got away with it a little more last time (against the Cardinals),” said Gibbons. “The (Yankees) are a dangerous hitting team, and they’ve got that right-field wall too. But he managed to get through four innings. For the most part we (were) able to rest some of our guys in the pen. We battled and gave ourselves a chance.”
The Blue Jays worked Tanaka over for four runs in 6.1 innings, only the second time in 11 games versus the right-hander they’ve managed that many earned runs. Front and centre there was Pearce, who hit both his homers versus the right-hander after a long period of struggle out of the gate.
“It took a good month,” he said. “I’ve been fighting every day for a month and it’s finally here.”
Latos’ next turn in the rotation comes up Sunday at the Tampa Bay Rays and with another gap to fill Tuesday at home versus Cleveland, the Blue Jays have limited options. Lawrence is a leading candidate to face the Indians, but left-hander T.J. House is also under consideration. Beyond them, there are no obvious candidates and while there’s hope Sanchez might be ready as soon as his 10 days are up May 11, there’s still no timeline for Happ, which means there are several more holes for the Blue Jays to plug, and no appealing way to fill them.
