After extended slide, ‘really inconsistent’ Blue Jays face long climb to recover

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – All appeared proper for the Toronto Blue Jays as just lately as two weeks in the past, after they walked off Atlanta 6-5 on May 14 to finish a three-game sweep of the NL East leaders.

They’d seemingly corrected after a 3-6 highway journey that included sweeps of 4 video games at Boston and two video games at Philadelphia, and regarded primed and prepared for a tough stretch.

Instead, a 2-9 slide in opposition to the Yankees, Orioles and Rays has eaten into their margin for error and prompted them to carry a players-only assembly. The Jays held them no less than twice final 12 months – as soon as in May, as soon as in July – to maintain their season from unravelling. The urgency wanted then can also be wanted now as they start a three-game sequence Friday on the Minnesota Twins.

“It’s just one of those stretches, unfortunately, now, it’s just about getting it stopped,” third baseman Matt Chapman mentioned after a 6-3 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Thursday. “We’ve swept teams then gotten swept. We’ve won series then lost a few series. We’ve been really inconsistent. It’s just been up to us as a team to start playing better. I think that’s just it. There’s nothing I can say besides we need to play better.”

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There’s no debate about that, however simpler mentioned than finished.

Starting with an 8-4 blown lead in an eventual 10-8 loss to the Seattle Mariners on April 30, the Blue Jays are 8-16. That loss was adopted by a four-game sweep in Boston throughout which some across the crew felt they took the Red Sox calmly and easily anticipated to roll over them the way in which they did a 12 months in the past.

As the sloppy play and losses mounted, there have been an increasing number of issues to nitpick at. The offence has carried a lot of the criticism, however the bullpen has had a number of letdowns, the rotation has allowed video games to unwind and poor defence has exacerbated all the things. The drama with the Yankees over tipping/sign-stealing added one other wrinkle.

Thursday’s recreation, which included an emotional trade between Alek Manoah and pitching coach Pete Walker, had a players-only-meeting after really feel to it from the bounce.

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While supervisor John Schneider mentioned he supposed to handle the crew afterwards, the gamers “kind of beat me to it. In a perfect world, players are driving this, you know what I mean? They’re living it they have a set of standards they live by and right now, not up to their expectations. It carries more weight from the players. Obviously, myself and the staff are here to support that. Me personally, I think when players are holding themselves accountable and when players are living what we’re expecting, I think the message is delivered a little bit more firmly.”

Part of that’s there’s no simple repair for the Blue Jays.

Just as they slowly sank deeper into their present mess – heading into Friday 10.5 video games again of Tampa within the AL East, three video games again of Houston for the third wild card spot with three groups in between – the Jays face an extended, progressive climb again, first to wash baseball, higher vibes after which to higher outcomes.

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ROUT ETIQUETTE

Having place gamers pitch in blowouts is uncomfortable all the way in which round. Blue Jays utility infielder Ernie Clement made two appearances for Cleveland final season. He allowed two runs in every outing, and mentioned “you just want to make sure it’s over as soon as possible without anybody getting hurt.”

Occasionally, a place participant can’t get out of an inning, the way in which Rays first baseman Luke Raley received caught on the mound within the ninth inning of Tuesday’s 20-1 Blue Jays win, going through eight batters, permitting a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grand slam and Matt Chapman two-run homer. Catcher Christian Bethancourt then took over, permitting three runs of his personal, together with a Daulton Varsho homer, earlier than a nine-run ninth got here to a merciful finish.

The Blue Jays tried to go station to station however poured it in when balls left the yard.

“You can’t tell them to go up there and make outs,” mentioned Rays supervisor Kevin Cash. “These at-bats matter to these guys. I don’t have a line. If the roles were reversed, I wouldn’t want my guys to make outs. Go up there and get a hit.”

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The World Baseball Classic employs a mercy guidelines with a 15-run lead by way of 5 innings and a 10-run lead by way of seven and the idea has been kicked round by Major League Baseball. Cash could be in opposition to a mercy rule since “it can be manipulated where you allow (a team to reach mercy) and then you’re changing the game a little bit, how you’re going about competing and stuff. … There would be some strategic play. OK, let’s go ahead and let them score a little bit more so we don’t have to burn the bullpen. I would definitely do that if that rule was in place.”

Later he added: “When games get lopsided like that, one team just is going to have to wear it a little bit. We were the ones that wore it.”

Thinking again to his personal experiences on the mound, Clement mentioned he felt for Raley, however added that it was all a matter of perspective.

“It’s also kind of cool to look back on,” he mentioned. “I faced the Yankees and the Twins and I can say I pitched in the major leagues. If you look at it like that, it’s pretty cool, but in the moment you’re just kind of like, ‘Oh my God, when is this going to be over?’”

FINDING WAYS TO STAY SHARP

When Cavan Biggio pinch hit for Clement on Wednesday and took Jason Adam deep, it was partly a product of the work he and Nathan Lukes usually put in with assistant hitting coach Hunter Mense.

To keep shard amid sparse and sporadic enjoying time, the 2 bench gamers have created a routine wherein Mense creates aggressive conditions for them in opposition to the rate machine after which retains rating as their work progresses.

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“In the first part of the season, it really was just hitting flips and staying loose in case something happened,” mentioned Biggio. “Then we started to get competitive with it, tried to have some games in there to spark as much of a game situation as you can with the velocity.”

Added Lukes: “When you’re not playing every day, it’s hard to have fun, and man we have fun doing it. We always just give each other crap – who wins, who loses and we keep it fun. … (Mense) will give us a situation like, first and third one out. If we get the job done, we get a point. Then we take a series of five swings and we just accumulate points. We roll into double play, it’s minus-one point. Then we’ll crank the machine up and we’ll play like a normal game, we’ll just keep swinging until we get three outs. Just keeping that sense of competition.”

For Biggio, it’s additionally been a chance to check out some changes he’s made to his swing, attempting to cut back a few of the loop it’s all the time had. He’s working to get his fingers to the ball faster and has felt good with the adjustment, however there hasn’t been a lot likelihood for him to get recreation suggestions, though he went 3-for-6 in three appearances versus the Rays.

“Over the past two weeks I’ve kind of just tried to work down to the ball, down and through it,” says Biggio. “When I first started doing it, it felt a little weird at first, but really, if you look at my swing, it probably looks pretty similar. But to me, mentally going straight to the ball, helps to create more contact. Now it’s just slowing it down and trying to keep my head still and take that bat right to the ball.”

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Against Adam, Biggio didn’t do a lot desirous about his swing mechanics on the plate, as a substitute specializing in competing within the field. “I feel like sometimes in the past I’ve gone going into the batter’s box trying to feel some things that I was feeling in the cage and taking away a little bit from my competitiveness,” he mentioned. “The past week or so, it’s been good in the cage and allowed me not to really think and go out there and compete.”

The homer was his first since taking Lance Lynn deep April 24.

UNUSUAL CALL-UP

The triple-A Buffalo Bisons had been on a meals cease en path to Lehigh Valley on Monday when supervisor Casey Candaele known as Clement onto the coaches bus. “He was like, ‘Hey you’re going up’ and just shook my hand,” mentioned Clement. “It was pretty cool.”

The 27-year-old from Rochester, N.Y., signed a minor-league cope with the Blue Jays in March in search of a chance to play. He received that and capitalized, batting .328/.409/.512 in 35 video games with the Bisons, incomes the promotion as soon as he was away from a minor hamstring tweak.

After studying of his promotion, Clement went in to position his meals order.

“Made the Chick-Fil-A taste a little better after that,” he mentioned with a smile. 

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