Toronto Blue Jays

TORONTO, Ont. – The Blue Jays messed up everybody’s clock by starting their series finale with the Rays at 4:38 p.m. ET on a Wednesday, but it worked! Here are three things that stood out to me about the win over the Rays: JOSE, JOSE, JOSE, JOSE, JOSE, JOSE The Blue Jays picked up their first walk-off win of the season, and not only was the winning run driven in by Jose Bautista, but so were the three runs the Jays scored over the first nine innings of the game. Bautista, who has taken a lot of heat from the fan base for what many perceive as him trying to hit a home run with every swing he takes, did actually hit a pair of big flies in the game, but it was his desperation throw-the-bat-at-a-two-strike-pitch single to right field with two out in the bottom of the 10th that cashed the winning run. It was a beautiful piece of hitting, and it was almost exactly the same thing that Evan Longoria did to Casey Janssen to lead off the ninth with a double – just exactly what was needed to get the job done. It was the second straight inning in which Bautista got the job done, too. In the ninth, he led off by taking Fernando Rodney deep to left field for the second of his two homers, forcing the extra frame. THE REAL MARK BUEHRLE IS STANDING UP Buehrle had a brutal April, posting a 6.35 ERA and 1.518 WHIP, allowing six home runs in just 28 1/3 innings of work, prompting many Blue Jays’ fans to write off the 34-year-old as unfit to pitch in the A.L. East, at least, and just simply done at worst. He appeared to hit rock bottom in the third inning of his May 6 start against these Rays in St. Petersburg, when he allowed seven runs including a Grand Slam to Evan Longoria. Buehrle stayed in that game and threw three shutout innings, helping buy time for the Blue Jays to come back and win, which they did. He followed that with a start in Boston in which he threw seven shutout innings then allowed two runs over six innings in The Bronx against the Yankees. At Fenway, Darren Oliver allowed one of his runners to score in the eighth, and in New York Buehrle came back out for the seventh and put three straight hitters on, with Aaron Loup coming in to have the last two score. In this game, Buehrle gave up just two runs on four hits over seven innings of work, and if not for a botched play by Maicer Izturis on a slow roller by Ryan Roberts in the third, it might have been seven shutout frames. Buehrle has turned things around completely, as one could have expected he would, given his dozen years of 200+ innings with the White Sox and Marlins, so now all the Blue Jays need is for Brandon Morrow to straighten things out and have Josh Johnson come back to have the strong rotation most of us expected this season. Morrow can get started Thursday night against the Orioles, while Johnson will make his second rehab start Saturday when he takes the mound for the Buffalo Bisons. HIGHLIGHT IN THE BOOTH I’m in my 12th season as part of the Blue Jays’ radio broadcast crew, and visitors to the booth – from the north side, at least – are few and far between. But in the bottom of the fifth, Munenori Kawasaki sent a foul pop-up back towards our booth, and your faithful reporter managed to make the grab – although it was a trap against the front ledge and would never have been called a clean catch. It’s only the second time in those dozen years that there has been a catchable foul ball come my way, and I’m happy to report that I made a successful grab on the other one as well, just last season. The fact that Kawasaki’s foul ball happened to arrive during an inning in which I was doing play-by-play, though, that was legitimately ridiculous. It’s been a dream come true to make a living in baseball and to be on my hometown team’s broadcast, and now to be doing play-by-play on a regular basis is almost unimaginable. But to actually catch a ball while calling a big-league game? Seriously. Nuts. The post Wilner on Blue Jays: Bautista gets the job done app

Tonight Buffalo had the night off, while the rest of the farm managed to go 2-1. Dunedin faced former Blue Jay Noah Syndergaard for the first time. New Hampshire 4 - Portland 5New Hampshire had 11 hits tonight, but only managed to put up 4 runs. Kevin Nolan, and Sean Ochinko had 2 doubles each. While Brad Glenn, Adam Loewen, and Brian Van Kirk managed to rack up 2 hits as well. Ryan Tepera started the game for New Hampshire tonight, and it was not a pretty outing. He went 3 2/3 innings giving up 5 hits, 4 earned runs, 4 walks, and 5 strikeouts. He was relieved by Scott Gracey and Tommy Hottovy who put up 4 solid innings combined. Dustin Antolin was tagged with the loss as he gave up a run in extra innings.Dunedin 5 - St Lucie 3Dunedin faced St Lucie Mets starter Noah Syndergaard, in his first appearance versus his former organization. Andy Burns managed to get two hits tonight including a double and a home run. Jon Talley, Nick Baligod, and Matt Newman managed to have double's tonight.Jesse Hernandez was solid tonight on the mound for Dunedin, as he threw 5 1/3 innings, giving up one earned run, 3 hits, 4 walks, with 6 strikeouts.Lansing 9 - Lake County 8Tonight Ben White was on the mound for the Lugnuts, and put in 5 innings with 6 hits, 3 earned runs, 3 walks, and 4 strikeouts. He was followed by Efrain Nieves who pitched 3 scoreless innings giving up 2 hits, and punching out 4. Ian Kadish came in to finish the ame, but was hit hard giving up 3 earned runs without recording an out.Lansing's bats were rolling tonight as Kevin Patterson continued to hit well since his demotion from Dunedin. Patterson had 2 hits, including a home run, anda walk. Christian Lopes continued to play well as he had a hit, and walk allowing him to score 2 runs. Three Stars3-Kevin Nolan2-Kevin Patterson1-Andy Burns

Rays 3 Jose Bautista 4 (10 innings) So Jose Bautista gets thrown out trying to tag up from first on a fly ball, in the first inning, a really bad move. Then he goes on to hit 2 home runs, one to tie the game in the 4th, another to tie the game in the 9th. Then he gets a walk-off opposite field single to win the game. Jose's heroics overshadowed a really good start from Mark Buehrle. Mark went 7 innings, allowed 4 hits, 2 walks and 6 strikeouts. He was hurt by a poor play by Maicer Izturis or else he might not not have given up the 2 earned. Steve Delabar pitched a very impressive 8. Casey Janssen gave up a run in the 9th to give the Rays a short held lead. Aaron Loup threw a nice 10th inning, helped by a Yunel Escobar double play. Jays of the Day: Bautista (1.045, highest WPA we've had this year), Buehrle (.217) and Delabar (.110)/ Suckage: Janssen (-.295, Longoria is a great player), Edwin Encarnacion (-.193, 0 for 4), Kawasaki (-.143, but a nice bunt in the 10th), Brett Lawrie (-.139, 0 for 4) and JP (-.117, 1 for 4). I'll add to this later, but right now supper is on the table and I'm starving. And I have to pack. Tomorrow night I'm at the Jays game.

The less said about that series last weekend in New York the better. They didn't play in New York. No, they didn’t. And I wasn't actually relieved that the Sunday game was rained out. No, I wasn't. Because there was no series in New York.But if they were going to play in New York, I'd begin to question what the actual approach is going in there as the team has only won 11 games since it opened in 2009. Buck and Tabby speak lovingly about the Yankee's ability to pitch and hit in that ballpark, taking advantage of that short right field and the expansive left-centre. So I wonder why exactly the Jays aren't doing the same thing. It’s not a secret, so it’s likely a situation of the team being aware of those tendencies and not being able to execute.I was travelling on the holiday Monday, so I missed the first game against the Rays and heard all of the Yunel Escobar homer celebration second hand.It's not a story, people. I made fun of the Giants fans and beat writers for building up the Melky Cabrera World Series ring non-story, and this is pretty much the equivalent.Escobar does that celebration all the time. He also hit the homer off of Janssen, who has been pretty filthy all season and brought his team closer to a win. Janssen, like everyone who has any sense at all, had this to say:“I don't think it was directed at me,” Janssen said. “We were good teammates, I had no problem with him, he had no problem with me. I did hear the chorus of boos and I'm sure he was a little frustrated at times. He’s an emotional guy, he’s a prideful guy. It was his moment to shine and he did his thing.”For his part, magic gnome Rays manager Joe Maddon said, "I love the way he is, I want him to remain the way he is. He did nothing wrong."Toronto's knee jerk reaction to returning players is always to boo. Even if the player was traded through no fault of their own, even if they were released or their option wasn't picked up. The Escobar situation is more complex, of course, but I still find the whole thing tiresome and a lot of feels like general frustration about the season. But hearing boos to Vernon Wells, who then proceeds to kill his former team consistently and thoroughly, is tough to watch.I went to last night’s game and sat behind the pen. Even that far away, I knew the called third strike to Cabrera was several inches outside. It was unfortunately not as apparent to the umpire who I guess had dinner plans and figured that a team that had threatened to score the go ahead runs in two previous innings just was not going to be allowed ruin his dinner.Because, shut up with that call. Rodney had demonstrated little to no command of the strike zone and had not earned any sort of close or borderline call. And that pitch is borderline to being borderline.“That's a pretty tough call, leaves you with a bad taste in your mouth,” Colby Rasmus, who hit a homer in the fifth, said after the game. “But that's baseball.”That cruel bitch baseball.Just look what it's done to Encarnación:

I believe the 4:30 start time is a new experiment for the Blue Jays. Day games are usually 7pm unless it is a getaway day when the game is 12:35.Mark Buehrle takes the hill for the Jays. Buehrle has pitched better over the last few starts, can he sustain that today? A couple of years ago it looked like Jeremy Hellickson would be a front line pitcher. he hasn't developed as well as some thought. he comes into today's game with a 5.82 ERA although his WHIP is not terrible at 1.29. he has already given up 10 home runs this season. His xFIP is just over 4 so perhaps he has been unlucky this season. Hopefully that luck will continue to be in short supply for one more start. Anthony Gose starts for the first time this season. Given that he hasn't been hitting in Buffalo he will probably get a couple of hits tonight...baseball is funny that way. Maicer is also back in the lineup.

We’ve got ourselves a manatee! Er… matinée! The Jays play an oddly– read: spectacularly– timed businessman’s special today, in a getaway-ish game for the Rays beginning at 4:37 PM ET. As someone with an office downtown, uh… moar please. The Rays send Jeremy Hellickson to the hill, facing Mark Buehrle and a lineup led-off by Anthony Gose, who will give Melky Cabrera a rest and take over in left field. It’s… another game in 2013. I don’t even know anymore… Hey maybe an actual series win though, huh? Scuttlebutt It’s all Brendan Kennedy, all the time, in today’s scuttlebutt, as the Toronto Star reporter tweets that John Gibbons has been reluctant to announce Chad Jenkins as the starter for his club on Friday. The pitcher is preparing to start, but is available out of the bullpen tonight as well, and Richard Griffin notes that with Sean Nolin set to start for New Hampshire on Thursday, and Marcus Stroman on Friday, either could be possibilities instead. Gibbons, according to another Kennedy tweet, says that “as it stands” Ramon Ortiz is still slated for Sunday. We’re also given word that Melky Cabrera is available as a pinch hitter today. Gibbons “had no problem with JPA swinging at Rodney’s first pitch yesterday with the bases loaded,” Kennedy tells us, “saying when closers get ahead they tend to put you away.” Lastly, Kennedy also says that, while nothing is official yet, it appears as though the Dome will be closed for this afternoon/evening’s tilt. Ugh. TV: Sportsnet And now the lineups, by way of the live box score at theScore.com. And for those of you who’ll be out and about, be sure to follow all the action on your phone with theScore app… Toronto Blue Jays LF Anthony Gose (L) RF Jose Bautista (R) 1B Edwin Encarnacion (R) DH Adam Lind (L) C J.P. Arencibia (R) 3B Brett Lawrie (R) CF Colby Rasmus (L) 2B Maier Izturis (S) SS Munenori Kawasaki (L) Mark Buehrle LHP Tampa Bay Rays CF Desmond Jennings (R) 3B Ryan Roberts (R) 2B Ben Zobrist (S) DH Evan Longoria (R) 1B James Loney (L) RF Sean Rodriguez (R) LF Kelly Johnson (L) C Jose Molina (R) SS Yunel Escobar (R) Jeremy Hellickson RHP

Apparently there is no sign of the Getting Blanked Podcast as yet, so just head on over to Getting Blanked and keep refreshing– I’m sure it will show up shortly– or subscribe to Getting Blanked on iTunes, or give @DrewGROF a follow, and I’m sure he’ll tweet it out when it’s ready. Blake Murphy of Bluebird Banter looks back on last night, and the controversial called strike that ended the game, with the Jays potentially in the throes of a comeback. The Blue Jay Hunter tweets an overhead view of Fernando Rodney’s final pitch, and honestly, that’s going to be a strike against a lot of left-handed hitters, I think. Doesn’t make it right, but that’s within the bounds of how they call it. A couple others from Bluebird Banter, as Jays182 looks at the good and the bad of J.P. Arencibia, ultimately deciding that A.J. Jimenez is the future behind the plate, and that hopefully “everyone (even Gregg Zaun) can now agree that J.P. Arencibia should not be behind the plate with the Blue Jays going forward if they look to be a contending team.” Elsewhere, Nick Ashbourne looks at smoke, mirrors and Mark Buehrle. Ben Nicholson-Smith looks at this afternoon’s lineup at Sportsnet, noting that Melky Cabrera will get a day to rest his sore legs, with Anthony Gose taking over in left field and leading off. Brendan Kennedy of the Toronto Star wonders whether ex-Jays benefit from getting booed– often for nothing close to good reason– when they make their returns to Toronto. To help with their woeful rotation, the Orioles have called up uber-prospect Kevin Gausman, and he’s going to make his big league debut tomorrow at Rogers Centre. Drew fills you in on all you need to know about this at Getting Blanked, while Baseball Prospectus gives some scouting report tidbits before their paywall takes over. Elsewhere at Getting Blanked, Drew takes a look at the renaming of a section of Montreal’s Rue Faillon after former Expo and Hall Of Famer, the late Gary Carter. And he also looks at the surprisingly competent– and then some– Alex Rios. David Laurila of FanGraphs has an interesting Q&A with recently reinstated Jays prospect Marcus Stroman. Michael Beraskow of Jays Journal provides some handy tips for watching the Jays while at work– especially useful with today’s 4:37 PM start. Shi Davidi looks at the Jays’ rotation options, among other items in a notebook post at Sportsnet. Bill Lankhof of the Toronto Sun reflects on last night’s game, noting that the Jays seem to continue to stumble along through the season. “They are a schizophrenic 10 games behind the Yankees, one moment playing smash-mouth baseball, the next getting smashed in the mouth,” he writes. John Lott of the National Post speaks to a grateful Casey Janssen, who struggled to shake off some rust on Monday, but welcomed the fact that he’d been rested for so long prior. Lastly, at Baseball Prospectus, Zachary Levine wishes a happy birthday to the now 40-year-old Ramon Ortiz, while elsewhere, Sam Miller finds the worst thing the L.A. Dodgers have done all year– and be careful, folks, it’s not copywritten. Your team could do it too!

TORONTO (AP) — One start ago, Fernando Rodney cost Alex Cobb a win by blowing a save against Boston. View full post on Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Toronto Blue Jays News

Mark Buehrle has struggled immensely in his brief tenure as a Blue Jay. Although it’s almost impossible that he’s as bad as he's been so far, you won't find many Jays fans optimistic about his future. His numbers are way down in almost every meaningful category and he hasn't given many signs of coming out of this funk. Buehrle is aging, his velocity is slightly down and he’s moved to the A.L. East so some of this was predictable, to an extent. Blue Jays fans likely expected him to regress slightly from his 2012 season with the Marlins, but probably not to this degree. This article is not about what has gone wrong for Buehrle but rather the mind-bending way in which Buehrle has been effective over the years, and to a lesser extent, so far this year. The narrative is that Buehrle is effective because he pounds the strike zone, fields his position well and logs big innings. You can find those terms, in almost exactly those words, in any scouting report of the 33 year old. The problem is that this narrative is extraordinarily misleading. The thing is that Mark Buehrle doesn’t really throw strikes at all. The first reaction to a statement like that is probably denial. Buehrle has posted above average walk rates throughout his career for an excellent career total of 2.04 BB/9 or a 5.5% walk rate. However, simply not walking people does not equate to pounding the zone. What’s Buehrle has done that is so rare is avoid walking batters while putting an incredibly low rate of his pitches in the strike zone. Here is a chart showing Buehrle’s walk rate and the percentage of his pitches in the zone since 2002: Year Zone% BB% 2002 57.2% 6.2% 2003 52.4% 6.2% 2004 53.9% 5% 2005 58.8% 4.1% 2006 52.4% 5.5% 2007 52.5% 5.4% 2008 49.7% 5.7% 2009 48.6% 5.2% 2010 44.3% 5.5% 2011 41.3% 5.2% 2012 42.1% 4.8% 2013 38.8% 6.6% Something here doesn’t make sense. It seems as if no matter how few balls Buehrle throws in the zone he is almost immune to walking batters. At one point the description of Buehrle as someone who fills the strike zone was an apt one. In 2005 he was 8th in the league in Zone%, right between David Wells and Pedro Martinez. This year, his Zone% is the 4th lowest in the league, between Gio Gonzalez and Jeff Locke. It’s almost as if he decided he was done with throwing strikes in 2010-ish and hitters just haven’t noticed yet. Is his reputation a factor here? Do batters assume the ball will be in the zone and swing just as much now as when he was actually throwing a ton of strikes? The answer is…. sort of? Year O-Swing% Swing% 2002 17.3% 48.3% 2003 24.3% 47.6% 2004 22.6% 46.8% 2005 21.6% 49.2% 2006 27.7% 48.3% 2007 26.6% 47.7% 2008 31.4% 47.7% 2009 27.8% 46.8% 2010 33.1% 47.5% 2011 31.2% 46% 2012 32.8% 45.3% 2013 30.2% 43.9% As Buehrle has thrown fewer pitches in the zone his swing rate has fallen slightly but not nearly as much as his Zone%. His O-Swing% has gone steadily up, allowing him to maintain approximately the same level of effectiveness over the years. However, if these trends persist one wonders if there is a threshold where Buehrle’s effectiveness can no longer continue. As a pitcher who doesn’t strike many batters out and isn’t especially good preventing home runs, not walking batters is essential to his success. Yet it is hard to imagine his ability to keep a low walk rate will last if he puts so few pitches in the strike zone. Perhap

"And so, the Blue Jays must go forwards, not backwards! Upwards, not forwards! And always twirling, twirling towards freedom!" How in the world do you blow a three goal lead with ten minutes left in the third period??!!!?? How does that possibly---Whoops, wrong notes.The Blue Jays are a strange team to follow. A casual fan might conclude: "Wow, we smoked the defending World Series champs in a two game series! Maybe there's something to this team after all!"That same casual fan, under different circumstances, might also conclude: "Geez, we've been smoked by the Yankees in two straight games, and New York wasn't supposed to be all that good this year! Maybe there's nothing to this team after all."I've played in a Toronto hardball league for some odd eight years now, six of those on the same team. Over those years we were sometimes fantastic, sometimes ordinary, sometimes truly dreadful, but no matter how well we were playing that season there was the same one team we could never beat. It didn't matter if it was a close game or if we built up a big lead, they would always find a way to steal the victory from us. There was no statistical explanation for this, no obvious "that's why we always lose" answer, just that they would always win and everyone was aware of that. I believe confidently there is a similar dynamic throughout all levels of baseball, including the major leagues. You've got to believe that even the 1954 Cleveland Indians or the 1927 New York Yankees had a team or two they didn't like facing for one reason or another. That is the nature of how baseball teams are constructed: certain teams just don't match up well with certain other teams, regardless of talent level or experience.The reason I mention this is because of the week the Toronto Blue Jays have had. They made the champion San Francisco Giants look hopelessly awful, yet a few days later made an injury prone New York Yankees team look unbeatable. The Blue Jays are now 0-6 this season in Yankee Stadium as I write this and 1-8 against the Yankees overall. The Yanks aren't THAT good, nor are the Blue Jays THAT bad (probably.) It seems to just be a bad matchup for Toronto, for reasons people more thorough than I can likely explain...This weeks Game Of The Week is May 14th, the first game of the Blue Jays-Giants series. I was at this game and I must say, it was not a good game. I enjoyed the experience in the same way I will enjoy any live spectacle of baseball anywhere, but It was a pretty bad game as far as intrigue goes. Anyhow...I had finished work surprisingly early so I thought "What the fudge!" and went to the Blue Jays game. It was already the bottom of the first inning when I arrived and to my surprise and delight, Toronto was already up 5-0 on poor Barry Zito. The Blue Jays had already batted around in the first and another RBI single made it 6-0. My ticket was for the 500 level but as I was alone at this game, I decided to hang around the 100 level and lean around one of those watching areas they have just before the steps into the stands. I was particularly curious to observe R.A. Dickey, who was starting for the Blue Jays, just to see how such an excellent knuckleball looked to an untelevised eye. Dickey struggled with the strikezone the first inning I watched, often throwing his hard knuckler wide. (though I do believe he was getting squeezed a little bit) Well, the Jedi Ninja of Knuckleballers admirably battled through some early jams and only surrendered three runs in seven strong innings, striking out nine Confunded San Francsico hitters. I must mention as well, my first impression watching Dickey pitch from so close was "how on Earth does anyone make contact with that thing?" On this particular day, Dickey's knuckleball was not consistent: sometimes it was a 74 MPH changeup with sink, other times it was a creature that did whatever it wanted as long as it hit the strikezone and was home by bedtime. Barry Zito settled down a bit and kept the Giant