Rangers hitters go to town on Blue Jays, Stroman
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ARLINGTON, Texas — Marcus Stroman has been doing a lot of fence gazing lately.
The Blue Jays starter gave up three home runs as the Texas Rangers blew away the Jays 11-4 on a blistering Thursday afternoon — the ninth time this season Toronto attempted to reach the .500 level and failed. The Rangers had a season-high seven extra base hits and matched a season best 26 total bases in the win.
“Tough day for Stro. Left some pitches up, hung a couple and they made him pay,” said Jays manager John Gibbons. “But it’s been a battle trying to get back to that .500 mark. The disappointing part seems like we get knocked around pretty good on that day.”
Stroman was pulled after four innings with the Rangers ahead 7-4. He gave up seven hits, all runs were earned, walked two and struck out five, picking up his second consecutive loss. He also allowed three homers for the second straight start.
“I just didn’t have a good feel for my pitches out there,” Stroman said. “Everything didn’t feel like it was necessarily coming out the same. Not really worried about it. Just didn’t have a good feel for my sinker and all of my other pitches kind of play off that. I’ll just make some adjustments during the week and get back out there on Wednesday.
“I was battling it all day but that’s something you’re going to run into as a pitcher,” he added. “They made me work a lot and they capitalized on some bad pitches. They swung it well all game. I wasn’t locating like I normally am, down.”
Other than Joe Biagini on Wednesday, every starter on this road trip had a shaky effort — Marco Estrada (Monday), Francisco Liriano (Tuesday) and Stroman. The Jays’ rotation had a 3.64 ERA last year. So far this season it’s 4.78. Of course part of that has to do with three Buffalo call-ups, Mike Bolsinger, Mat Latos and Casey Lawrence posting an ERA of 5.61.
“We took our lumps this series and came away with two wins if there’s anything good out of that,” said Gibbons of the starters.
Texas centre fielder Carlos Gomez hit two home runs, in the third off Stroman and one in the seventh off Toronto reliever Cesar Valdez. His homer in the seventh was a two-run shot, giving him five RBI on the day. Rangers catcher Robinson Chirinos went 2-for-4, with two doubles and a homer. The Rangers hit four homers in total, Mike Napoli and Chirinos (both off Stroman) also going deep.
Toronto DH Kendrys Morales had two hits, as did Jose Bautista (who also walked), Russ Martin and Kevin Pillar.
Jays’ short stop Troy Tulowitzki didn’t have a good game, going 0-for-4 at the plate, stranding four runners and was also slapped with an error in the eighth for interfering with Chirinos at third. Andrus smacked a grounder to Martin at third base who attempted to run Chirinos down. Tulowitzki interfered with Chirinos getting back to third and the Texas catcher was allowed to go home on the play. Adrian Beltre then hit Shin-Soo Choo home from third on a sac fly to centre.
LAST-MINUTE CHANGES
Prior to the game at Globe Life Park, third baseman Josh Donaldson was scratched from the lineup with left knee soreness. First baseman Justin Smoak was moved up from fourth to Donaldson’s usual third spot in the batting order. Morales, who was originally given the day off, was put in the lineup and batted fourth.
“I banged my knee up a little bit a couple of days ago and after last night it kind of swelled up a little bit and I told Gibby I don’t think it would be a great idea for me to go out there and push it right now. Hopefully we’ll be able to get ahead of it and be able to play on Friday,” said Donaldson, who hurt the knee when he banged it against some concrete while stretching. Donaldson already missed 38 games this season with a right calf strain. The Jays have put 19 players on the DL 22 times this season, the most in the AL, for a total of 553 games lost on the DL. The Jays lost utility man Steve Pearce with a right knee contusion suffered in Wednesday night’s 7-5 win over the Rangers. Pearce is available to pinch hit.
OSUNA TURNED IT AROUND
Roberto Osuna extended his career-best streak by converting his 18th consecutive save opportunity on Wednesday — the longest active streak in MLB. The save marked his 19th of the season — heading into Thursday’s games, one less than AL leaders Craig Kimbrel and Alex Colome and the 75th of his career. At 22 years and 134 days, he became the youngest player in MLB history to record 75 saves. Osuna leads all pitchers in club history (minimum three save opportunities) with a .196 opposition average. He is also tied for first with B.J. Ryan in converting 86.2% of his save opportunities (min. 20 save opportunities).
AROUND THE DIAMOND
Infielder Ryan Goins drove in three runs on Wednesday, all with men in scoring position and now is a .343 (12-for-35) hitter this year with runners in scoring position, with two doubles, three home runs and 24 RBI ... With Bautista batting first in the order last season (as he is now), the Jays went 25-15. Toronto is 42-30 all-time with Bautista in the lead-off spot.
