The Toronto Blue Jays were unable to gain ground in the AL East, dropping two straight to the Baltimore Orioles after a 13–3 win to open the series on Friday night.
The Blue Jays are now three games behind the Orioles in the standings and fell out of the second wild card spot with the Kansas City Royals leading Toronto by half-a-game.
Here are five takeaways from the Orioles series:
Stroman’s struggles continue
It appeared that Marcus Stroman might have turned a corner in his start last week against the Philadelphia Phillies, but that seems to have been just a blip against a lacklustre offence. On Sunday, Stroman was knocked around again, giving up seven runs and 10 hits and lasting only 3.2 innings, which was his shortest outing of the season. The right-hander has registered losses in three of his last four starts and has amassed a 7.59 ERA over his last 40.1 innings. The 25-year-old, who came into the season as the Blue Jays’ ace, ranks in the bottom 10 of all qualified pitchers in ERA and has allowed more hits this season than any pitcher in the majors. Despite his recent string of poor production, Stroman remains confident he will get his game back on track. “When it clicks again, I’ll get rolling,” he told reporters after Sunday’s start. “But it’s just been kind of in and out lately, the last few starts. Just kind of, search for it. It’s in there. It’s just a matter of finding it and being way more consistent with it.”
Saunders having all-star season
The Blue Jays are fortunate they didn’t move Michael Saunders, who came close to being traded to the Los Angeles Angels in a pre-season deal that fell through. The Canadian outfielder, who mashed three long bombs in Friday’s victory, became the 15th player in Blue Jays history to hit three home runs in a game and is posting big numbers in a full-time role. He is second in the AL (only behind David Ortiz) in OPS and is hitting .309/.385/.596 with 15 home runs on the season. His career-high is 19. Saunders has quietly been one of the best hitters in baseball this season and he also robbed J.J. Hardy of a home run on Sunday. It would be an incredible personal achievement if the Blue Jay landed on the AL all-star team, considering he missed almost all of last season with a significant knee injury.
Orioles offence is scary
While the Blue Jays were a powerhouse at the plate last season and have appeared that way at times this year, the Orioles’ bats are the key component to their success. Baltimore ranks ahead of Toronto in total bases, home runs, on-base percentage and total OPS. The Orioles had a season-high 19 hits off Toronto on Sunday, even with star infielder Manny Machado out of the lineup. The lineup not only has power, with three batters ranked in the top 20 in home runs, but offers depth as well. Second baseman Jonathan Schoop recorded three hits for the second straight day while catcher Matt Wieters drove in four runs and was a triple shy of the cycle. “When you get these two offences together, you know you’re going to need to score with each other,” Wieters said after Sunday’s game.
Tulowitzki goes deep
The Blue Jays lineup is missing some firepower (Jose Bautista went on the DL on Friday with a sprained left toe) so it was nice to see shortstop Troy Tulowitzki return to action this weekend. The veteran infielder went 2-for-4 Sunday and clubbed his first home run since May 14. Tulowitzki will regain his role as the everyday shortstop and give the Blue Jays another home run threat in the middle of the order while Ryan Goins and Darwin Barney will share time spelling Devon Travis at second base.
Blue Jays finally get to Gallardo
Even in the Blue Jays’ record-setting season at the plate last year, the team had difficulty hitting pitcher Yovani Gallardo, who recorded a 0.00 ERA in 13-plus innings against Toronto in 2015. So despite losing Saturday’s game, it had to be a bit rewarding to finally score some regular-season runs off the veteran right-hander. The Blue Jays had five hits and two runs while drawing four walks off Gallardo, who left after five innings and 85 pitches. It wasn’t the best offensive output but at least a sign of progress in comparison to last season.
