PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. – The Blue Jays made their one and only trip of the year to Charlotte Sports Park, and it certainly didn’t turn out to be worth the two-hour drive each way.
A close game got blown open late as the Rays scored four times in the seventh inning off Chad Girodo and Chris Smith, and the home team cruised to an easy victory.
The highlight for Tampa Bay was first baseman Casey Gillespie homering from each side of the plate in consecutive innings – right-handed off Girodo in the seventh, left-handed off Jarrett Grube in the eighth.
Here are three things that stood out to me about the Blue Jays’ 11th loss in 16 spring games:
FLASHING THE LEATHER EARLY
Three Blue Jays made spectacular defensive plays very early in the game – in fact, the plays came over the course of just the first five batters of the afternoon.
Logan Morrison led off the bottom of the first with a single off Ryan Borucki, and the next hitter, Kevin Kiermaier, hit a hard grounder that appeared to be headed to left field. It didn’t make it there, thanks to an incredible diving stab by Lourdes Gurriel, Jr., who stole a hit by coming out of nowhere to flag the ball down and get the lead runner.
Gurriel, who the Blue Jays will start at shortstop in class-A Dunedin, showed incredible range to his right to close the hole and make a play on a ball he had absolutely no business getting to. Unfortunately, he jammed his right thumb on the dive and had to come out of the game the next inning.
Two batters later, Brad Miller hit a shot to right field, but it too didn’t make it through, this time thanks to a brilliant diving stab by second baseman Jon Berti, who threw Miller out to end the inning. Berti is having a terrific spring, having played second, third and left, and certainly could be a factor this season as an optionable utility man, much like Andy Burns could have been last year.
The second inning started with Corey Dickerson hitting a moonshot to deep right field. Anthony Alford, the Blue Jays’ top adult prospect, raced back, jumped, and reached over the 11-foot wall to bring back what would have been a leadoff home run.
The rest of the game didn’t go so well for the Jays’ defence, as they would go on to make four errors (Gurriel, Jake Elmore, Brett Oberholtzer, Jason Leblebijian) in the loss.
MAKING A CASE
Regardless of how the Blue Jays’ bullpen looks on opening day, we know that there will be many relievers moving in and out throughout the season and plenty of opportunity for an unsung arm to take a job and run with it.
Dominic Leone and Tim Mayza are trying to be two of those guys, and each had a strong outing on Sunday afternoon.
Mayza, a hard-throwing lefty who burst onto the radar with a big 2016 in Dunedin, took over for Borucki in the third inning with all the Rays’ regulars still in. He struck out both lefties he faced, Kiermaier and Miller, making Miller look silly on back-to-back-to-back sliders, and in between got Evan Longoria to ground out.
Leone, who had a great rookie season with the Mariners in 2014 but has only thrown 42 big-league innings since, pitched the fourth. He got Dickerson to fly out harmlessly and walked Luke Maile, then threw a fastball right by Jake Bauers with the hit-and-run on, allowing Juan Graterol to easily throw out Maile at second. Leone then retired Bauers on a ground ball to second.
Neither Leone nor Mayza is likely to break camp with the big team, but they’re both making a great impression and there’s a very good chance we’ll see both in the majors this year.
Toronto Blue Jays Radio
Rays Use The Long Ball In Victory Over The Jays
Originally aired March 12 2017
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PERSPECTIVE
Most fans aren’t too concerned with their team having a poor record in exhibition play. The Blue Jays are 4-10-1 in the Grapefruit League, with their loss to Team Canada on March 7th not counted in that record. On BlueJaysTalk after Sunday’s game, though, there was a caller who was very upset and wanted to know at what point fans should be legitimately worried about their team having a poor spring. My answer was “never”.
While it’s always more fun to win than to lose, spring training wins and losses do not matter. At all. Ever.
Even if you don’t want to accept the fact that it’s low-intensity, nobody-wants-to-get-hurt preparation for a gruelling six months ahead, or hopefully seven, just look at the line-ups the Blue Jays have been putting on the field so far.
Josh Donaldson, Russell Martin, Steve Pearce, Devon Travis and Troy Tulowitzki have combined for 25 at-bats, with almost half of them (12) having gone to Pearce.
Jose Bautista, before tearing it up for the Dominican Republic at the World Baseball Classic, hit .563/.611/1.063 in 16 at-bats. Kevin Pillar is hitting .500/.565/.750 in 20 at-bats and Kendrys Morales .438/.526/.750 in 16 at-bats.
The starting rotation of Marco Estrada, J.A. Happ, Francisco Liriano, Aaron Sanchez and Marcus Stroman has combined to pitch all of 17 2/3 innings, with Estrada having only pitched twice and Sanchez just once.
Roberto Osuna has thrown three innings, Jason Grilli one, Joe Smith 2 2/3 and J.P. Howell two.
Casey Lawrence leads the staff with eight innings pitched, and of the 19 pitchers who have thrown four innings or more, only four (Biagini, Estrada, Liriano, Stroman) are guaranteed spots on the roster.
The Blue Jays’ at-bat leaders for spring? Alford tops the list with 29, followed by Elmore (28), Berti and Tellez (both 26), Darrell Ceciliani (25) and Richard Urena (22). How many of those guys are going to make the team? Zero.
Last year, the World Series-champion Cubs went 11-19 in spring and the 88-game loser Angels were 19-8. In 2015, AL West-winning Texas was 9-19 and last-place Oakland 22-11. The 2012 Blue Jays, who went 73-89 in games that counted, were 24-7 in the spring.
There are all kinds of things to get upset about in this world. Spring training results are not one of them.
It’s a special treat on Monday as we bring you the Blue Jays and Red Sox live on the radio, not just online! J.A. Happ makes his second Grapefruit League start while the Sox counter with knuckleballer Steven Wright, which means you’ll be hearing all kinds of great one-liners from me during the broadcast, assuming Wright lasts more than two innings. Jerry Howarth, Joe Siddall and I have the call beginning at 1:00pm Eastern – you can listen on Sportsnet 590 The Fan or listen here.
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