Game Threat: Salvaging The Seattle Series, Saying Goodbye To Storen, Blue Jays (54-44) vs Mariners (50-47)

| Cam Lewis

Here we are, for the second Sunday in a row, hoping for the Blue Jays to grab a win so that they can salvage a series with an American League West club. Well, at least they aren’t getting beat by the Minnesota Twins, right? 

Yesterday 

Geez, what to even say about, uh, that? 

Yesterday afternoon’s game was bad. Like, really bad. It was the first time the Jays had been drilled in quite some time, as their last five losses dating back to June 30 had been by only one run. And even then, you have to go back into mid-June to find a game where the Jays really were completely outclassed by their opponent like they were yesterday. 

R.A. Dickey has himself an ugly start, which he himself described as “a bizarre outing.” After working through two innings, Dickey loaded the bases in the third on a single and two hit batters before Nelson Cruz hammered a grand slam to centre field. In the fourth, Dickey loaded the bases again on a couple of single and a walk before being pulled in favour of Franklin Morales, who pitched for the first time since Toronto’s season-opening series in Tampa Bay. 

If you’re going to draw a positive from this game, it would probably have to be Morales, who, up until this point, had pretty much been an afterthought as he floated around on the disabled list in purgatory for three months. Anyways, Morales limited the damage by inducing a double play ball and getting a pop out to end the inning. He ended up tossing two frames, allowing just one hit. 

Seattle would score eight more runs off of Jesse Chavez and Drew Storen, while the Jays got a few runs back of their own off of former farmhand Wade LeBlanc, as both Michael Saunders and Justin Smoak tagged him for home runs in the eighth. 

Speaking of LeBlanc, if I had told you back in March that he would have earned a save at the Rogers Centre in late July, what would you have thought? Would you have assumed that the season had gone up in flames? Or that he was pitching for the Mariners because he was dealt away for cash and pitched three innings to close out a blowout? Probably the latter. 

Anyways, let’s try to forget that ever happened! 

News and Scuttlebutt 


And it looks like yesterday was the final straw for Storen, as the club announced that they’ve designated the disappointing righty for assignment. Through 38 appearances, Storen has posted a horrific 6.21 ERA largely because of a dip in his velocity has resulted in him allowing way more hard contact than he ever has before. When he was acquired from the Washington Nationals for Ben Revere back in January, it was expected that he would help Roberto Osuna lock down the eighth and ninth innings, but from the very beginning he looked, well, lost out there. 

Anyways, this move is pretty clearly just an effort to see if another team will bite on Storen as some kind of reclamation project, which is pretty unlikely. If someone does claim him, the Jays will only be on the hook for part of his $8.375 million salary, but if he slides through and they option him to Triple-A, they’ll still have to pay the entire thing. 

It’s pretty easy to say that the Storen for Revere trade was a massive flop for the Jays, because, well, it was. I mean, Storen provided almost zero value for the team save for a few butterfly effect situations, like how moving Revere opened a spot for Michael Saunders, and acquiring Storen kinda maybe sorta resulted in Aaron Sanchez being put in the rotation? I don’t know. This is pretty much an ugly wash for both the Jays and Expos, as Revere has only managed to put up a .565 OPS this season. 


From yesterday, the Jays have activated Chris Colabello from the 60-day disabled list, but opted to keep him off the 25-man roster and in Triple-A Buffalo. Since he isn’t eligible to play on the postseason roster, and, to be honest, there really isn’t any room for him on the big league team right now, keeping Colabello in Triple-A is the right way to go. There’s a fair chance that 2017 will represent an opportunity for Colabello to play consistently with both Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista potentially moving on as free agents. 

Today 

Blue Jays: Darwin Barney 3B, Josh Donaldson DH, Edwin Encarnacion 1B, Michael Saunders LF, Troy Tulowitzki SS, Kevin Pillar CF, Zeke Carrera RF, Devon Travis 2B, Josh Thole C

J.A. Happ: 12-3, 3.34 ERA, 4.00 FIP, 1.195 WHIP, 8.2 H9, 2.5 BB9, 7.2 SO9

Mariners: TBA

Wade Miley: 6-7, 5.36 ERA, 5.01 FIP, 1.444 WHIP, 10.2 H9, 2.8 BB9, 6.3 SO9

The Jays are trotting out a preeeeeetttttyyyy ugly lineup today, but that should be okay, considering they’re facing Wade Miley. I was hoping they would get to face another Seattle lefty named Wade, but unfortunately the Mariners decided to go with the former Red Sock/Diamondback who has been not very good this season.  I won’t call this a must win, or anything like that right now, but geez, the Jays have been given a gift this weekend by the Minnesota Twins to make up some ground on Boston, but they’ve spoiled it with their trouble taking on the Mariners. 

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