Jays’ offence comes too late, suffers third consecutive loss

The Jays have not faced any sort of ace yet, but they are still struggling to get into games offensively. Giving their own pitchers a tough game to work with, the bats are really dead and starting to decompose.

Despite finally getting a hit in the first half of the game, they were still getting stranded with no hitter able to knock in anything of value.

It’s starting to creep on an actual trend and not just a small blip with bad early season luck.

Rowdy Tellez was able to open the scoring late for the Jays. Absolutely killing the ball all the way to center field and scoring a one-out solo home run at the bottom of the ninth.

Tellez was able to send that ball 449 feet and send him straight into the hearts of every Jays fan. He made it interesting, but two outs quickly followed and the game finished. He finished the game 1-for-3 with a walk added to his home run hit.

Suddenly the Jays are 2-4 and the Orioles are…4-1?

Stroman finished his game with 5.2 innings pitched, striking out five and walking a batter only once. Unfortunately, his line also includes two earned runs and a total of nine hits allowed. Lefty Tim Mayza replaced the starter that earned the loss.

Too close for comfort, Stroman’s pitch count was able to reach a total of 101, while only 63 of those were strikes and were therefore punished with some runs against late into Stroman’s appearance.

The lefty reliever Mayza was able to have a 1-2-3 seventh inning, pitching two easy groundball outs and a strikeout — marking another possible solid arm in the bullpen for Toronto.

Eventually, the Orioles were able to get two runs up on the scoreless Jays. A triple from Jonathan Villar to right field and a line drive single from Trey Mancini was able to get Baltimore up by two after five innings.

Justin Smoak had two hits, including the second earliest hit by a Jays hitter this season — in the fourth inning.

Orioles starter Andrew Cashner was able to finish the game with six innings pitched, allowing only four hits, walking three, striking out three and a total of zero earned runs in 89 pitches. He will obviously be a Cy Young candidate after this season finishes if he was to only face this lineup.

Stroman started the game with the same productivity he finished the season opener with, an easy three up, three down first inning.

Unfortunately for the Jays, Andrew Cashner was able to keep the bats quiet and go through three batters in 14 pitches.

Through three innings, the Jays were held hitless — a recurring theme in this young season. Now a combined 1-for-55 through the first three innings in six games this season.

While the Jays were still without a hit, the Orioles were able to have five off of Stroman through four innings. Luckily the game was still scoreless thanks to some key groundballs resulting in some outs and Orioles left on base.

Definitely not a made up player, Joey Rickard, hit a two-out double that was pulled hard past Brandon Drury and into left field. On a 3-1 count, the Orioles batter was able to catch the third baseman far off the line and cut the ball inside.

To open up the third, Jesus Sucre was able to hit a line drive single to right field and Hanser Alberto followed him with a two-pitch bunt that just slowly rolled fair. Drury and Stroman waited for the ball to hopefully go foul, but the paint, literally the paint, was able to keep the ball in play. The scenario ended with a double play and a Dennis Smith Jr. groundout.

While he was able to have five strikeouts in the game, one of Stroman’s strong plays this game was him picking off Villar at second base. At first, was definitely unimpressed with Villar’s lead in scoring position but was able to kill the baserunner’s confidence.

Extremely unexpectedly when he was initially signed by the Jays, Freddy Galvis was able to pick up a base hit in the fifth inning. Labeled as a glove-first infielder, the shortstop might just have a little extra contact than at first thought. At least more than completely calling off every at-bat he has.

In what seems like typical 2019 Jays fashion, the bats have started to come alive in the late innings. At the bottom of the sixth, Drury was able to hit a zero-out ground ball single to third and just two outs later, Smoak was able to hit a single to short. Marking four hits up to the point from the home team.

But of course this opportunity — including a Danny Jansen walk to load the bases — was wasted and the Jays still stood scoreless with just nine outs left.

Richard Urena continued his hot start to 2019 with a two-out single in the seventh — finishing the game 1-for-3 and with a totally not inflated 1.334 OPS for 2019.

Daniel Hudson relieved Mayza and was able to bounce back after his Jays debut on opening day which he allowed two earned runs. In the eighth, the 32-year-old pitcher was able to get three straight flyouts through the top of the Orioles’ line up.

Some key individual performances were the highlight of this game. Tellez, Smoak and Hernandez having solid offensive contributions did not go unnoticed.

They were able to get on base but were just eventually left stranded.

It always seems easier to fix offence — obviously just hit better — but at least the Jays have somewhat figured out defence? Not just hoping to blindly hit balls and go on some luck to win by a single run.

It will be an interesting season at least and today has been a whirlwind of transactions.