What happened?

Things that were good

• Monday night’s game, outside of Estrada’s struggled, was excellent and deserves its own mention. The bullpen especially deserves a pat on the back for this one. After Estrada was pulled with two outs in the fourth, Dominic Leone, Jeff Beliveau, Aaron Loup, and Jason Grilli tossed four-and-a-third without giving up a run, allowing the Jays to come back in the ninth. Then, of course, Roberto Osuna came in and slammed the door. I watched this game on the Rangers broadcast, and there was something funny about their announcers speaking as if they just knew Toronto was going to come back. When the rally started with the Goins double, they already sounded deflated.
• Otherwise? Meh. Even though they went 2-2 over this four-game series, is wasn’t very pretty. Justin Smoak has continued to hit, going 7-for-15. He hasn’t slowed down at all and we’re nearly half way through the season. This might be legit. Steve Pearce also started to swing the bat really well this series and was playing his best baseball as a Jay before hurting himself in the field on Wednesday night.
• Kevin Pillar was struggling mightily at the plate in the leadoff spot, and John Gibbons finally moved him down in the order. The lineup shuffle looks good. Jose Bautista is solid in the leadoff spot, and went 3-for-7 with three walks after being moved up, while Pillar went 3-for-5 after being moved down.

Things that weren’t good

• The starting pitching really struggled this week. Marco Estrada got tagged for six earned runs over three-and-two-thirds. He’s now had a few poor starts in a row, and there’s certainly some reason to be worried. Francisco Liriano had a poor start to his game on Tuesday, allowing four runs in the first, and ultimately couldn’t get out of the fifth inning. Biagini was solid on Wednesday, but still allowed the Rangers to creep their way back into a game that should have been over in the first. And finally, Marcus Stroman had his first poor start in over two months. He only went four innings, marking the first time he didn’t go at least five-and-two-thirds since that outing in New York in which he left with an injury. The starting pitching is supposed to be a strong point on this club, but it didn’t appear to be that way this week.
• Steve Pearce, as I mentioned, was hitting the ball very well, but got hurt in Wednesday’s game. That’s just this team’s luck. As soon as the ball is rolling and the lineup is starting to look complete, something happens. In this case, Pearce hurt himself in the outfield and had to sit out Thursday’s game which was against a lefty. To pile on, Josh Donaldson had to take a day off because of a sore knee. Injuries always seem like a poor excuse, but this team has had a hell of a time getting going because of them.
• Troy Tulowitzki had a really, really ugly series. Yikes. He went 1-for-12, and the day off on Wednesday didn’t seem to help. In Thursday’s game, he came up with the bases loaded and Martin Perez on the ropes, but swung at a terrible 2-0 pitch and grounded out. He’s hitting just a shade over .200 since coming off of the DL. It’s a strange thing to watch.

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