FanPost

Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory


I'll preface my venting by saying I like the overall direction that AA and John Farrell have set for the team and not having a real 3rd baseman or 1st baseman on the roster right now isn't helping things, but there are a few recent things that have ticked me off.

At what point do our starting pitchers get to pitch past the 7th inning? The last 2 games we blew were both strong starts that ended far too prematurely. Our bullpen, while being largely effective, has pitched a lot of innings and clearly a few guys are either being over-exposed or tiring. Reyes is yanked after 93 pitches against Houston on Friday and Romero is lifted after 100 against the Yankees tonight. Both guys are cruising, it's almost June, I don't think either guy is historically frail, let them take at least another inning towards finishing what they started.

And in both recent collapses the handling of the 'pen in the 8th and 9th was less than ideal as well. Rauch and Francisco are both left in too long against Houston and tonight Scrabble is brought in to do his lefty specialist thing but is left to give up key hits to righties. And Francisco isn't yet what he was last season, but both times he blows games after pitching the night before, even more tragic in tonight's game against the Yankees because he wasn't needed last night. I know you want to get him to the point where you can use him twice in a row, but make the first time the one that counts and the second one the non-high leverage situation.

Beyond all expectations the Jays are hanging around the race, and to stay there they have to be able to close the deal on games like last Friday and tonight. Does it seem like Farrell's background as a pitcher has him over-managing the pitching aspect of the game or are the last two blown games simply a case of bad luck?

Editor's Note: This is a FanPost written by a reader and member of Bluebird Banter. It was not commissioned by the editors and is not necessarily reflective of the opinions of Bluebird Banter or SB Nation.