Sunday summary

Its grey and depressing right now- im talking about the current weather here in New Zealand but could just as easily been talking about our 2-1 defeat to the Phillies, which dropped the Jays to 24-28. We are now 12 games off Boston...

The plus side of the defeat was that Jaime Garcia came off the disabled list and had his best start of the season. Unfortunately for the left-hander, it was overshadowed by Aaron Nola. Garcia gave up five hits, and the only run he surrendered came via Maikel Franco’s homer in the fifth.

Encouragingly, Garcia did not walk a batter for the first time in nine starts this season and 52 of his 73 pitches were strikes.

But a loss is still a loss. (Unless you’re the Mets where your 17-6 loss is a beatdown).

The Jays are third worst in all of baseball in defensive efficiency on ground balls. So this was the solution yesterday:

Yep, that Russell Martin. Aged 35. Our main catcher. he who is hitting .161.

Don’t get me wrong, i love the guy but he is now the 7th person we have used at shortstop this season. He is neither the solution nor the way of the future.

Talking of some of our other shortsops, Troy Tulowitzki was recently cleared to run on flat ground, but is still “a ways away” from rejoining the Blue Jays (i.e never).

Aledmys Diaz is closer to returning and will likely start a rehab assignment next week.

Talking of our merry go round at shortstop and infield, there was a familiar looking guy ** at New Hampshire’s game today.

I think we should take a look at him for the roster. After all, he isn’t that much older than Russell Martin:

Turtle Power ruled as the Fisher Cats split a doubleheader with the Hartford Yard Goats, losing the first game 5-3 and winning the second 4-1.

Fisher Cats 1B Juan Kelly hit a two-run homer in both games. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.finished the twin bill 2-for-6 with an RBI, while Bo Bichette went 1-for-5 with two walks and a run scored.

Vlad has now extended his on-base streak to 35 games. He lowered his Minor League-leading batting average to a pathetic .431

And in something that is affront to all decent Canadians, why would you waste perfectly good maple syrup??

** just to clarify that Craig Biggio absolutely one of my favourite baseball players ever.