The Toronto Blue Jays' fall from the fringes of contention -- which would best describe their situation two weeks ago -- continued Saturday with an embarrassing 7-1 loss to the Chicago White Sox. They have lost seven in a row.
The Blue Jays starting rotation, which has been a mess all season, continues to drag the team down to the .500 level and perhaps beyond.
They aren't hitting much lately, either. The Blue Jays didn't get a hit Saturday until Troy Glaus struck his 31st homer of the season and the 250th of his career to lead off the fifth inning against Javier Vazquez.
“I didn't know,” Glaus said when asked about the 250th. “It's a nice milestone, it's nice to have but I'd rather have the team win.”
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The Blue Jays have scored 18 runs during their seven-game string of losses and Glaus has driven in 11 of them.
Vazquez, 10-6, allowed two hits and two walks and struck out 13 in eight innings (1098 pitches, 76 strikes). David Riske pitched the ninth and allowed one hit and two walks.
The Blue Jays, who are reeling like a team without a plan or a clue, started Francisco Rosario, 1-2, Saturday. He was making his first major-league start with predictable results bases on his 5.03 earned-run average in 15 relief appearances with Toronto. He also has pitched with Triple A Syracuse.
Those in the announced Rogers Centre crowd of 35,117 who weren't put to sleep by his tedious performance -- 12 of his first 17 pitches were balls -- were booing. Rosario lasted three innings only because of two astonishing base running mistakes by the White Sox in the first inning.
Rosario needed all the help the rest of the team could give him, but didn't get it when Blue Jays second baseman Ryan Roberts threw wide of first in an attempt to complete a double play. Aaron Hill, who has been the Blue Jays second baseman for most of the season, did not play Saturday because he had food poisoning.
Rosario allowed five hits, three earned runs and two walks in his three innings (71 pitches, 41 strikes). Dustin McGowan allowed four hits, four walks and four runs in 2 2/3 innings. Scott Downs pitched 3 1/3 hitless innings and allowed one walk.
Things could get worse Sunday. The Blue Jays starter is A.J. Burnett a pitcher who often comes up empty when his team most needs a boost.
“We play 162 games,” Glaus said. “Every team offensively and defensively, is going to have its ups and downs…it'll turn around.”
The Blue Jays still lead the American League with a .290 team batting average. But those numbers reflect a time earlier in the season when the runs flowed.
“It's tough to sustain anything,” Glaus said. “There are going to be lulls in the season when things aren't working out with us offensively. Right now that's the case. We're not the team that's offensively not producing, nor were we the team that was producing eight runs a game team, either. We're somewhere in between. The idea is to maintain that somewhere in between as long as you can.”
Vazquez and Glaus were teammates last season with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
“Javy's got a pretty good track record,” Glaus said. “He's been a real good pitcher for a long time. We were having to work counts and do things like that and he was throwing strike one. I played with him all year last year and when he throws strike one he has really good days. It was a combination. He threw pretty well and the opportunities we had today we couldn't come through. It's not from a lack of effort, it's not from a lack of trying.”
“We played good baseball all year until the last couple of weeks,” manager John Gibbons said. “We're going to get through this. As tough as it is you've got to believe there's light at the end of the tunnel. It's an unforgiving game.”
