What’s that? Brett Lawrie hitting fifth? Adam Lind way down in seventh? It… it must be… it…
Oh, lefty Bruce Chen is pitching for the Royals tonight. And Rajai Davis is hitting sixth.
Well… baby steps, I guess.
Scuttlebutt
The Royals have been good for what ails the Jays, and tonight’s starter Brandon Morrow must certainly be hoping to get in on the party, after maybe not looking himself so far this season. It would be easy to look at Morrow– as is often lazily done– as having a good self and a bad self, and to ascribe his first starts of 2012 to the presence of Bad Brandon, but the reality is not quite that simple.
In 2011 Morrow struck out four or fewer batters in just three of his 30 starts, and induced ten or more ground balls only once. Already in 2012 he’s induced 10 or more grounders twice, and he’s yet to have a start in which he’s struck out more than four. Has he magically turned into some non-strikeout groundball machine? Hardly: he’s given up five home runs over the course of his last two starts. He’s just… not been very good. Kind of.
Two starts ago against Baltimore, for example, he threw 71 strikes over 106 pitches, walked only one, struck out four, and yet gave up four runs on six hits. This year he’s held opponents to a .208 average, he’s got a .158 BABIP, his WHIP is 1.10, and yet he finds himself with an ERA of 4.50, a FIP of 6.99, and a bunch of fans and media wondering what’s wrong.
Basically, the numbers are a bit of a jumbled mess at this point– as they’re probably going to be after three starts. Anecdotally, though, it’s seemed a bit like Morrow has been playing with fire, making too many mistakes, and leaving too many balls up in the zone to be crushed. Has that really been the case? I don’t even fucking know anymore. Probably not.
I’m sure Morrow will end up pretty much exactly where we expect him to be, and Kansas City is as good a place as any to start heading there.
TV: Sportsnet
And now the lineups, by way of the live box score at theScore.com. And for those of you who’ll be out and about, be sure to follow all the action on your phone with Score Mobile…
Toronto Blue Jays
Y. Escobar SS
K. Johnson 2B
J. Bautista RF
E. Encarnacion DH
B. Lawrie 3B
R. Davis LF
A. Lind 1B
J. Arencibia C
C. Rasmus CF
B. Morrow RHP
Kansas City Royals
C. Getz 2B
A. Gordon LF
B. Butler DH
E. Hosmer 1B
J. Francoeur RF
M. Moustakas 3B
B. Pena C
M. Maier CF
A. Escobar SS
B. Chen LHP
Image via @BlueJays.
Back stayed a lot calmer this time lol
FEAR THE MOTHERFUCKING BEARD!
Now another horrendous streak will probably commence.
Is it Monday or is everyone horribly negative tonight? For complaints about Morrow, he’s worked out of jams two innings in a row. Complaints about Bautista, he’s hit a home run tonight. They broke the tie and and everything still going downhill.
Regarding Morrow, I think it’s more about the Royals being completely awful than Morrow’s abilities. RE; Bautista, yeah, maybe a little much on my part.
Ive actually been really impressed with the way Morrow has worked out of jams. Especially those two 1 out K’s with a man on third.
welp, thats encouraging. his timing and mechanics looked good there
HEEEESS BAAAAAAAAAAAACK..
Please stop that.
Gotta love it. Lester gives up a 2 run dinger and minutes later, Jose lights up Chen for a 2-run scraper.
Fucking bunts.
Nice job working back from 3-0 on Francoeur.
Kelly Johnson made the most hilarious throw to Yunel on that play. Silver lining.
Ya, not quite as effective as that backhanded flip, was it?
Morrow’s K rate is still down, but I’ll take this start.
His stuff is much sharper tonight..his fastball has the old riding appearance to it. im very encouraged by what i’ve seen tonight. most of the hits are to the opposite field
Thank god for the incompetence of the Royals. Doesn’t seem to matter how many chances you give them…
Don’t look a gift horse in a mouth, don’t give it back. Take it and run.
Nice job on getting out of that inning again.
I can’t figure out how much credit should be given Morrow, as opposed to putting much of it down to the general shittiness of the Royals.
5 base runners stranded, including at least 3 who were in scoring position with none being allowed to come around and score. That’s fantastic for Morrow. Or any pitcher for that matter.
91 pitches for Morrow through 6. Back for the seventh?
Why not, tell him he’s on the mound until there’s a base runnner.
Unless they put up some more runs this inning.
Awww… Colby’s interacting and laughing with his teammates.
Yessssssssssss.
I DEMAND VIDEO PROOF OF THIS! OR A GIF! COLBY RASMUS DOES NOT SMILE EVER!
Is it me, or is Tabler a even more annoying than usual tonight?
I have the tv on mute. Why don’t you?
It’s okay, I got my selective hearing turned on.
You’re right, I should. Tabler just fumbled the word “effortlessly” twice and then Buck said “I’m not even going to try that one”
My wife let’s me watch basebll as long as we are listening to vinyl. Blonde on blonde right now. Sweet life.
Good call dude.
Whoa, neat combination. That sounds like a summer-night-on-the-porch pairing.
Followed it up with some Charlie Daniels Band. Baseball and country music. Heaven.
Gotta stop posting as Aaron Laffey’s mother. Gets confusing.
Hopefully The two of you shared a smile at the significance of “Fourth Time Around” last night. Sweeps are sweet.
I miss Mullinicks.
I found Rance didn’t contribute very much other than just guessing pitch type/location. I might be mistaken, but I do recall Darrin Fletcher being decent a few years back. But that could be my longing for anyone but Tabby talking…
Rance was a one trick pony…always harping on “getting set and looking for a specific pitch in a specific location and not being late”
that was fine the first three hundred times he said it in a game..after that it became tedious
I know he likes what he’s doing now, basketball and baseball. But if he wants to come back. Pony up the big money and bring back Dan Shulman.
Dan Shulman will never come back. The guy has a sweet deal with ESPN.
Naw, it’s the cumulative annoyance of having to listen to him every game. You’re just sensitized to him now.
How long does it take to become desensitized?
He needs to say “BIG SCHRTOOOONG…” more often so you can laugh at him. I note that he’s cut down on those this year.
@Wiffleballs
Small sample size.
He also said “Chen go hard”, which seemed borderline, if accidentally, racist.
Adam Lind says: Those 1-4 nights really build your average”.
Whenever your first baseman can manage an infield single in four or five at bats you should win.
I take my cue from the classic steelers teams….a solid ground game is what you need to wni championships
The only thing more incompetent than the Royals’ability to score runs is Tablers ability to speak semi-intelligent English.
He can’t help it, he speaks American.
For all the talk about how bad Arencibia has been lately, I’m surprised to find out he’s gone 8-for-17 in his last five games, with 2 doubles, 4 RBIs, and only 3 Ks.
Small sample size!!!
All that talk was from before the series with the AAA Royals
I agree with taking Morrow out now.
Same. He’s pitched well, why ruin a good thing. Perez has also been lights out this year.
I’ll just shut my mouth.
Agreed. First time Farrell has been appropriately proactive.
And it worked too. Bonus.
Yeah I knew this inning was going too smoothly. Have to get those runners into scoring position…
Umps are helping.
Can’t fault Perez for that squeeker
That was high and inside that he swung at.
Good ol’ Royals
Nice, more runners in scoring position stranded.
Man, we are playing with fire. Even the most incompetent of teams is going to eventually cash in some runners.
I’ve been thinking that for several innings. And yet….
If the game goes into extra innings can they bring Morrow back?
Apropos of nothing: My Blue Jays twitter experience has improved immeasurably since unfollowing Mike Wilner.
For those on it, I suggest giving it a try, just continue to follow guys like Lott, Davidi, Stoeten, etc.
I stopped following Wilner about two weeks ago. I like it much better this way.
guys, how are you going to know when Wilner is about to broadcast his three innings, and read snarky answers that don’t actually answer the questions being asked?
That pretty much sums up Wilner on twitter for me, Frank.
I think Johnson is lucky his shoes are still on after that last swing on that K.
Every time I hear the last name Crow, I yearn to watch Sons of Anarchy. Good ol’ SAMCRO
I think Dewey Crowe from Justified
Im bracing myself got the loss.
Confido, take your meds, boy.
Anybody really feel safe with cordero closing out the 9th tonight?
Feelin’ fine.
Im going to take a couple of petpo bismol right now in preperation of Frank Francisco Cordero pitching the ninth
I’d rather have some insurance runs (see what I did there?).
Id rather have perez et al pitch the higher leverage innings and allow cordero to close (see what I did right there? )
Please score some more runs. Only two for Cordero against the Royals? Not good.
Holy gold glover Lind at first! He can’t hit for shat but that defense…hubba hubba!
I loved that “game within a game” in the bottom of the 5th; Morrow slowed things down, kept the runners close, got the pop up and then the ground out. Pitching, not just throwing. Sweet.
BTW, I don’t know if everyone already knows this, but I decided to finally checkout the game on RogersOnDemand.com. One added feature I like is Pitch FX. I am not downloading the necessary applet for the DVR functions like slo-mo, pause, etc (as I hate putting unnecessary shit onto my computer) but it looks good tho.
Damn. I thought that was going to be Lawrie’s first double of the year.
Oooohh, Lawrie with a mofo xtrabase hit, nice
Big run.
Lawrie is tough as nails Butterfield gives him the stand up sign…”fuck that shit im sliding bro”
A timely entry on Lawrie Stoeten. Nice three bagger. Now to steal home.
To be fair, that was Fairservice.
Amazing how the team can hit once you take out a shit baller
Even though the throw beat him, it looks like he got his hand in there – even on a pitch out.
oh, I just discovered another built-in feature of the ROD version of the game – a Twitter box where game-related tweets are displayed. I am reading Royals fans lament Broxton – noice.
Davis so f’n safe. Bad call ump from a bad position!
They need to fly out tonight.
Just a tad cynical?
Maybe, but the wide strike zone set the tone tonight.
seriously 98 mph? no way post operative broxton is throwing 98.
Broxton is bigger than Cordero.
Jerry Howarth called him “a giant piece of concrete standing on the mound”.
mooooooooooooooooooooosssee
Okay so what’s the over/under on number of baserunners in the bottom of the ninth? I’ll set it at 3.5
more like what is the over under on how many chalupas cordero ate between yesterday and today’s games.
If they’re going to play that kind of shift on Lind why not just bunt, especially if they were doing it with Davis on 1st. That would have been an easy 1st and 2nd with nobody out. I get not wanting your big power hitters to bunt (although I still think there’s plenty of times they should), but Lind doesn’t fit that mold.
He’d probably hurt his back.
I never used to think the old uni’s were that bad. Now that they have the new ones I realize the error in my ways.
For a moment I was afraid he was going to leave Perez in like Tabler was suggesting instead of bringing in the closer.
One thing I think Sportsnet definitely improved on over last year is the in-game score box. It is a so much better as the narrow band near the bottom of the screen with the pop-up velocity (I like it better than what you see on NESN and YES – except I like the pitch count feature they use).
Would have preferred Casey here. His corner throwing fastball would have been perfect for this umps strike zone.
But what do I know …
Hold on to your dicks!
There’s one….
nice change up by cordero. nothing like slow pitches up in the zone
Im hanging this loss on Cordero.
I’m hanging this sweep on you.
This what?
Just some child impersonating me, shame we don’t have disqus anymore.
Ooh double play. But now what’s coming…..
Just imagine how you would feel right now if you were a Royal’s fan…..cant get a hit with RISP and everytime someone gets on, double play
I was just thinking that. Eleven game losing streak.
The Jays aren’t the streak breakers this time. Like getting on with the farmer’s daughter. Get out of town and don’t look back.
I dont care if kansas sucks, a 4 game sweep is good.
Well finally a faily easy inning.
This is the saddest sweep ever!
Scary Coco time queue the spooky music.
Sweeeeep! And a big 4 game one too!
On the road too. What aren’t people happy?
Haters gonna hate.
Solid series Jays! Keep it going vs. dem O’s!
I fucking hate the Orioles. They think they are good this year because they have gotten off to a not so shitty start. That ends tomorrow. It’s the beginning of their death spiral into last place. Get ready
A not so shitty start is catnip to the OriLOLe’s. Wait ’til they see what a 4 game sweep is to the Jays.
Jays were never 4 games over .500 at any point last year.
Well Morrow certainly walked the tightrope tonight and did well to not fall off. Much better command tonight and even some of the hits were more of just get a piece of it and drive it the other way type. That said I seriously WTB a start like this at home next time out.
Lawrie seemed to have more of an uppercut in his swing tonight.
Oddly enough I felt completely confident with Cordero on the mound. Though that had more to do with the Royals than it did Cordero, but still.
Well, I did think the Jays would win (it’s the Royals, after all) but I thought they’d at least get the tying run on base.
For the first time in what feels like forever, the Jays came in and kicked a team right in the teeth while it was down. The KC broadcast put up a graphic that since 2000 Toronto was like 978-978, hopefully the twelve year mediocrity ride is over. Keep it going, gents!
Well that’s going to be key going forward. If they just improve to .500 vs the other beasts in the East and take this types of games from teams they should then 85+ wins is possible.
Exactly. I hate to see them play tough against the Wankees and the Red Sux (in recent years) and then drop two of three to a sub-.500 team.
Haters can hate, but a sweep on the road? Boom! They keep this up against the Orioles and they sittin’ pretty atop the AL East
i could only imagine what this place would be like right now if the Jays only took 3 of 4….good teams get wins when they are not playing their best.
Too true too true… and when they are playing their best they blow the other team away
Santos MRI says no structural damage, but is on a no-throw for 10 to 15 days, per Barry Davis tweet. ETA is mid-May. Get used to the Coco show for the next foreseeable time frame.
Its all about holding your own until injured players get back and good players get rolling.
I would say a 4 game sweep on the road is holding your own.
It will be fun to watch meaningful baseball in august this year, book it.
Coco is 2 for 2. I could get used to that, scary or no.
I don’t mind Coco. Has an assortment of pitches and knows how to do the job. He just likes to give fans their money’s worth. Hence = Coco Show.
Sounds like he’ll be gone for a month to 6 weeks then. They were saying a day of rehab for everyday off. Might be a bit much but I can’t see the Jays rushing him with a shoulder issue.
GFG. That was probably the most important game of the series. Now on to Baltimore, where the Jays need to take off the belt and show the Oriels who the Boss is.
Chen is always a total asshole against us. I hate when we face that soft-tossing jerk. So glad the Jays beat him. This start and the Hutchinson one against their “ace” were the games that that the Royals really needed in this series and they didn’t get either of them.
Blue Jays: Tied for 4th in MLB in Runs, tied for 5th in HRs, 6th in OBP (cough,Kelly Johnson,cough – he has 20% of their walks) but around 9th in OPS, so it is obviously their batting average issues we are noticing (around 17th in MLB).
Playing in cold weather in Cleveland and in so-so weather in a big ballpark in KC will do that. Not worried too much about the hitting. The Jays season will live or die with the starting pitching.
I disagree. The starting rotation is a bigger concern but the hitting is far from perfect. Too many streaky hitters in the lineup who hack away. I dont trust this offense to go on a long rally. Chen is a pitcher a team like BOS, NYY or TEX would beat the crap out of. We could barely beat him. Thats an indication the offense could use another bat.
I disagree with your disagree. Look at the Giants. Anorexic hitting with great pitching. The Jays have great hitting….just needs time. But if the pitching is there, look out muthafuckas in the AL east.
Coco, the fatty-faced Panda has been getting the job done, and not tossing tee-balls to hitters like Rauch was @ 90 MPH and at the heart of the plate.
remiss in not noting that Bautista is also another 20% contributor to the walk total for this team, the actual OBP leader.
So with all the Phaillies injuries, I hope AA is calling Ruben to find out the price on Roy Halladay to give him an opportunity to play for a playoff team. He is just being wasted there. . . … . . (payback).
I know that it’s unlikely to happen, but if Halladay returned to the Jays in July, the city would explode. The Rogers Centre would be sold out .Halladay could lead the Jays to the playoffs & would solidify the rotation. Halladay as a Jay in the playoffs would be electrfying. The prodigy returns home.
On the other hand I think Ricky Romero likes being the leader of the pitching staff so .I wonder how he would react to the return of Halladay
I still believe Doc will finish his career as a Jay. Way on down the road, unfortunately for the team right now.
I wouldn’t bet on it … but with the way the Phillies offense is looking right now, maybe.
i made this same comment last week.halladay wanted a championship.wouldnt it be funny if the jays got there first.
Last night I was shocked walking out of the local Lotte Mart to see some dude with the Blue Jays old toothpaste T hat on. I was too shocked to talked to him.
The Halladay comment was very much a joke on my part, would never happen, but frustrating for Doc to see his team implode around him, I am guessing).
Now, this is not a joke -but a seemingly pathetic rumour-mongering bullshit comment to try and get JF riled up at Jays management (AA perhaps?). So, the Boston Globe reporter drops an anonymous quote that “there is some questioning of John Farrell’s pitching moves at times according to a major league source”. Umm, pretty sure the same statement could be made about 100% of the other managers in baseball – “questioning . . . moves at times”. Holy Fuck. The Bahsten manager is loathed beyond belief (altho Youkilis hasn’t exactly made Valentine eat his words), may not last the season and they want to stir up shit here??!!??!! Next we’ll hear that it is internal Jays rumbling, you know to make some Macbethian palace intrigue poison the AA-JF working relationship.
Hey Cafredo (my Godfather reference for him), stop doing Larry Luchino’s wet work, keep your character assassination in Massholia – stick to digging up dirt on Funny Valentine for the inevitable blame game you guys play there.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2012/04/cafardo-on-peavy-white-sox-twins-liriano-rays.html
Blue Jayas are gonna be on Monday night baseball next week. I think it’s against Darvish.
Money. Fuckin money baby.
Yep, Monday April 30th, Rangers @ Jays on ESPN! Pitching Matchup lines up Drabek vs Darvish I believe.
My money is on Drabek
im pretty sure I saw sportsnet tell me it was against henderson alverez, last night, but I could be wrong.