A game and a series to forget.
Blowouts have no redeeming qualities. Your team is out of the game very early on and the bullpen suffers because the team tends to go through several relievers. The game has no entertainment value and you feel distressed no matter who the opponent is. You either curse the Yankees or the Red Sox for having near-limitless payrolls and being perennial playoff teams or you curse the fact that you are getting blown out by a bottom-feeder who you should be beating. Basically, the only good part of it is seeing seldom-used players get a chance to come off the bench. However, the excitement felt at seeing an unexpected Ken Huckaby double is almost deadened by the fact it means nothing at this point. A Huckaby double in a tight game is something completely different, but here it just feels hollow; like garbage-time in the NBA. The only joy blowouts provide are in the simple pleasures of watching baseball itself or in seeing a highlight reel play in the midst of a mass of meaningless at-bats. However, in the middle of a long season that is rarely enough to sustain interest.
Obviously the Jays are in a disappointing place right now, having gone 2-5 to start a long 13-game road trip against some weak opponents. Many hoped the Jays would be at 5-2 at this point, or at least 4-3. Even given the difficulties of travel, the Jays had 4 games against the third-worst team in the American League, and didn’t even have to face Zito. However, there is certainly the opportunity to get out of this trip with a 6-7 record if they can win the series in Houston and Chicago.
I decided to look at the blowouts the Jays have lost this year. Using the arbitrary qualification that Toronto had to be losing by at least six runs after four innings, I determined this was the fifth such game the Jays had lost this year.
Here is a look at the games in chart form.
Date Opponent Starter Score* SD** Pitchers*** L5 Record**** April 18 Red Sox Bush 9-3 4 4 (BL, JF, VC, JS) 2-3 April 20 Yankees Lilly 7-1 6 4 (PW, MW, JF, JS) 2-3 May 7 White Sox Lilly 10-2 3 4 (MW, PW, VC, SS) 3-2 May 27 Twins Towers 7-1 5 3 (JF, JS, SS) 4-1 June 5 Athletics Gaudin 12-2 8 5 (SD, PW, SS, JF, JS) 2-3*After 4 innings of play
** Smallest run differential between the two teams after the 4th inning.
*** Other pitchers the Jays used during the game. Denoted by their initials.
**** Jays record in the five previous games.
Not surprisingly, there’s no discernable pattern to any of this. Sometimes it seems to be forgotten in this day and age, but as Tom Candiotti said on one broadcast this week, “That’s why you play the games.” Paper matchups and patterns don’t determine everything, and there’s no pattern here which makes predicting when the Jays will collapse any easier. The only pitcher to have two terrible outings was Lilly during his notable slump period. Chacin and Halladay are the only two starters to not have a collapse. There is no discernable pattern in the Jays record coming into blowout games, and we can’t even blame them on a game reporter as they’ve occurred once each on a Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
The most troubling thing about blowouts is probably their effect on a team’s bullpen. Having to use most of a team’s relievers can affect their bullpen usage for a couple of days down the road. However, the Blue Jays have never been forced into a discernibly difficult situation following a blowout for a couple reasons. Firstly, three of the four previous blowouts were followed by starts from Halladay or Chacin, and in each case the starter went at least six innings. The other start was by Dave Bush where he went 4.2 innings, but was aided by 3.1 innings of relief from Scott Downs. The Jays have never had two drastically short outings in a row.
Secondly, the value of a long man like Pete Walker becomes apparent when looking at blowouts. His ability to soak up three innings in these situations demonstrates value that can’t be measured statistically, as his appearances allow the Jays to only use two or three relievers where they might otherwise need four or five. Also, they avoid stretching someone like Speier or Frasor into a multi-inning appearance, and potentially rendering him unavailable for several days.
Sunday’s disastrous game should not affect the Jays badly for Monday. Chacin is starting and hopefully will give them another strong outing, and the team has Schoeneweis, Frasor, Chulk and Batista available in the bullpen and Walker could probably pitch for an inning if called upon. While the first week of this road trip has not gone as planned, there is plenty of opportunity to build a winning streak at Wrigley, as the Jays face Jon Koronka, Glendon Rusch and Sergio Mitre before heading into Houston, where they’ll unfortunately get Clemens and Oswalt, it looks like.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050605234722569