Game 5 - Jays @ Astros Apr 1st Game Recap

Bombs and Strikeouts

Bowden Francis made his first MLB start and he struck out the side in the first inning. He also gave up two home runs, but let’s not let the score get in the way of a good story. HIs stuff looked legit but there were too many meatballs up or in the middle of the zone and he was punished on the scoreboard for it. I’m excited to have stuff like his in the rotations, but how many starts like that can the team manage before the rest of the division is several games ahead in the standings.

Bombed and Strikeouts

Kevin Kiermaier said the team was having trouble picking up the ball all night. John Schneider called this no-hitter “an outlier” and that last night was “just one of those nights”. Other hitters talked about the Ronel Blanco throwing more change ups than they were expecting. Congrats to Blanco by the way. This is a supposedly good lineup he no-hit.

The Blue Jays are not playing good enough now and their play is so similar to what we saw last year, there is nothing that makes me feel,. so far, like this season is going to be any different. When the manager says, "it’s an outlier” I’m thinking “brah, this is the most common version of the team we have seen this year.” I know y’all say you don’t look at the standings and maybe that is true because the rest of the AL East is scary or fighting for every game. I’m willing to give the players a pass for the early part of the season. The Jays, for the second year in a row have started the season on a long road trip. They’ve not been home from Spring Training and there are a lot of human factors that come with that kind of schedule. I feel for them. But the manager needs to set the message and the message is “this isn’t good enough”.

Manager for a Day

“This was a tough one. We faced a pitcher who brought a new pitch, and it threw off a lot of our hitters. That’s on me and the staff for not being prepared. We know to look for it next time. The start of the season has been tough, and we need to meet the challenge. We’ve not been home yet and that takes its own toll on the players and their families. That said, we are professionals and the kind of performance we’ve shown at the plate can not be our brand of baseball. We' talked to you all in the media of how we are approaching the plate this year and to have 3 duds, including a no-hitter thrown against us is unacceptable. I’m proud of the pitching staff and I like the flashes we’ve seen from the offense when they get rolling. But we’re playing 500 baseball right now and 500 baseball sends us home after game 162. It’s a long season and I trust in the process. So do the players. You see the frustration on their faces and we’re going to have to string some wins together.”

I don’t have the solution. Baseball gives and takes but the answers being provided by the real manager feel like they have willful blinders on while the fans are sitting here thinking about how familiar this brand of baseball looks and how poorly it previously performed in the post-season and now, it’s performing poorly in the regular season.

Any fan who watched the entire game gets player of the day.

Season (2-3) Player of the Game: George Springer (2) Apparently, two base on balls gives you a positive game score.

Season PotG: WINS: Biggio (1), Turner (1) LOSSES: Springer (1), Varsho (1)

The Rest of the East

Tampa Bay (2-3) - The Rays didn’t have a great night either. They got some hits and runs at least but the Rangers got 6 earned runs off the Rays starter and never looked back.

Baltimore (3-1)- 6 runs scored on 9 hits and 1 walk. The offense is scary, and the bullpen gave up just over a hit an inning, one walk and 1 run; giving the offense enough time to get the runs scored they needed to get the win. The Jays need to wake tf up if they want any chance to be in this division race.

New York (5-0) - Got another win on the road against a team that is playing well. Another game where the big bats did nothing for the offense, but the rest of the lineup drove in the runs. Scary team, when do they play the Orioles.

Boston (3-2) - Pitching kept the Oakland bats quiet and the bats were efficient with 7 runs on 9 hits and 7 walks. I’ve still not seen enough from this team to have a strong opinion, but they are playing better than the Jays.