Debby Wong-USA TODAY Sports
The much improved Toronto Blue Jays still don’t look very improved. They are seven games out of first already and continue to struggle to win games. Even with the return of Brett Lawrie, they can’t seem to get and hold a lead in order to win games. When something like this keeps happening, in this case losing, it makes you wonder what is going wrong. I looked a tad closer and it seems the culprit could be the starting pitching.
Okay, I’ll go a step further and say that the starting pitching is a huge problem for the Blue Jays. Their relief staff, though worked a little too hard in the first month of the season, is doing a decent job. The latest ERA number on the pen has them ranked 12th in MLB with a 2.98 mark. That isn’t the best but certainly is not bad. The starters are an entirely different story.
As a group their ERA is 5.34 which is only good enough for 26th rank in MLB. The offense of the Blue Jays is getting better seemingly all the time. Simply put, it doesn’t matter how many runs they score if the starters continue to give up more. They will continue to lose if their pitching continues to give up more runs than the other guys. Call that Baseball – 101 I guess.
They are going to have to get better as a starting staff. If they do not then the offense will start to press and slump. If that isn’t enough, the relief staff will eventually wear down more and their work will begin to suffer more than it already does. There is one main thing the Blue Jays can do to expedite this season turnaround: Get better starts from starting pitching. That’s it. Until they do they will continue to struggle.
David Miller is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @davidmillerrant, “Like” him on Facebook or add him to your network on Google+.
