Toronto Blue Jays Thoughts, April 24th Edition: Offense Can’t Back Hard Luck Henderson Alvarez

Published: 25^th Apr 12 2:53 am

Thom Tsang
thomastsang

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I gotta tell ya, it’s getting increasingly harder to make fun of the Baltimore Orioles, especially when the Blue Jays just keep losing to them. Coming off an impressive 4-game sweep of the Royals, the bluebirds took their win streak to Camden Yards, and ended the night with it snapped, and an offense that was stymied by a pitcher who really shouldn’t have. I mean, when people talk about the AL East being the toughest in baseball, they generally aren’t referring to the O’s, but anyway…

- Not that you could ever blame an individual for a loss in a team sport, but if you could have a guy to not blame for tonight’s 2-1 loss, it’s pitcher Henderson Alvarez. The groundballer had his stuff working through a strong 7 innings, allowing 2 runs just 5 hits and a pair of walks. Unfortunately, it was the long ball that once again hurt the young hurler tonight, with Matt Wieters’ 6th (!) home run of the season – a solo shot – being the difference. He’s now given up at least a home run in each of his starts, which I would say is a concern, despite solid peripherals otherwise. Alvarez has no problems generating ground balls, that much we know; but without a pitch that’s going to get a swinging strike once in a while (his SwStr % is down to 5.1% for the year), the home run tendencies are going to end up hurting him more often than not. Not that I mean to turn this into a negative point about Alvarez tonight, though – he pitched well enough to win in Baltimore today.

- O’s starter Tommy Hunter came in with a 5.79 ERA over his first 3 starts, and left the game having shaved more than a full point off that number after 6 innings of 1 run ball. He didn’t exactly have his best stuff either, as far as I could tell, he was having trouble keeping the ball down, delivering meatball after meatball to the Blue Jays offense, who couldn’t hit if their lives depended on it tonight. Our 3-5 hitters were a combined 0-13, and Jeff Mathis got on base more times (1) than Escobar, Bautista, and Encarnacion combined. Yes, it was that kind of ball game.

- The guy that did hit, though, really needed it: Eric Thames got his first big fly of 2012 today, rocking a pitch to deep right off Hunter tied the game at 1 in the 3rd. Thames has been off to a slow start, and though my support for Snider isn’t exactly a secret, it’s still nice to see Thames finally hit a ball out of the infield. The defense, though, still needs some work: Thames wound up initially misplaying the route on Wieters’ home run ball, and was unable to make a catch that instead saw the ball bounce off his glove and into the stands. It was a tough play (but not an impossible one), and I’d expect that if Thames had more of a solid track record with the glove, he might get a bit more slack on it. The HR wasn’t the reason for the loss, and to be fair, Thames was the only person who really contributed what little offense the team had today…so maybe we’ll just call it even this time.

- The Orioles were without their closer, Jim Johnson (illness), and we still didn’t get a Kevin Gregg appearance? Come on, help us out a little here.

- So…Jose Bautista was 0-4 again today. He’s just hitting .200 with 60 AB in the season. Just because I wouldn’t be worried about it until he gets to around AB #200, doesn’t mean his progress isn’t going to be tracked, you know? If you’re a glass-half-full kinda fan, you could say that Bautista is at least still in line for a 76-29-86-10 season with a .359 OBP. I don’t even want to think about it from the glass-half-empty side, to be honest.

- John Farrell said earlier today that Edwin Encarnacion had officially supplanted Lind in the 4-hole, which leaves me wondering how much further the former 3.7 WAR player will fall in the Blue Jays lineup before he picks himself back up. Remember how close Edwin Encarnacion was to being DFA’d around this time last season? How quickly fortunes can change for players.

The Blue Jays will look to emerge from a 4-way tie for first in the AL East tomorrow, and hopefully record their 2nd victory over the O’s in 5 games this year. Kyle Drabek will look to right the ship against Jason Hammel, after walking a zillion batters his last time out.

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