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Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

Welcome to the Neno's Place!

Neno's Place Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality


Neno

I can be reached by phone or text 8am-7pm cst 972-768-9772 or, once joining the board I can be reached by a (PM) Private Message.

Established in 2006 as a Community of Reality

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    Blue Jays' ALCS loss feels different this time around

    jedi17
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    Blue Jays' ALCS loss feels different this time around Empty Blue Jays' ALCS loss feels different this time around

    Post by jedi17 Thu 20 Oct 2016, 6:39 pm

    Blue Jays' ALCS loss feels different this time around


    BY STEVE SIMMONS, TORONTO SUN



    When reality sinks in for the Blue Jays tomorrow, next week, maybe next month, this is going to hurt much more than it does today.
    This lost opportunity against the shorthanded Cleveland Indians.
    This isn’t like last year, when it was clear at the end of six games that the Kansas City Royals were the better team, the deeper team. The Royals took that series from the Blue Jays, went on to win the World Series.
    It didn’t feel like this.
    This time around in the American League Championship Series, there were really two storylines that matter today: 1) The incredible resilience of the Indians and their manager Terry Francona, with the constant availability of reliever Andrew Miller; 2) The complete lack of offensive performance by the Blue Jays.
    It’s one thing to lose to Corey Kluber. That happens. It’s another to be unable to deal with Miller. That happens.
    But to do undone by a kid pitcher nobody had ever heard of, to lose another game to Trevor Bauer’s bloody finger and the also-rans from the Cleveland bullpen who don’t get late inning exposure? That shouldn’t happen.

    The Jays offence in the series bordered on the pathetic. They struck out 50 times in five games.
    Russell Martin struck out nine times while hitting .118. Jose Bautista struck out seven times, hit .167 with no home runs, no RBI. Kevin Pillar hit .063, 1-for-16 in the ALCS. Troy Tulowitzki hit .111s, no homers, no RBI. Edwin Encarnacion didn’t hit a home run, had one extra base hit, hit .211 with an OPS of .513.
    Only Josh Donaldson and Michael Saunders had any kind of offensive numbers. They hit the two Jays home runs against the Indians. In the series, Cleveland out homered the Jays 6-2; the Indians were 10th in the American League in home runs this season.
    The Jays, third in home runs in the AL, hit 10 against Baltimore and Texas in four playoff games. They managed two in the ALCS.
    That tied the less famous Carlos Santana, who also hit two.
    If you want to be a championship team, you can’t score eight runs in five games. You just can’t do that and succeed. And if Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar had been there, you could say, yeah, then you’re losing to their best. But the Jays couldn’t hit Josh Tomlin, Dan Otero, Ryan Merritt, or Jeff Manship. Hardly the best of the Indians staff.
    The only area that Toronto performed to championship level was in the bullpen. Roberto Osuna pitched four innings and gave up nothing. Brett Cecil, Joe Biagini and Jason Grilli combined to pitch 8 2/3 innings, gave up two inherited runners and no earned runs. The maligned bullpen did the job.
    The starting pitching was fine, but not great. And that was supposed to be the Toronto advantage. Aaron Sanchez, in his only ALCS start, was superb. Marco Estrada had a very sharp Game 1 and less than sharp Game 5. The Cy Young candidate, J.A. Happ, didn’t look Cy Young-like in his start and Marcus Stroman won’t like the look of his one start on paper — a 6.75 earned run average.
    All this with the Indians hitting home runs and not much else. Cleveland had only 25 hits in the series. A year ago, the Royals had 59 hits.
    Jason Kipnis had one hit in the series. A home run. Coco Crisp had two hits in the series. One being a home run. Five different Indians hit home runs against the Jays. Not one of them hit as many homers during the season as Encarnacion or Donaldson. Not one of them has ever been in Bautista-land for career home runs.
    But they did it. The Jays couldn’t find it. The Indians hit just .168 as a team, with a .215 on-base percentage. This is a team you have to beat. With that kind of limited offence. If you keep the ball in the park. And this Jays team couldn’t do that.

    There were some terrific performances in the series: Donaldson for the Blue Jays; the post season coming out party of shortstop Francisco Lindor; Miller the destroyer; the versatility of Zeke Carrera; Saunders as the yeah-but designated hitter. He batted .429 but struck out seven times. The good and the bad.
    There was too much of that for the Jays, who were supposed to have the starting pitching advantage in Games 2-3-4-5. They led in only one of those games. They never came close to making a comeback.
    Now they live with this. With free agency coming. With management determining the route of the future. With so many unknowns.

    They live with this, knowing it was possible. Knowing they didn’t perform. The way Maple Leaf players of old still live with losing to Carolina 14 years ago. You never get over this. Unless you win something big.
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