The past week for the Blue Jays wasn’t their best, but this season in a nutshell hasn’t been the best, or even good. With high expectations of the playoffs and a World Series birth almost completely gone, the Jays and many of their fans are just hoping for the team to finish over .500, which on some days looks a lot harder than it should be.
The beginning of the week was a three game series between the Blue Jays and LA Dodgers. The Jays would get massacred in the series losing all three games, 14-5, 10-9, 8-3. The second game was just depressing, as they were winning 8-3 at one point and then blew up in the late innings on route to a 10-9 loss. The final game looked to be a lock for the Jays in the top of the ninth leading 3-2, but they unfortunately blew that, then they would have five runs scored against them to end that depressing series. One of the biggest issues in some of those games was that for once it was the bullpen’s fault and not the starting pitching. However, the pen has been overworked all year, and now the team is paying the price for asking too much out of the relievers. Really the bullpen didn’t perform in the series, but its tough to blame them.
The next series would be a four game series against the worst team in baseball the Houston Astros. They would win the series three games to one, with the final scores looking like this; 4-0, 12-6, 6-8 loss and 2-1. The bullpen was given a much-needed rest in some of these games, especially with Mark Buehrle who pitched a gem the first game (complete game shutout). The series would end with some drama with Jose Bautista getting kicked out of the game arguing another call with the umpire. This ejection prompted many baseball reports and fans inside and outside Toronto to talk about the strike zone and whether or not the Jays had a much bigger strike zone than the average team in the league.
The Jays now start a road trip that commences in Oakland, then four games in Anaheim and finishing in Seattle. Maybe R.A. Dickey and Josh Johnson will play better away from Toronto for a bit, as both are looking for their first win in a long time. Hopefully with a rested bullpen, the Jays can get their stuff together and win more games while they are out west on the road.
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