TORONTO – Steven Matz could very easily have allowed a messy seven-hit, five-run, 41-pitch second inning to unravel even further, dumping seven-plus innings on the Toronto Blue Jays bullpen, and an anvil deficit on the offence. Instead, with the bases loaded and the game on the brink, he threw five straight sinkers to Rafael Devers, catching him looking at the final one to escape the jam with the score at 5-2 and a comeback still within reach.
From there, the left-hander delivered four scoreless innings, an effort that loomed large as the Blue Jays eventually rallied to take a lead. But Rafael Dolis couldn’t hold it in the ninth, as he surrendered a two-run homer to J.D. Martinez that gave the Boston Red Sox an 8-7 victory.
It was a gut-punch ending after a steely Blue Jays effort that cost them a series against the AL East front-runners, right before a four-game set against the visiting Tampa Bay Rays this weekend. And while a messy ninth spoiled things – “it was one bad pitch there at the end that Dolis hung … we were one out away from taking two out of three,” lamented manager Charlie Montoyo – the game was still instructive in the power of adjustments, both measured ones between outings and reactionary ones in the moment to get through the night.
Matz was front-and-centre in that regard after a seven-pitch first and two quick outs in the second suggested a good performance was coming. Then Christian Vazquez and Hunter Renfroe dunked a pair of singles before Bobby Dalbec flicked a curveball into the jet stream that carried the ball off the right-field foul pole.
That erased a 2-0 lead the Blue Jays had built in the first and things only got worse for Matz from there. Michael Chavis doubled. Kike Hernandez singled off Santiago Espinal’s glove at third and just past Marcus Semien at short. Two more base hits from Alex Verdugo and Martinez followed to make it 5-2 and after a Xander Bogaerts walk, Matz recovered to strikeout Devers.
“Looking back at that second inning, two pitches I'm really frustrated with are two curveballs to Vazquez and Dalbec,” he said. “Both those guys are good on in-zone spin and I just didn't bury those curveballs. Honestly, I wish I had both those back. Other than that, they had some good at-bats.”
Montoyo would have been well justified to pull Matz at that point, but with the bullpen thinned out after a short start from Ross Stripling on Wednesday and Anthony Kay slated to pitch Friday, he let him head back out.
“We didn't have enough to cover the nine innings. It's that easy,” Montoyo explained. “Credit to him that he regrouped and then he was lights out after that. We had (Joel) Payamps going a little bit, but we didn't have enough for the (remaining) seven innings. It's not easy to cover nine innings against a club like that. So Matz deserves a lot of credit after giving up all those runs and going six.”
Double-plays ended the third and fourth innings and he stranded a pair of runners in the fifth. That was pivotal when RBI singles by Teoscar Hernandez and Cavan Biggio tied things up in the bottom half, Matz followed with an eight-pitch sixth and the offence did its thing from there.
Impressive stuff.
"Pete (Walker, the pitching coach) just told me, 'Just keep us in the game and keep going,'” said Matz. “And that was my mentality at that point. Unfortunately, I wish I had a couple of those pitches back in the second. But now it becomes a new challenge to just keep the team close here. That was the mindset."
Matz, of course, opened the season with four straight solid outings, hit a brief rough patch in his next three starts before correcting against the Philadelphia Phillies last week.
The difference?
“When he's effective with that changeup, taking it from strike-to-ball, locating his fastball and curveball, it just seems like he's a different pitcher,” said Walker. “That's our focus.”
All 10 hits Matz surrendered Thursday were either off sinkers or curveballs, while his changeup produced two whiffs, four called strikes, six foul balls and four balls in play, all outs.
"Early especially, the changeup was really good and even moreso my cutter, really is what got me out of a few jams there, got the double plays with my cutter getting in on the righties," Matz said. "The cutter-changeup combo really is what I was able to get a lot of ground balls with and to find the changeup was huge for me, as well."
And by recovering after the second, he gave the Blue Jays a chance to optimize their bullpen for nine outs of leverage, with Tyler Chatwood and Jordan Romano delivering clean innings before the Dolis hiccup, which began with consecutive singles by Dalbec and Chavis to open the ninth.
A wild pitch that advanced both proved pivotal as Alex Verdugo’s one-out grounder led to a run instead of a possible game-ending double play, and Martinez followed by clubbing a slider over the wall in centre.
It was the second outing for Dolis since returning from the injured list. The Blue Jays had been 18-0 when leading after eight.
“Dolis just didn’t have it today,” Montoyo said.
Like they did with Matz, the Blue Jays will be working with Stripling on making adjustments this week after the Red Sox roughed him up Wednesday. Montoyo said the right-hander “right now” is still making his next scheduled start Monday and after Stripling said he was wondering if it was time to go back to the drawing board, Walker said he had “a couple of ideas.”
“I'm sure he does, too,” continued Walker. “There are a couple of things that I think we can do. I mean, I still look at some of the success he's had and what he's done with his delivery, with his present arsenal. There's been success. But obviously it's not consistent enough right now. So there are some things that we can certainly do, I think, to improve that. It's not a mechanical overhaul by any stretch. There is some pitch selection and ideas that can help command the ball a little bit better. But we're not going to reinvent the wheel with him.”
Asked to describe the process, Walker quipped, “I'm not going to give you all our secrets.”
But “there is a process and there are people that we'll talk to,” he added. “There's research from just about every avenue that we have here. But I'll get together with Strip and we'll discuss some things and we may seek some other information, if need be. But right now, I think it's a couple of simple things that we can adjust, not reinventing the wheel and trying to do too much, which confuses him more than anything else.”
Doing the work to find some gains for Stripling, the way the Blue Jays did for Matz, is crucial in season. While fans clamour for easy answers like an Alek Manoah promotion – “he absolutely is in that discussion” for a rotation spot, GM Ross Atkins said during an appearance on Sportsnet 590 The Fan, although last week Nick Allgeyer was in the discussion, so make of that what you will – teams must also sometimes ride things out with what they have, through the good and the bad.
https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiZ2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnNwb3J0c25ldC5jYS9tbGIvYXJ0aWNsZS9tYXR6LW92ZXJjb21lcy1yb2NreS1zdGFydC1ibHVlLWpheXMtcmFsbHktY29tZXMtc2hvcnQtdnMtcmVkLXNveC_SAWZodHRwczovL3d3dy5zcG9ydHNuZXQuY2EvbWxiL21hdHotb3ZlcmNvbWVzLXJvY2t5LXN0YXJ0LWJsdWUtamF5cy1yYWxseS1jb21lcy1zaG9ydC12cy1yZWQtc294L3NuLWFtcC8?oc=5
2021-05-21 03:50:00Z
52781604485429
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar