TORONTO – Moments after unleashing a fourth straight ball to DJ LeMahieu — each a sinker low, away and not even close — Rafael Dolis slinked off the mound, looked up to the sky, flipped the ball from his glove to his hand and bowed his head as he skulked around.
Immediately manager Charlie Montoyo popped up from the dugout, signalled for time to home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor with an exasperated exhale and went to check on the big right-hander. After a very short chat, Dolis headed toward the dugout alongside head trainer Jose Ministral, the latest setback for a beleaguered bullpen that can’t afford to take any more hits.
That the sequence came two batters after another terrific Ross Stripling outing was marred by Gary Sanchez’s pinch-hit, two-run homer in the seventh inning of Wednesday night’s 3-2 loss to the New York Yankees, underlined how the margins keep thinning for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Solo homers by Marcus Semien in the first and Cavan Biggio in the fifth had carved out a 2-1 lead against Gerrit Cole. Stripling, shoving after allowing an unearned run in the first on Giancarlo Stanton’s sacrifice fly, was only at 85 pitches through six, setting him to leave only six outs for the bullpen. The game, once again, was tight but in their control.
Then in a flash it wasn’t, and hours after Carl Edwards Jr., made it seven relievers on the injured list – even as Patrick Murphy was activated off the 60-day IL to take his place on the roster, and Travis Bergen was activated and optioned to triple-A Buffalo – Dolis looks set to make it eight.
Adding to the frustration, the Blue Jays squandered an opportunity to walk off the Yankees in the ninth after Vladimir Guerrero Jr., opened the inning with a single and Teoscar Hernandez followed with a double off Aroldis Chapman. But Randal Grichuk struck out, Guerrero was thrown out after breaking from third on Santiago Espinal’s comebacker to the mound and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., flew out.
Adding insult to injury, Gurriel swung through a first-pitch fastball that went off Bucknor’s mask and was called foul, even through it appeared there was no contact. Hernandez would have scored the tying run if not for the foul call.
Tough times.
Even with his inconsistencies, any sort of Dolis absence will only further complicate Montoyo’s life in leverage, with his reliable options limited as it is. Trent Thornton delivered four solid outs after taking over from Dolis while Murphy looked sharp with his high-90s heat in the ninth, but the Blue Jays still need to establish a group of arms who can put out fires consistently.
Stripling paid for a fat fastball he left in the happy zone to Sanchez, and he deserved a better outcome.
What he’s done since being shaken by a Boston Red Sox beatdown on May 19 isn’t easy, realizing he was tipping pitches and making a mechanical fix that also helped the timing in his delivery. He’s been very effective in the five outings since, including 6.2 strong innings on Wednesday.
Stripling’s undoing started when Miguel Andujar caught a good slider off the end of the bat, and it rolled just fair past first base for a leadoff single. After Rougned Odor struck out, a borderline 1-0 fastball was called a ball and three pitches later, it was 3-2 Yankees.
Even with the homer, he stayed right there with Cole, allowing only three runs, two earned, on three hits and two walks with nine strikeouts.
