If there's one thing grumpy Blue Jays fans and Toronto manager John Gibbons can agree on, it's that the team has hit rock bottom.
Those were Gibbons' own words on Friday night after a club many thought would be competitive right out of the gate blew another lead and lost 8-4 to the Kansas City Royals.
That made it five losses in a row, eight of the last 10, a 10-14 record and a growing feeling of despair among those who root, root, root for Canada's only home team, no matter how poorly it's playing.
Saturday night, it will be starter Shaun Marcum's turn to find something, anything, that can turn this pig's ear of a start into something like a silk purse in Game 2 of a three-game series in Kansas City against the Royals (8 p.m. ET).
He's 2-1 on the year with a 3.42 earned run average, but is also coming off of his worst outing of the season (five runs, five hits, five-plus innings in a loss to Detroit).
On the other hand, Marcum is a career 2-0 with minuscule 0.48 ERA against the Royals, who happen to have been his hometown team growing up.
Going the other way is Luke Hochevar (0-1, 11.57 ERA), so a win should be within reach. Statistically speaking, of course.
Friday's goat was shortstop David Eckstein, who dropped a peg from pitcher A.J. Burnett in the eighth inning that should have started a double play but instead allowed the tying run to score in what was eventually an 8-4 loss.
He's not the only one. Star hurler Roy Halladay blew a lead earlier this week, and how often does that happen?
The middle relievers, for example, aren't holding leads; the stopper, B.J. Ryan, can only go every other night because he's still rehabbing from injury; and his understudy, Jeremy Accardo, is not nearly the man he was a year ago.
The return of third baseman Scott Rolen, out since training camp with a broken finger, provided an offensive spark as he doubled home two runs in the top of the eighth to give Toronto a 4-2 lead.
But holding them is a problem.
Gibbons, who has been taking heat the last few years for leaving starters in too long, is hearing it again, as on Friday when he stayed with A.J. Burnett in the bottom of the eighth for the first four hitters. That resulted in an out before the next three batters reached base.
There's also questions around about the handling of the defence, such as why was the offensively exciting but defensively average Eckstein still at short in the eighth instead of John McDonald, who can barely hit his weight but is untouched with the glove?
Or how about the other night in Orlando when he had three catchers in the starting lineup (Greg Zaun behind the plate, Rod Barajas at first and rookie Robinson Diaz as designated hitter), leaving little option in the eighth inning when a pinch hitter was called for in Barajas's spot.
Still, the manager can't hit for this crew, he can only watch as his club drops about 60 points from this time last year in hitting with runners in scoring position.
Not that you should need a lot of runs to beat the Royals, who came into Friday last in the majors in runs scored (70) and tied for the bottom in home runs (11). They had also lost seven in a row and been outscored 58-18 during that stretch.
Then along came the Blue Jays.
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Contact Us About Us HomeThursday, September 2nd, 2010