So far this season, victories have been hard to come by for the Blue Jays if pitching hasn’t carried the day.
That simple equation held true yesterday afternoon, when an error helped lead to Shaun Marcum’s undoing and forced the home side to settle for a four-game series split with the Detroit Tigers after a lacklustre 5-1 loss.
The Blue Jays scored just 19 runs in a 2-4 homestand, during which their pitchers resembled the boy with his finger in the dyke trying to prevent a flood. The water finally broke through before a crowd of 25,287 on get-away day, before the team departed for a nine-game road trip.
“We haven’t been scoring a ton of runs but we still like our offence,” said manager John Gibbons. “(Scott) Rolen isn’t that far away, he’ll give us a boost. But you hit those spells, it’s just how it goes.”
Despite generating ample opportunities to ease the load on its pitching staff, their offence just couldn’t clutch up. They were an atrocious 7-for-56 (.125) hitting with runners in scoring position during the homestand after an 0-for-8 effort yesterday, and are now batting .224 in those situations for the season.
“We’ve got the capability to score runs every day, we’re just not getting that timely hitting and giving ourselves a chance,” said first baseman Lyle Overbay. “When we were going good we were executing, taking our walks, getting guys on, doing the little stuff to start those rallies.
“Right now we’re not.”
The Jays’ only run came in the ninth, when Gregg Zaun homered off Todd Jones with things already decided.
“We’re better than that,” said Gibbons. “We’ll get better than that.”
