Ok so been a couple of days since the last post but here some changes in the Blue Jays, Cardinals and Orioles have been seen in the last few games. First off the Jays have been on a up and down this past 3-4 games, some games they demolish the competition, some they don't score all that much and then just like Tuesdays game they do a little of both. Of course what I'm talking about is hidden by what you see in the box score and that is that despite the large number of runs scored in that outing the overall offensive performance was almost lacklustre. Now why is that? It's because despite hitting 12 times, we were still 4 for 12 with runners in scoring position and Bautista and Encarnacion both made throwing errors that cost a run each, so if those didn't happen we likely would have won the game. As for Mondays game the same was pretty much true, the only difference was that Buerhle pitched a better game than Morrow did and the Braves were held to 3 runs over the entire game. What this tells me is that at the least Buerhle is back in game mode especially because Atlanta has one of the most offense heavy teams and unless your a power/strikeout pitcher it's harder to get through their hitters. Basically we need an improvement in pitchers, though like I previously said we have a series of pitchers coming off the DL from last year soon so I expect that to come soon.
Then theres the Cardinals, who haven't had anything out of the ordinary going on, nothing out of the ordinary going on with the team, their pitchers both starting, bullpen and closer are dominating the hitters they face. As well their hitters are getting a good read on the ball and putting it in play and are still holding onto the lead in the entire MLB and ever since they lost Tony LaRussa and Albert Pujols I have a new found respect for them because they still manage to dominate and make getting into the playoffs seem effortless, no matter what they have coming against them they almost always seem to pull through.
Finally, the Orioles. Like the Blue Jays, they've been up and down in recent games. They barely lost a game against the Jays on Sunday, they beat the Nationals into the ground on Monday and then on Tuesday pulled the reverse of Mondays outcome. Now there isn't much to say about the first two games as they were well played, no real issues on defence or offence but Tuesdays game was pretty ugly. Not only did they only get 3 runs on the board and only 6 runners in scoring position against a sub-par starting pitcher (Nathan Karns) but their new call up, Kevin Gausman, gave up 7 runs with no strikeouts and 1 walk. All in all it seemed like Gausman left the pitches hanging over the plate where the Nationals hitters could just cream it, hence the 3 home runs. Though I don't think this effects Gausman too much since he's currently replacing Wei Yin Chen, and considering the state of the rotation of the Orioles he still has more chances to prove if he can hold a spot so keep watching Kevin Gausman, I'm sure he'll find his groove.
-Eric
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