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Josh Palacios pigeon, holding out his skin as his chest collided with the grass in the field.
The object Palacios was looking for – a ball – was not in his glove. Instead, it crept under his glove and rushed to the cavernous Comerica field. Corey Dickerson started the post, but Tigers field player Victor Reyes was already rounding off positions.
When the Blue Jays hit the ball, the running distance of the Detroit game slid across the home plate inside the park. One swing on the bat and one defensive error removed the fresh Toronto field and defense of the previous seven innings. Steven Matz’s last strong exit was lost to the Blue Jays, who made just one set and lost their seventh game in the last ten games.
“There’s no room for mistakes,” manager Charlie Montoyo said after the game.
During the fourth set, Matz stumbled from the hump when the ball hit the ankle. Untwisted, the left turned and bolted the bag. When Vlad Guerrero Jr. handed the ball and side-arm throw first, Matz found himself, grabbed the pass and hit a tag for Jonathan Schoop during the first set.
It was one of a couple of great defensive games that supported Matzi during his six innings. He shuffled the three fields, making a soft touch to his sinker and creating oscillations and changes (four incisions).
“The Fastball command and change are all,” Matz said. “Keep them in balance – speed them up, slow them down. I think I can keep building on it.”
Matz’s dove of change in the final second, two outflows in the fifth, creeps into Derek Hill’s bat to end the frame. With only 85 courses, the Toronto novice navigated six one-round ball turns and dropped his season ERA level to 3.81. During his last eight starts, Matz has lowered his ERA by almost a full point, allowing more than two well-earned runs only once and completing six innings three times.
But every frame of Matz responded to his opposition. In the four Tigers starters starting Friday night, Matt Manning allowed 30 combined hits and 16 runs. He had never hit his short MLB career more than four strokes a game and had never allowed one or more runs. On Friday, Manning did both.
The Toronto lineup flashed last night with a five-run difference against Chicago, but as the previous six-player ERA pitcher, they continued to fight. Despite an attack with baseball’s second-best OPS team, the Blue Jays have made the fifth-fewest runs in the past two weeks.
“I think it’s more of an attack by us than by other teams,” Montoyo said. “We’re not just swinging bats right now, everyone is struggling at the same time.”
Toronto had a chance to back up Matz early, but he ended up with eight to eight when the runners were scoring. The only teams in the American League to have the worst RISP OPS this month than the Blue Jays are the three worst teams in baseball: Kansas City, Texas, Baltimore.
It has become a familiar story, of late. The question mark that comes into the season – the starting scoring – has become a strength, and the core of the team – a deep and explosive lineup – has fallen into a collective recession.
“Everyone just has to keep their part,” Matz said, “and the tide turns.”
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