How the Blue Jays can come back from a 2-0 deficit
TORONTO – Down two games to none with one run scored and a .159 average in the American League championship series, the Toronto Blue Jays don’t have a whole lot working in their favor.
However, if there’s a silver lining as they return home for Game 3 on Monday night, it’s that the Cleveland Indians haven’t been crushing the ball either.
A walk here, a bloop hit there and the outcome in either game could have been different. But the numbers tell a grim story: Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Troy Tulowitzki and Russell Martin – the lineup’s veteran core – are a combined 4-for-28.
A team that ranked fourth in the majors in home runs during the regular season hasn’t hit one in its last 27 innings this postseason.
Blue Jays manager John Gibbons is concerned, yes. But he’s not ready to push the panic button.
“I don't have a message for them. They played good baseball, both teams, really. It's been the same story, good pitching on both sides,” Gibbons said prior to Sunday’s off-day workout.
“But these guys, it's a veteran group, they know what they're doing. They'll show up to play tomorrow like it's a new day, like they always do.”
The Jays had dry spells like this during the regular season as well. Despite all their offensive firepower, they ranked ninth in scoring and OPS – after leading the majors in both categories in 2015 with essentially the same cast of characters.
“There’s times during the season, when as an offensive group we were searching for answers a little bit,” left fielder Michael Saunders said. “I think we put up such a historic offensive year the previous year that the expectations on the outside were set pretty high, and rightfully so.”
Things finally seemed to be looking up, starting in mid-September. And in advancing to the ALCS, the Jays scored 27 runs in their first four playoff games, an average of 6.75 per game.
But against the Indians, the bats have gone silent. Their hitters have four walks and 25 strikeouts – and some players have been visibly upset by some of the pitches that they’ve taken for strikes during the two games in Cleveland.
“That's our DNA, a lot of these guys were brought over here, a lot of sluggers in the lineup. But really, a lot of guys with great discipline. And that's in a lot of ways what has pushed them in the elite class,” Gibbons said. “But sometimes a pitcher makes a big pitch and that borderline pitch, sometimes you have to tip your hat to them.
Does that mean the Jays need to be a little more aggressive at the plate now that they’ve dug themselves a hole in this series?
“I don't think you start redoing everything you are because that's -- somebody mentioned the other day, if you're a three-point basketball shooting team in the NBA, you still have to fire them up, you have to, or you've got no chance to win,” Gibbons said.
The basketball analogy is interesting – if only because teams from these same two cities met in the semifinal round of the NBA playoffs with Cleveland jumping out to a 2-0 lead at home … and ultimately winning the series in six games.
With the ALCS shifting to Toronto, the Jays hope the home field advantage can give them a lift.
Perhaps even those borderline calls that went against them in Cleveland will go their way with the next three games at home.
Interestingly, Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis offered yet another cross-sport analogy after Game 2 when asked about what it’s like for visiting teams at Rogers Centre.
“Toronto is one of those places where, when they close that dome too, it gets especially loud there. It’s hockey fans – and I mean that in the best way because I’m a hockey fan too,” he said.
“That’s exactly what you want out of the fans. You want the rowdiness, you want almost that little feeling, that 1% feeling where I’m not sure I’m safe right here on the field. That’s what makes Toronto great, and those fans are amazing how loud they get … Intense.”
The Jays tied for the best home record in the league a year ago, when they reached the ALCS before falling to the eventual World Series champion Kansas City Royals.
Several players have said that experience can help them go a step further this season. Even though their 46-35 home record was only seventh-best in the league, they’re 2-0 at Rogers Centre in the playoffs – winning the wild-card game vs. Baltimore and the division series clincher against Texas.
“It's a loud crowd. It's a young crowd, and they get into it,” Gibbons said. “It would be nice to give them something to cheer about, that's for sure.”