TORONTO – A close game flipped in the Astros’ favour Wednesday when Jeff Hoffman threw a pickoff attempt past third baseman Kazuma Okamoto in the top of the eighth inning.
Joey Loperfido jogged home as the ball skidded into foul territory along the left-field line at Rogers Centre and for the second day in a row the Blue Jays lost a close game late.
With that, Loperfido’s revenge series continued against his former team and the Blue Jays fell to 39-41 on the season with a frustrating 3-1 loss.
Starter Trey Yesavage kept the game close early, but the game unraveled in the eighth when Loperfido hit a triple that evaded Daulton Varsho and Hoffman made that ill-advised pickoff attempt, throwing the baseball to the shortstop side of Okamoto, who didn’t appear to be expecting it.
Of course a couple more home runs would have changed things, but the Blue Jays managed just one run on four hits against starter Mike Burrows and the Houston bullpen.
There are tip-your-cap games and there are didn’t-get-it-done games. This one was clearly in the latter category for the Blue Jays.
Entering play Wednesday, no qualified big-league starter had a higher ERA than Burrows at 5.79. Yet the Blue Jays managed just one run against the right-hander – a Nathan Lukes solo shot in the bottom of the first.
Otherwise, it was a quiet night for the lineup with George Springer and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. each having hitless nights. The Blue Jays had a chance to tie the game late, but Luis Urias got doubled off second on a Springer fly ball, ending the threat.
Facing the Astros for the first time ever, Yesavage completed 5.2 innings of one-run ball, but the command issues that he’s battled at times this season returned. Though Houston managed just two hits against Yesavage, he walked five, forcing himself to work out of trouble every inning but the second.
From a stuff standpoint, there were positives for Yesavage, who threw his slider more than any other pitch Wednesday. He generated 13 total swinging strikes on his way to five strikeouts, showing off his ability to miss bats.
Yet this marks the third time Yesavage has walked five or more in his last five starts, and that’s a trend the Blue Jays want to stop. Not only does it create the risk of a big inning for the opposition, it costs Yesavage valuable pitches and prevents him from pitching deeper into games.
Here on Wednesday, he threw a career-high 105 pitches before giving way to Tommy Nance with two outs in the sixth.
Next up, the 38-42 Rangers visit Toronto for four games and the Blue Jays’ season-long quest to climb above the .500 mark will continue.
