Blue Jays Steal One in Houston

Aug 25, 2013; Houston, TX, USA; Toronto Blue Jays starter Mark Buehrle (56) delivers a pitch against the Houston Astros in the first inning of a baseball game at the Minute Maid Park. Mandatory Credit: Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports

Which is the bigger accomplishment?  Ending the 7 game losing streak the Blue Jays have been on?  Or is it that the Jays avoided a second consecutive sweep?  Or is it that the Jays avoided a second consecutive sweep, with the latest coming against Major League Baseball’s resident doormat that is the Houston Astros?

There are no excuses for the Blue Jays.  How they have managed to turn the Astros pitching staff from guys barely deserving of AAA roster spots to perennial MLB All Stars is beyond my understanding, Jays injuries aside!  The 3 pitchers Houston rolled out for Toronto this weekend?  Jordan Lyles, Brad Peacock, and Dallas Keuchel.  These 3, COMBINED, are 14-17 with only Lyles being a full time starter!  How screwed up are the Astros?  Lyles, on their team website depth chart isn’t even in the starting rotation, but is the best among the 3 pitchers faced this weekend by Toronto.  The “Big 3” of Houston have a collective ERA of 5.25, WHIP of 1.51, and are ALL NEGATIVE WAR PITCHERS!

Again, against an injury depleted Toronto Blue Jays roster, the same Astros “Big 3” this weekend went a combined 2-0 with 20 IP (that’s about 7 IP per pitcher) allowing 8 ER (Keuchel mostly being responsible after blanking the Jays today for 7 innings) on 20 H and 6 BB!  That’s not exactly stellar pitching, but with Todd Redmond and Chien-Ming Wang bombing in their starts, it was good enough for Houston to roll Toronto the first 2 games of this series.  Then Mark Buehrle gets left with the task of stopping the losing streak and avoiding a sweep at the hands of the Corpus Christi Astros.  He pitches a gem of a ball game going 8 innings, allowing 1 run, and Keuchel matches him inning for inning!  It took another Bo Porter bullpen management blunder for Toronto to escape with a 2-1 victory today.  That leaves Toronto 2-8 to wrap up this road trip.

Celebrate?  How?  The Blue Jays AVOIDED A SWEEP AGAINST THE HOUSTON ASTROS!  That also means Toronto LOST a series to the Houston Astros!  Losing a series to the 2013 Astros is like Michael Jordan losing to me in 1-on-1 basketball!  It should NEVER happen!  But again, with Murphy’s Law in effect for Toronto Blue Jays’ baseball, crap like this apparently is going to happen.  Does ANYBODY think this team can win next season?