Toronto Blue Jays The Week That Was: May 27 – June 2

June 2, 2013; San Diego, CA, USA; Toronto Blue Jays second baseman

(16) is congratulated by outfielder

(left) after a solo home run during the 11th inning against the San Diego Padres at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Christopher Hanewinckel-USA TODAY Sports

Another week of interleague play gave us yet another sub .500 record for the Toronto Blue Jays against the Senior Circuit. After splitting a pair of two game sets against the Atlanta Braves, it seemed likely the Blue Jays would be able to pull off a winning week by beating up on the perilous Padres of San Diego, but in typical 2013 Blue Jays fashion they managed to pull off a pair of one run losses before salvaging the series with a win on Sunday.

While the Blue Jays playoff hopes is now a distant flicker, only visible if you’re really looking, I haven’t yet given up hope. We are fast approaching the return of Jose F’n Reyes, whom if you’ve forgotten is the superstar shortstop who plays for the Blue Jays, in Toronto, for real! I have hope that Reyes  can provide this team with some sort of emotional spark  ridiculous levels of baseball skill that will propel them back into the chase. While this probably isn’t likely, it’s still fun to dream about, so live a little.

GBOAT

I didn’t understand why he was signed. I wore a smug smile that told the world (okay maybe no one really cared) “I told you so” when Brett Lawrie was hurt and he was thrust into an everyday role that was never intended for him. So when Mark Derosa goes out and has himself a pretty solid week (and an admittedly better than expected season thus far) I have no problem taking a big slice of humble pie. Derosa managed to hit .429 on the week with 3 extra base hits in his 14 plate appearances. He continued his luck aided ability to rack up RBI totals. Derosa has even looked pretty not terrible while manning second base (not something we can say about his defensive prowess over at third, but beggars can’t be choosers).

Special shout out to the Blue Jays bullpen. I very nearly changed the rules and gave this week’s award to the entire crew (my blog post my rules). In the series against San Diego the ‘pen pitched 22 2/3 innings, allowing just 1 ER, 10 H, 8 BB, while striking out 10. For those of you that need it spelt out for you, that’s kinda pretty awesome.

Omar Vizquel Award for Ineptitude

One run games. They were the life blood of those damned Orioles of 2012, whom seemingly could do no wrong when a game was tight and managed a ridiculous 29-9 record when the margin of victory was only 1. The Blue Jays managed to lose 3 such games this week. Over the course of 7 games, the Blue Jays lost 1/3 as many 1 run games as the Baltimore Orioles did in all of 2013. What does this have to do with anything you ask? Well I’ve decided that in a week when the Blue Jays only lost 4 games, and three of those were of the 1 run variety, that no Blue Jays player should be shamed. Instead I’ve decided to change the rules (like I said earlier I can do what I want), for this week it’s Lady Luck that is being bestowed with this honour, for she is a cruel and unrelenting maiden.

Haven’t we sports fans in Toronto suffered enough? The Maple Leafs have been terrible,  the Blue Jays probably worst, the Raptors are an embarrassment, and the Toronto Argonauts won the Grey Cup, allowing people to make jokes about how Toronto can only win in sports no one cares about (sorry CFL but…not really). The least Lady Luck could do for us is allow the Blue Jays to have maybe a slightly above average record in one run games!?!? You could’ve given us some OriLOLes magic just for one season? Couldn’t we have been given a playoff run based largely upon luck, magic, smoke and mirrors? I would have gladly seen the Jays crash back into reality aboard the regression train in 2014.

Wrap-Up

The Blue Jays have just 5 games on the schedule for this week, getting off days on both Monday and Thursday. They face the defending World Series Champion San Francisco Giants, followed by return home to face “potential suitors” of EE and Jose Bautista in the Texas Rangers. Needless to say, as has been said almost every week since mid-April, the Blue Jays need to turn it around and string together some wins. Whether or not they can do this facing a couple of rather above average teams, is yet to be seen.