Blue Jays: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly against the Astros

The Blue Jays wrapped up their weekend series with the Houston Astros on Sunday taking the loss in the game and the series.  The club did not get much for pitching or hitting during the series, and here is a look at the Good, the Bad and the Ugly.

The Good
Ross Stripling has gone from looking like his time in Toronto was coming to an end, to maybe becoming a dependable arm.  Stripling started the game on Saturday and while he had a bit of trouble in the third and fourth innings he was able to get through them allowing just one run.

Stripling got some help to get out of one of those innings thanks to Lourdes Gurriel Jr. who threw out Myles Straw at the plate in the third inning.  Stripling was lifted after the fifth inning and finished with a pitching line of 5 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 1 BB and 4 K.  Over his previous three games, Stripling has surrendered just two runs over 17 innings (1.06 ERA) while striking out 14 and has picked up wins in consecutive games.

Cavan Biggio went out for his first rehab start on Sunday where he hit a home run in his first at bat, but until he comes back Joe Panik and Santiago Espinal are battling for the back-up infielder position.  Panik’s bat has looked good as of late and during the series he went 4 for 11 which included a double and a three-run home run.  Panik has already equaled his extra base total from last season with seven in nearly 80 less at bats

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The Bad
The starting pitching was not good in Friday and Saturday’s games at all.  Both Hyun Jin Ryu and Steven Matz were in trouble almost every inning during the series and combined to allow 11 runs (10 earned) over just 10 innings of work.  Ryu’s start on Friday marked the highest amount of runs, walks and home runs he has surrendered in one single outing this year.  Matz also had his highest walk total in a game this season by giving up four free passes in just 4.1 innings pitched.

Over the last few years it has appeared Rowdy Tellez has not had full support of management, and is running out of time to be able to showcase his talents with positional players looking to return shortly.  Tellez had a rough weekend as he went 0-7 with three strikeouts as well as making an error that led to a costly run on Sunday.  Montoyo has not seemed to have confident in the big lefty bat over his tenure in Toronto and had dropped Tellez down to eight in the batting line-up.

The Ugly
For the start of the season, I kept praising the signing of Tyler Chatwood because he looked absolutely dominant, but things have not been going well for him of late.  Chatwood came into the game on Friday night with the team down 8-1 and surrendered five consecutive hits to start to start the inning, which was capped off by a three-run homer to Carlos Correa.  After giving up a single to the sixth batter he faced, he was pulled without registering an out.  In his most recent five outings Chatwood has a line of 3.2 IP, 9 H,11 ER, 9 BB, 1 K.

The Blue Jays will have their third day off in the last eight days on Monday before heading to Chicago on Tuesday to the play the White Sox.