WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS
Jays strike out in series finale at soggy, foggy Fenway
Blue Jays Brett Anderson and Marco Estrada look on during the ninth inning of Wednesday night’s 6-1 loss to the Red Sox, who took two of three in the series after the visitors cruised in the opener. No need for the closer on this night.
BOSTON— Roberto Osuna remains the man the Blue Jays want on the mound in the ninth inning.
The 22-year-old closer blew a save for the10th time this season on Tuesday night, coming into Toronto’s marathon 19-inning loss to the Boston Red Sox up 2-0 in the ninth and giving up a pair of runs to send the game into hours of free baseball that ended in disappointment at the sixhour mark.
It marked the second time in five games that Osuna had coughed up a lead — he also gave up a game-tying solo homer to Baltimore’s Welington Castillo in the bottom of the ninth over the weekend. Toronto would go on to lose that game as well, 5-4 in 13 innings.
And Osuna, who has blown seven chances since the all-star break, is No. 3 on the franchise list for blown chances in a single season.
But that doesn’t mean the Jays have lost confidence in their closer.
Pitching coach Pete Walker said it remains the consensus within the clubhouse that Osuna is the guy to get the ball with the game on the line.
“It’s just been an unfortunate run right now, but his velocity seems to be creeping back to where it was earlier. It’s just a matter of him executing pitches and continuing to believe in himself,” Walker said on Wednesday, echoing comments by acting manager DeMarlo Hale and starter Marco Estrada after Tuesday’s loss. Osuna was down after a tough night, Walker said. The coach picked him up by reminding him of how important he’s been to the team’s success in the recent past.
“In baseball you deal with adversity, you have some bumps in the road and he’s had his share, too,” Walker said. “It’s to be expected in this game. Nobody has a clear run through their major-league career, so for him right now it’s learning from it, not getting down, finding a way to battle and persevere, and he’ll do that.”
The closer struggled mentally over the course of this year, suffering from anxiety that forced him to miss games midway through the season. But catcher Luke Maile, who has caught Osuna more often than anyone except Russell Martin this year, said it’s the closer’s mentality that guarantees he will bounce back.
“He’s a competitor. He believes in himself,” he said.
Maile, who was behind the plate for both blown saves on this road trip, sees Osuna lacking command compared to earlier in the season: “He’s not . . . losing to a guy he should beat on his third pitch. He’s getting beat by guys that are pretty good hitters, and he’s missing a little bit and they’re not missing the pitch.”
Walker agreed that getting Osuna back on track is a matter of executing pitches, which is what the pitcher himself blamed for Sunday’s blown save. He left a cutter up too high over the plate for Castillo.
“Early in the season when he was rolling, he was sticking that fastball and locating his breaking stuff,” Walker said. “He’s got burned a few times, basically missing location, not executing what he wants to do.”
GM Ross Atkins told Sportsnet earlier in the day that the Blue Jays were not going to adjust Osuna’s role, but said the club might look at limiting the number of back-to-back appearances he makes. Osuna, who has 35 saves this year, has appeared in backto-back games 17 times, and three straight on three occasions.
“We’ve seen him in critical situations,” said Hale. “We all go through some struggles sometimes and (with) his strong character, his maturity, I think he’ll be fine.”