CHICAGO -- Welcome to Act Two of the Blue Jays’ season, where the roles have all reversed.
Toronto is hitting, which wasn’t often the case in the early days of 2022, but that’s been balanced by a troubling stretch of starting pitching, which was originally this club’s strength.
Monday night's 8-7 loss to the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field only continued that trend, as José Berríos allowed six runs over four innings and gave up three home runs. Berríos wasn’t locating his breaking ball and wasn’t missing bats. So after an encouraging run to open June, the right-hander is back to the inconsistencies that surprisingly followed him through April and May.
These ups and downs came out of nowhere for Berríos. It’s difficult to say that about any pitcher, but Berríos has been among MLB’s most consistent, predictable players for five years. It’s why the Blue Jays gave him a seven-year, $131 million extension in November and slept comfortably the next night.
“He was missing arm side,” Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo said. “All of his breaking pitches were in the heart of the zone, and he paid the price for it. His fastball was good, but his breaking pitches were not. They were not really good.”
There are so many moving parts involved with in-game corrections that they can sometimes lead to overcorrections. This is something that Berríos will need to find a solution for between starts, with the hope that he's one tinker away from better results.
“We tried,” Berríos said. “We talked about it and [pitching coach] Pete [Walker] explained it to me inning by inning, and I was trying to make that adjustment. But I wasn’t able to finish and get those pitches down.”
Berríos will surely correct himself again -- as will Toronto's other starters -- but that will need to come soon. Looking back at this past turn through the rotation, too many short outings left the Blue Jays and their bullpen fighting an uphill battle:
Thursday: Kevin Gausman -- 5 ER in 2 1/3 IP
Friday: Ross Stripling -- 2 ER in 3 2/3 IP
Saturday: Alek Manoah -- 4 ER in 5 1/3 IP
Sunday: Yusei Kikuchi -- 3 ER in 4 IP
Monday: José Berríos -- 6 ER in 4 IP
Total: 20 ER in 19 1/3 IP
The short version? Over the past five games, Toronto's starters averaged just less than four innings with a 9.31 ERA.
There’s some necessary context here, mainly that the Blue Jays were playing the MLB-best Yankees for three of those games. You could line up a trio of Hall of Fame pitchers against New York right now and they still might struggle. Nevertheless, that’s the caliber of team Toronto could be facing come October.
Nothing exists in a vacuum, of course. This spills over to the Blue Jays’ bullpen, which is where this problem begins to compound itself.
Toronto was already in a difficult spot after left-hander Hyun Jin Ryu was lost for the season to Tommy John surgery. With Stripling moving from the bullpen to the rotation -- something he’s again done with admirable ease -- the Blue Jays' middle relief took a hit. Trent Thornton, Jeremy Beasley, Casey Lawrence and Max Castillo have all rotated through a “bulk” role, but none with the consistency of Stripling.
Trevor Richards was typically one of the first relievers out of the bullpen, but his ERA ballooned to 6.59 prior to recently going on the injured list with a neck strain. The back-end group has been stronger, led by Canadian closer Jordan Romano, but getting the ball from the starter to that group hasn’t been easy.
A solution, of course, is giving the middle man a day off.
“It’s all about the starters and if they go deep or not,” Montoyo said. “If they don’t go deep, it’s tough to cover five innings of baseball against good teams. It’s all about the starters. If the starters go deep, it’s easy to cover a game. If they don’t, it’s tougher.”
There should come a day -- whether it’s next week or next month -- when this rotation is clicking from top to bottom, or at least one through four. It will be asked to pick up an offense that’s gone quiet again for a stretch, because that’s just how a 162-game season works. Until then, there’s a sense of urgency. Not panic, but urgency.
The talent is undeniably there, and this Toronto lineup is capable of digging out of the largest holes, like we saw with Sunday’s five-run comeback in a win over the Yankees. But everything gets easier when the roster shares the load instead of leaning on one group.