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Chapter 1: What were the highlights of the Blue Jays' loss to the Angels?
Well, Caitlin, a wonky end to the series here in Toronto. Jose Soriano carving the Jays' bats however which way he wanted after the first inning. He mostly cruised the finish line today. Eric Lauer giving up six earned runs in a bulk outing. The Jays lose the series finale 6-1-0. To the Angels, they fall to 18-22 on the season with a loss.
Though, I suppose a silver lining, they do win the series overall, which is a positive, though. Tough way to end things here in Toronto. And, of course, a tough series with the Rays looming large beginning tomorrow.
Yeah, tough way to end. You know, Blue Jays moms go home sad. All the moms that were here watching the game don't get a win.
At least you came to the right one yesterday.
Yeah, yeah. No, I was lucky. Yeah, my mom got to see a good win. But, yeah, no, tough because obviously the Blue Jays, they were looking for –
sweep at home they haven't had a sweep at home since that first opening series of the season where they defeated the A's and looked great and then obviously hit immediate skid to start the season and they look to be rolling here back home and and yeah they're not able to get the sweep but as you say silver lining is that they do get the win and hopefully they can take some momentum from that series win into a
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Chapter 2: How did Eric Lauer's performance impact the game?
tough series against the Rays you're hosting the Rays you want to put up a better showing at home at your ballpark than you did at the Trop which obviously we know historically has not been an easy place for the Blue Jays to play so you just hope that once the Rays hit the road a little bit come to Toronto you can kind of defend your own home turf so to speak
That is Caitlin McGrath. I'm Sho Ali. You're listening to Blue Jays Talk here on the Sportsnet Radio Network. We're also streaming on sportsnet.ca and on the Sportsnet app. You can give us a call, 416-870-0590, 1-888-666-0590, star 590 on your cell. You can text us as well, 590-590, name and location, a whole whack of text for us to get to. The people's text line is always open.
Standard messaging and data rates may apply. So I suppose two major stories for us to get to. today, Caitlin.
Chapter 3: What role did José Soriano play in shutting down the Jays' offense?
I think these are probably going to be what we spend the next, you know, 30, 40 minutes talking about, essentially. After 20 hits yesterday, only two today. Pardon me, it was two going into the game, the eighth inning, I guess, late. Five hits in the end, I should say. Jose Soriano absolutely cruising, like I said earlier.
I think he threw 25 pitches in the first inning and then barely threw half as many of that in each individual inning going forward. And two, has the Lauer power hour come to an end? I mean, things really unraveled for Lauer once he entered the game in the fifth. Lots of hard contact. Bunch of home runs, a pair of home runs to Joe Adele included in there.
Low velo, especially for him, all things considered. And I'll say this, a fair bit of boos from the Rogers Center faithful. So a lot for us to get to. Before we dive into the offense and what Jose Soriano did to them today, and I'm sure we'll get some texts on Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who we have to talk about a little bit, and get to Eric Lauer as well. Let's get to the player of the game.
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and counting I just mentioned someone who I think is a pretty good candidate for player of the game but you know I'll leave it up to you dealer's choice yeah I mean I think that it's going to go to someone on the Angels today just considering how the Blue Jays played but I think we have to give it to their starting pitcher Jose Soriano I mean he's been incredible this season um just a really really strong start to the year for him and against the Blue Jays he was
Exceptional again. Just allowed the one earned run. Went out there for the eighth.
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Chapter 4: Is Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s lack of power a concern for the Blue Jays?
Didn't quite make it through the eighth, but pitched seven innings and two-thirds. So just a really, really solid start. Seven strikeouts. He was really dealing at one point. I think he retired, what was it, 20 Blue Jays in a row. As you say, he kind of maybe a bit of a rocky first inning, and he really, really sorted things out as he came back out for the second and just cruised.
And he looked great. He's a guy that I've been really impressed with this season. And good for the Angels to have that because obviously it's not been an easy season for them and it's not been an easy few years for that team. So he's kind of a really bright spot for them early in the season.
Chapter 5: What does the future hold for Spencer Miles after his scoreless outing?
Yes, seven and two-thirds from Soriano. Gets the win, of course. Five hits, one run, which was in the first inning.
just the one walk seven strikeouts against a team that i mean doesn't really strike out all that much let's face it right so uh pretty great stuff from jose soriano today 103 pitches 69 strikes yeah his era is 166 on the season i'll say this i mean you know with the with tarik skubal going on the il the guy who's won the american league cy young for the last two straight seasons it's pretty much wide open right now for the cy young award now we're so super early in the season anything can happen
between now and the end of the year. And even Tarek Skubal can come back and dominate, but having missed so much time, I'm guessing that'll ding him a fair bit, even if he's a lead for the rest of the season, should he come back. But without looking it up around the rest of the American League, I gotta think Jose Soriano is probably leading most categories for American League starting pitchers.
He's probably up there. Maybe Cam Schlittler. I know he's had a pretty good season as well.
He's the other one.
Yeah. But these two guys probably going to be at or near the top of the leaderboards for most of the season, I'm going to guess.
Yeah. And the Blue Jays' Dylan Cease also having a really strong start to his season, too. So who knows what's going to happen with Scooble and Garrett Crochet as well. is another guy that is missing time or was on the aisle. So, yeah, it's early, but it's a wide-open race to some extent for the Cy Young in the American League. So we'll keep an eye on that, I suppose, as the season goes on.
Because, you know, it's been a while since the Blue Jays have had a guy in the running.
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Chapter 6: What are the potential replacements for Eric Lauer in the rotation?
Kevin Gossman, maybe a guy that... Cease is a good one, though. Yeah, I think Cease is the guy right now.
Yeah, two straight starts of seven innings. I mean, no walks the last time out. I think he either had one or no walks the previous game, too. So, yeah, pretty good stuff from Cease, who continues to be the strikeout machine, as promised. So, yeah, it's going to be a fun race for the American League Cy Young. I'm sure all of these guys are going to be a part of it.
Before we go to the phones, let's chat a little bit about Eric Lauer. So... Comes in for the fifth. Clean inning, right? I mean, we can talk about Nance and Miles as well, who I thought pitched very well. I'm very intrigued by Spencer Miles and what the future could hold for him. But we can get to that in a bit. Clean inning for Lauer in the fifth.
Comes in with, I think, the best possible landing spot with a left-handed batter in Nolan Shonwell. Walks Sean Wolfe. Tough for him to walk the lead. It's tough for anyone to walk the lead off batter in an inning, but especially that guy when it's the softest landing spot for you, the Jays I'm sure hoped for. And then I think doubly tough because Miles and Nance look great, all things considered.
And then he gives up the home run to Peraza, a cutter that just didn't cut right down the middle at 88 miles an hour. I mean, that was a BP meatball that Peraza did not miss. I mean, he destructified that thing. And you put it another way, right? Lauer threw six of his first seven pitches for balls, and then the eighth pitch was a two-run moonshot from Peraza. The Jays did everything.
everything they could to avoid having Lauer see this order a ton early on, and he still gave up a bomb less than 10 pitches in. I mean, he would give up a two-run double to Grisham as well after the hit to Netto and a walk to Trout, so I don't know what the future holds for Eric Lauer. I'll be completely honest with you, Caitlin, but...
I mean, could you be seeing the last few games in a Blue Jays uniform? I mean, the illness certainly is a factor, perhaps even still, but I think the further away you get from that, I think the less we can, whether it's you and I or the Blue Jays or anyone, really use that as like a sort of a crutch to defend his poor performance, unfortunately.
Yeah, it's as you say, like the way that the Blue Jays deployed Miles and then Nance, it feels like they mapped it out exactly to put Lauer in the most advantageous spot that they could. And even doing that doesn't work out for him, obviously gets into immediate trouble with the walk and then the home run. You know, Chris was talking about it on the broadcast.
That's what happens when you're not throwing strikes and when you're not attacking and when you're not hitting your spots. And when you're throwing a fastball that's 88, you really got to hit your spots. I mean, I was trying to think during the game, like, who was the last pitcher I saw that was throwing 88? It's not something you see anymore.
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Chapter 7: How do injuries affect the Blue Jays' lineup moving forward?
But I was thinking, Hyunjin Ryu came to mind. That's a guy that didn't throw hard, but he was like an artist when it came to hitting his spots.
Obviously, towards the end of his career with the Blue Jays, obviously, he was not as effective as when he first signed with them, but that was a guy that was like, okay, he could get away with throwing softer because he was really effective at hitting his spots, and he had a number of pitches and was kind of
that kind of command artist, but we weren't seeing that with Lauer, so he's not throwing as hard as he was last year. It's been a trouble spot for him. You talk about the flu. There's obviously been sort of immediate impacts with that flu that he had earlier in the season, but it seems like there's been some long-term effects of that as well, so it's not necessarily that he's still ill, but
uh you know losing some some body weight or losing some muscle things like that can happen um and we we do know that he was quite sick i mean i think he was probably the blue jay that got hit the hardest with that flu that um that made its way around their clubhouse so you don't want to necessarily make excuses for him because at the end of the day like you have to get it done this is obviously the highest level and you have to be able to execute and if you especially want to maintain your spot in the starting rotation that's something that the blue jays
are going to require of him. But as you say, like, what do you do from here? Well, unfortunately, the Voodoos don't have a lot of options because they are a little bit stuck with some of the other guys on the IL. Obviously, we heard earlier this week, Brios, there's some question marks in terms of when he'll be back or there's been some setbacks with his situation.
Bieber, I think, is still a few weeks away. And so you're not having that kind of there's no immediate hole to plug. Scherzer as well is seemingly working on the forearm, got a got a courtesan shot. I think earlier this week, but still it doesn't seem like there's an immediate fix, right? Other than like trying to figure out what to do with Lauer.
Can you, I don't know, can you spend the next few days before the next time he's due up in the rotation to find some quick fixes?
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Chapter 8: What are the upcoming challenges for the Blue Jays in their next series?
Yeah, I don't know if that's going to be eminently possible, right? I mean, lots of text on Lauer here for us to read. I mean, this is from Forbes in Toronto. From his first pitch, it was apparent Lauer didn't have it today. Other than his first start, he hasn't had it all season. Why do they keep running this guy out there? Last year was last year.
I'm not sure how Lauer is all that different from Little. He's not contributing as a liability every time he's on the mound. This one's from Mike in Victoria. So much for that experiment. Lauer, three runs in the first inning. His starter, four runs in the first inning.
As a bulk guy, Dale in Nova Scotia, if we're going to turn the season around, we can't be using Lauer for any meaningful innings. He carries an aura of disaster, which is, I mean, first of all, it's just a great term. It would be a great band name, Aura of Disaster. But yeah, didn't work out well for Lauer. Andrew Kitchener, DFA Lauer, Mark and Thorold.
Do you think they stretched out Lauer so they have a reason to send him down to Buffalo? Yeah, there's a lot of that here. I mean, this is from, I think, Tony and Kitchener. Lauer can't start any more games. Talks about the opener, which he doesn't really love. This one's from Dave C. Kind of seen it coming with a lower attitude when he had the opener.
A lot of people talking about the opener comments that he had before. I am genuinely curious what his comments will be today. Because I don't think after a performance like this, he can go out there, even if it may be true, he can't go out there to the media today and say, oh, well, I didn't come in until the fifth inning. My routine was messed up. You know, it's not right.
It might honestly be true and a part of why he struggled, because routine is a big part of things for Patriots. He just can't say that to the media. Even if that's how you feel, keep it to yourself, Eric, because that would be a really bad look for Lauer. But yeah, I mean, the stuff just doesn't look great outside of flashes here and there, right? I mean, it was pretty flat.
in terms of movement, along with Velo still being pretty down, all things considered. Heading into the bottom of the eighth, Fastball sat 90 and a half miles an hour, topped out, again, going into the bottom of the eighth at just under 92. It did take up by the time we got deeper into the game, which I think does support the idea that maybe routine plays a factor here.
But, I mean, either way, it's not going to cut it, right? And the body language on top of that just looks wretched. It's just not a lot of positives from Eric Lauer right now, which is too bad.
Yeah, and it's tough. Like, I mean, it's tough to be out there. I'm sure you feel like you're on an island when things aren't going well. He knows his season has not been what he wanted it to be. He knows he's coming out in a situation where, yeah, the Blue Jays want to get a sweep.
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