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DIFFICULT SITUATION: Blue Jays head coach asked to be sacked over poor performance.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—If the Blue Jays want the identity of this year’s team to be centred around pitching and defence, they did a poor job of showing it Friday night.
Bo Bichette committed a pair of costly errors while Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made an errant throw to spoil what otherwise had been a strong outing by veteran starter Chris Bassitt. Three makable plays that led to five runs and saddled the Jays with their first loss of the season.
Bichette’s miscue in the third inning preceded a grand slam by Brandon Lowe while two more mistakes in the fifth only made the Jays’ issues worse. Bassitt was unable to bail his teammates out of either jam as his team was saddled with an 8-2 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.—If the Blue Jays want the identity of this year’s team to be centred around pitching and defence, they did a poor job of showing it Friday night.
Bo Bichette committed a pair of costly errors while Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made an errant throw to spoil what otherwise had been a strong outing by veteran starter Chris Bassitt. Three makable plays that led to five runs and saddled the Jays with their first loss of the season.
Bichette’s miscue in the third inning preceded a grand slam by Brandon Lowe while two more mistakes in the fifth only made the Jays’ issues worse. Bassitt was unable to bail his teammates out of either jam as his team was saddled with an 8-2 loss to the Rays at Tropicana Field.
“Any team in this league, you have to catch the ball,” said Jays manager Schneider, whose team dropped to 1-1 with the loss. “These guys do damage and right after that (error), grand slam. Errors are part of it, so you just flush it and get back after it tomorrow. Defence, as we all know, is very important, but Chris battled.”
The Jays were one of the better defensive teams in the majors last season. They earned the American League gold glove team award while José Berríos, Kevin Kiermaier and Matt Chapman won individual honours. Their 107 error-free games were the most in franchise history.
The Jays also led the majors with 82 defensive runs saved. Chapman has since departed, but he was replaced by the equally competent Isiah Kiner-Falefa while the other positions went untouched. That means the Jays are again expected to be one of the best fielding clubs.
Despite defence being a strength, there are noticeable flaws. The bulk of the Jays’ defensive value can be found in the outfield, where they ranked second in the majors last season with 21 outs above average. Around the infield, the Jays performed much worse with -11 outs, 21st in the majors.
