Home is sweet for Jays
HOUSTON -- The passports are packed and the bags are stowed. Toronto's longest road trip of the season ends on Sunday, when the Blue Jays head home after 14 trying days.The Jays logged approximately 6,740 miles over the last two weeks, and they won just four of the first 12 games on the trip. Even if you exclude the frequent flier mileage, Toronto's players have plenty of reasons to be excited about heading home.
"Even with a winning record, it would've been a long trip," said manager John Gibbons. "It's been a half-month. It will be good to get back home, but it doesn't get any easier over the next few days."
That's because as soon as the Jays get back to Ontario, they play host to the St. Louis Cardinals. The defending National League champions currently boast the second-best record in baseball. Still, Gibbons knows that his team needs to get back in its element -- no matter who sits in the opposing dugout.
"It's stacking up to be a funny season. Everyone's going through their ups and downs in this league," he said on Sunday. "I haven't been around the big leagues a long time, but I've been around baseball. We've still got 100 games left and we're not even at the half-way point."
It's all a matter of perspective. Before the season, if someone had told Gibbons that his team would lead the Yankees in mid-June, he likely would've been thrilled. If he'd been told that the Blue Jays would be within two games of the Red Sox at the same point, he would've been overjoyed.
As it is, Toronto's skipper is looking at things with an open mind. Despite their struggles over the last two weeks, the Blue Jays are still three games ahead of last year's pace. And more importantly, they've only lost two games in the standings to first-place Baltimore over the corresponding span.
"Ideally, we would've loved to make up some ground. It hasn't happened," said Gibbons. "What are you going to do? Quit? That's the beauty of big-time sports. You're gauged on a full season."
Toronto will have a similar trip in mid-August, when the Jays visit four cities and play another 13 games in a 14-day span. The four cities in question -- Baltimore, Anaheim, Detroit and New York -- mean almost 1,200 less travel miles than the current excursion. Even with Sunday's result pending, Gibbons is looking at the trip with a realistic eye.
"We've had some games where we struggled, and [Saturday] we were facing [Roger] Clemens. The night before, a young kid shut us down," he said. "We've been in the games, but it's tough. The guys are busting it. Sometimes, when a team's not winning games, everybody tries to pick up slack and do more than they need to. That makes it that much tougher."
Squeezed: Eric Hinske was one of Toronto's most consistent players in the first two months of the season, notching a .289 average in April and a .291 mark in May. He's had some trouble breaking into the lineup recently, though, thanks to the Interleague portion of the schedule and a few extra southpaws on the itinerary.
Last week, the first baseman sat three times against left-handed pitchers. He's hitting just .100 thus far in June, a fact he credits to his recent inactivity.
"I just need to play every day. That's it," he said. "If I don't play, I lose my timing. When I'm sitting two games and playing one -- getting a day off instead of another game played -- it's tough. Then you come back and face Clemens and Roy [Oswalt], two of the best pitchers in the league."
Coming up short: Aaron Hill started his first big-league game at shortstop on Sunday, bumping fellow rookie Russ Adams out of the lineup. Hill had started most of the recent games at third base, but Gibbons said not to read anything too much into that decision -- it's basically a one-day deal.
"We just want to get his bat in the lineup. He's been one of our hottest hitters," he said. "He hasn't played short here yet, but that was his job down there. As well as he's hit since he's been here, we need some offense."
Hill was incredible in his first month of action, batting .415 (17-for-41) in his first 11 games. He's cooled off a little since then, batting .267 with a .371 on-base percentage in his first 10 games during the month of June. Gibbons said that Hill will go right back to third base when the Jays return to the Rogers Centre, making room for Adams on his left.
"They're totally different guys," said Gibbons. "They're both a big part of our future and they're both going to be good big-league players. If we had a designated hitter today, Adams would be at short."
On your left: Gibbons explained his bullpen usage from Saturday night, when he used southpaw specialist Scott Schoeneweis against a few right-handed hitters in the late stages of a tie ballgame. The skipper said that Houston doesn't hit lefties well, and he also said he didn't want to go to Miguel Batista too early.
In fact, the Astros have the worst average (.227) in the Major Leagues against lefties, but the decision didn't work. Schoeneweis allowed one batter to reach second base and intentionally walked another one, before Batista allowed a game-breaking three-run homer.
"We'd burned our righties and we were going to try to take [Schoeneweis] as far as we could," said Gibbons. "If you go with your closer on the road in a tie game, he's going to have to pitch two innings. Even though he's rested, it's not the ideal way to do it. That was based on this team struggling against left-handers."
Quotable: "You can't front-run in this business. When things go bad, you can't jump ship. It doesn't work that way. You've got to stick with your guys and with your team." -- Gibbons, talking about leading his team with a steady hand.
On deck: The Jays head home for the aforementioned three-game set against St. Louis, and Toronto's Roy Halladay will be matched up against Jeff Suppan in Monday's series opener.
Source: http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/
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