© Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Early Homers Sink Blue Jays in Loss
The crack of the bat, the scream of the crowd, the fog horn and the eerie sound of the Tropicana Field home run siren.
Blue Jays starter Ross Stripling witnessed that sequence of sights and sounds three times before his outing was over.
Brandon Lowe cranked Stripling's first pitch of the game into the right field seats. Mike Zunino hit a 428-foot solo shot in the third, then, two batters later, Lowe tagged Stripling again for a two-run blast.
"I wouldn't say I was the sharpest I've been, but I've certainly been worse," Stripling said.
Saturday's 5-2 loss was a rare showing of regression from Stripling. He allowed multiple homers in a start for the first time since a May 19 drubbing versus Boston — the fateful outing that prompted Stripling to overhaul his mechanics.
"I think it was just really count leverage. If you look at all the the first pitch homer, I knew that Lowe likes to swing and just didn't execute a pitch right there and he they punished me for it ... really they did damage in the counts that they should have, where I just wasn't able to get ahead," Stripling said.
Like Alek Manoah one night prior, Stripling lasted just 3 2/3 innings. The 31-year-old allowed four earned on four hits, walked two and struck out five. Stripling's command wasn't phenomenal and the longball sunk him, but his short outing also taxed the bullpen for a second straight game.
After using five relievers in Friday's loss, Toronto milked 4 1/3 innings from Anthony Kay, Trevor Richards, Tim Mayza and Jordan Romano. Thankfully the upcoming All-Star break will give Toronto's bullpen a rest, but the Blue Jays will be stretched thin for Sunday's series finale.
On the offensive side, the Ryan Yarbrough curse continued. Since the start of 2018, no pitcher in baseball has more wins against the Blue Jays than Yarbrough.
Before Saturday's contest, the crafty left-hander rocked a 7-1 lifetime record versus Toronto and held Blue Jays hitters to just a .169 batting average through three starts in 2021. So, when Marcus Semien broke through with a two-run homer off Yarbrough to give the Blue Jays a 2-1 lead in the third, things looked good. But for the second day in a row, Toronto's offense withered in the late innings.
"Yarbrough made an adjustment and he got us off balance again," Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said.
"It's something you don't see very often, a guy who's faced a good lineup that many times and still have success, and he did. He made an adjustment and he got us out again," Montoyo said.
The Blue Jays outhit the Rays through Yarbrough's five innings of work, but failed to capitalize and wound up on the losing end.
