While sitting at the Blue Jays game last night grumbling about their play.  I was trying to piece together what the issue is with this team.  One through eight they look lost.  Kawasaki was about the only guy up there that looked like he had an idea of what to do.  Rasmus ran into a pitch.  They faced Yu Darvish which is no easy task.  He's got great stuff. It started before this.  Even before Encarnacion went down.  Well before the all-star break.  They were out classed and dominated on the west coast.  Now the Orioles are playing against those same heavy weights.  This is their shot to get back on level ground.  What's their game plan out of the break?  Nothing! 

Edwin being down hurts.  He's the glue that holds this lineup together.  You can blame injuries to him, Lawrie, and Lind to the struggles.  Do you know what the difference between a great team and a mediocre team?  You see the Cardinals, A's, and Giants do it year after year.  Being able to adapt to injuries.  Find other ways to win games.  This is what great managers do.  When you lose a couple of sluggers you play small ball.  You start runners, you steal bases, move runners along,  and you take chances. 

All I saw last night was the prototypical Blue Jays baseball of waiting for the home run.  When you really only have one home run hitter in your lineup you need to change your approach. Dickey pitched well enough to win this game.   The Jays look stale.  Even when they are putting something together you just have it in the back of your mind that they will screw this up somehow.  When the Jays went on their huge run in May everything was working on all cylinders. Other than that month they are well below .500.   At some point you knew that the pitching would fall back to earth.  The offense should be solid regardless though.  

Down 5-1 last night in the 7th.  Kawasaki smacked a pitch into the corner for a ground rule double.  They had 2nd and 3rd with one out.  Reyes is coming up with a chance to put a couple more runs up on the board.  All he needs to do is hit one to the right side of the infield or hit one deep enough to score the runner from 3rd.  What does he do?  He goes after the first pitch and pops out to short.  Not only do you not make Darvish work whatsoever.  He's been throwing pitches in the dirt all night.  You let Yu off the hook with no stress or work.  This is a nightly event right now.  No execution and no game plan on how you are going to win a low scoring affair.  Just wait for that home run.

If you have read any of my blogs in the past you know that I am not a fan of John Gibbons.  When they went on their run in May it was despite him.  Bautista and EE were playing MVP caliber baseball and Buerhle was being mentioned for CY Young.  When the bats go cold you have to invent ways to win a game.  You need to play National League type ball.  All I see is treading water hoping that the bats come back alive and praying that the pitching doesn't self destruct.  There will not be many years that the Red Sox and Yankees will be down.  This is one of them.  You need to take advantage of that.  There are no real bats on the market right now at the trade deadline.  Adapt or die.  Or in the Jays case wait for the long ball.