Jays 2, Royals 6

The Jays could only manage 4 hits and 3 walks from KC starter Luke Hochevar, Farnsworth, and Soria. It seemed that every single time they hit the ball well, it was right to a defender. These things happen, not much they can do but try again today. Scott Richmond was cruising through to the 5th inning and was probably starting to think he might be able to get his 5th win of the season. But a rough 5th inning, where KC scored 5 of their 6 runs, hurt Scott and left the Jays to attempt another comeback.

The most frustrating part of the game for me, besides watching another loss, was that Jesse Carlson once again allowed an earned run in relief. Sure, it meant nothing in terms of the outcome of the game, but it was the 4th time in the last 7 games that Jesse has allowed at least 1 run. In fact, he's allowed 9 earned runs in his last 7 innings pitched and only struck out 3 while allowing 10 hits. I'm not sure what the reason is since his velocity is the same. There could be some issues there that will come to light soon, whether it's dead arm, mechanics, or something worse, but either way he could end up being sent down to AAA to work on things for a while before it gets worse.

In a very related story, Jeremy Accardo has been roughed up lately in AAA, with a 6.52 ERA over his last 10 games. Unlike Jesse, Jeremy has struck out plenty of guys - 12 in his last 9.2 IP - but he's also allowed 2 hits per inning within the same time frame and walked 3, not exactly stellar stuff. So, instead of Accardo, Jonah Bayliss looks like the next RP target for the Jays when they look to AAA for an arm. His stats over the last 10 games are 15.2 IP, 16 Ks, 9 HA, 7 BB, and a 2.87 ERA. His season ERA sits at a perfect 3.00 and he has been a very good acquisition for the Jays thus far, as he only cost them a PTNL. I do believe it's time for some of the pen guys to get rotated through. It's nice to have consistency, but in the Jays case I think that a little competition wouldn't hurt either.