Manager Charlie Montoyo #25 of the Toronto Blue Jays walks back to his dugout at Rogers Centre on March 30, 2019 in Toronto.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
Charlie Montoyo insists that someday the Toronto hitters will spring to life.
In the meantime, the new Toronto Blue Jays manager will have to suffer along with the rest of the fan base as the offence continues to sputter like an Edsel over the second week of the Major League Baseball season.
Toronto hitters managed just six hits, which made things rather easy for the Baltimore Orioles, who plodded their way to a 2-1 victory in a languid affair Tuesday night at Rogers Centre.
Perhaps the luckiest guy in the joint − only about 12,000 were on hand as official witnesses − was sitting in the first row down the left-field line.
In the top of the ninth inning, he reached over and grabbed a two-base hit off the bat of Joey Rickard as it rolled into foul territory. For that misdemeanour he was asked to leave the building.
In a battle of the birds, it was the second straight win for the Orioles (4-1) over Toronto (2-4) and they will be looking to sweep the Blue Jays away with a win in Wednesday’s series finale.
Toronto entered the game hitting .180 as a group, the third-worst total in all of baseball.
And talk about slow starters. The Blue Jays once again failed to record a hit the first time through the batting order and are now 1-for-55 in that regard through their first six games.
It was a matchup featuring Marcus Stroman for the Blue Jays and Andrew Cashner for the Orioles and the pair were locked in a runless battle through five innings before Baltimore finally broke through with two runs in the sixth.
Former Blue Jay Dwight Smith Jr. got things going when he singled to right leading off. He would then score the game’s initial run when Jonathan Villar followed him to the plate and tripled into the right-field corner.
Villar would then troop across to score on a single by Trey Mancini.
After a walk to Rickard, Stroman’s night was over, on the hook for both the Baltimore runs off nine hits while striking out five and walking one.
Cashner was solid in recording the win, holding Toronto to just four hits over six innings of work.
Rowdy Tellez homered for Toronto in the bottom of the ninth.
Just as the game was about to start, in what was a very busy news day for the Blue Jays, the club announced that they had signed outfielder Randal Grichuk to a five-year contract extension worth US$52-million.
The contract spans the current season through 2023 for the 27-year-old.
After a horrendous start last season, Grichuk rebounded to set career highs with 25 home runs, 32 doubles, and 58 extra-base hits for the Blue Jays.
“The offence has always stood out, he’s always performed, he’s always hit the ball hard,” Toronto general manager Ross Atkins said Tuesday night, explaining the rationale behind Grichuk’s new deal. “He’s always hit it far and usually goes over the fence at a pretty good rate."
“In our view he’s been an above-average defender and those are hard things to piece together.”
The Blue Jays also confirmed that reliever Bud Norris has been released from his minor league contract.