TORONTO — All season, as his Toronto Blue Jays battled a relentless stream of injuries, John Farrell has repeated the same compliment. We compete in every game, he said. We do not roll over. We take a smart approach to the plate.

The manager was not so complimentary after his team’s latest defeat.

“We weren’t able to string many quality at-bats together at all,” he said after a languid 5-2 loss to the Detroit Tigers on Sunday afternoon.

“A lot of first-pitch swinging, a lot of chasing fastballs up in the strike zone or even above the strike zone. So from that standpoint, it’s frustrating.”

A day after Justin Verlander pitched a no-hitter against them, the Jays managed seven scattered hits against starter Brad Penny over 7 2/3 innings.

In one stretch, Penny faced 15 batters while allowing one hit, which was promptly erased on a double-play.

Jose Bautista did not spare himself from the criticism. After missing five games with neck spasms, he hit his 10th homer, a two-run shot that delivered all of Toronto’s runs in the third. He also grounded out, lined out and struck out.

“I know for myself I could’ve done a better job in my first at-bat,” Bautista said. “I was a little stubborn. Knowing I had a plan on how he was going to attack me, I kind of shied away from it a little bit and took a couple pitches on the outer half that I should’ve swung at.”

In Bautista’s absence, the Jays went 2-3, scored a total of 13 runs and batted .216. Except for his blast, which gave 17,392 patrons a rare lift, the offence offered up more of the same on Mother’s Day.

Bautista gave Penny a dollop of credit, then brought home the blame.

“He was throwing a lot of strikes,” he said. “I think we could’ve done a better job, myself included, with some other at-bats. We didn’t get many baserunners on today so it was hard to score runs.”

That explains, to a large degree, why the Jays have lost six of their past eight games and now sit at 15-19. They did not fall four games under .500 during the entire 2010 season.

Bautista and Aaron Hill rejoined the lineup on the same day and each went 1-for-4. But in keeping with a familiar pattern, just as two regulars returned, injury struck another. Hot-hitting Adam Lind missed the game with lower back stiffness.

Lind said he hopes to return to action Monday night, when the teams conclude the four-game series. Bautista was the designated hitter Sunday but expects to be back in his regular spot in right field Monday night.

For six innings, Sunday’s game was tight, as most Jays games seem to be.

After Bautista’s homer, the Tigers roared right back with the tying runs, thanks in part to Jo-Jo Reyes issuing a leadoff walk in the fourth.

Farrell was not happy about that either, especially since both runs scored on two-out hits.

“The biggest momentum shift is putting up a zero after you score,” he said. “We got out to a 2-0 lead and then they come right back in a matter of three or four hitters (and) it’s a tie game again.”

It remained tied until Austin Jackson, perhaps the Tiger most unlikely to hit a homer, whacked a two-run shot in the seventh.

To that point, Reyes had broken his pattern of alternating good and bad starts. In his previous outing, he had worked six strong innings against Tampa Bay, allowing one run.

Reyes (0-3) worked into the eighth, leaving after a leadoff double, which eventually scored. He has not won a game in 25 starts.

That streak does not concern him, he said, promising to “just keep grinding.”

If there is a key to sparking this moribund offence, perhaps it is restoring Bautista and Lind to their back-to-back slots in the batting order. Lind started Sunday tied for first in the American League with 27 RBIs and is batting .407 in his past 15 games.

Lind’s back problem started Friday and worsened Saturday, but has responded well to treatment, he said.

National Post

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