Blue Jays’ Eric Lauer roughed up as Angels avoid sweep

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As one door closes, another opens. Could that be what we were witnessing Sunday with regards to that fifth spot in the Blue Jays rotation?

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The closing door — and Blue Jays management will make that decision ultimately — could have been in the face of Eric Lauer.

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The ultra-valuable swingman from a season ago, who finished up with a 9-2 record, has not been able to find his groove since a season-opening win in that first series of the year against the Oakland A’s.

Lauer struck out nine that day in 5 1/3 innings and picked up a win, allowing just two runs. Other than a solid 4 1/3 a month later against the Red Sox, Lauer hasn’t tasted anything close to that kind of success this season.

On Sunday, with the Jays hoping to finish off a three-game sweep of the visiting Los Angeles Angels, it was Lauer instead who dashed those hopes, giving up a trio of homers and all six earned runs the Jays would allow in an eventual 6-1 loss as he came on in long relief behind two other relievers.

Lauer was neither a starter nor the handoff man following the opener, as had been the case earlier this year on a few occasions.

But in keeping with the team trying to avoid having Lauer face the top of the opposing lineup multiple times, he was brought in following both starter Spencer Miles and reliever Tommy Nance with the Angels starting the inning at the lower half of the order.

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The strategy never got a chance to succeed because Lauer walked the No. 6 hitter to open the fifth inning and then gave up a two-run homer to Oswald Peraza, putting the Jays on their way to defeat.

Lauer would give up two more homers to Jo Adell in the sixth and ninth innings as well as a two-run scoring double to Vaughn Grissom in that four-run fifth to round out his damage for the day.

Manager John Schneider seemed to be suggesting a lot will have to change if Lauer is to get back into the conversation of starting a game for the Jays any time soon.

“It starts with him getting the stuff back a little bit,” Schneider said. “A little more life on his fastball and even when that happens, you’ve gotta actually get a little bit better (execution) you know, the homers were middle of the plate. He’s kind of a fly ball pitcher, we get it, but he’s got to execute a little bit better and avoid the walks.”

Lauer and Schneider were at odds earlier this year when the latter first used that opener for him with Lauer speaking out against the strategy post-game. Schneider calmly reminded his pitcher a day later that Lauer didn’t determine when he pitched, that was Schneider and by extension the rest of the management team’s decision.

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Lauer wasn’t about to blame a later arrival into the game for his issues on Sunday, certainly not after the response from the team when he first pushed back against that deployment.

Instead, Lauer said it will come down to him finding the zone earlier. He talked about taking a hard look at his delivery and tendencies for signs that he might be tipping his pitches, something a pitcher will check when opponents are teeing off on him like the Angels were Sunday.

Lauer believes he can get back to being what he was, but he’s also aware that he has put himself in a pretty tough spot right now.

“I obviously shot myself in the foot with that last start, you know, three runs in that first inning (last Monday in Tampa) and … I didn’t do a whole lot better (Sunday).”

Lauer was asked if he thought he had to earn consideration for a starting role back.

“I think it’s something that I need to solidify better,” he said. “I don’t think by any means I’m assuming a rotation spot, that’s for sure.”

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THE OPENING DOOR … MAYBE

He’s still only up to around 40 pitches, but Spencer Miles, the Rule 5 pitcher out of spring training who made the team despite not being on anyone’s radar because of injury for the past few years, could be looking at a path to a possible actual start beyond what he got Sunday.

According to Schneider, Miles was his starter Sunday, albeit one he knew wouldn’t be providing a ton of length. Miles wound up giving the Jays three scoreless innings of two-run ball and left the game with a 1-0 lead.

Could he eventually work his way into being the answer for that fifth spot in the rotation, at least until Shane Bieber is ready to come back?

Schneider stopped well short of that being a possibility, particularly given the baseball Miles already missed due to injury, but Miles has four pitches and while he’s been used primarily in relief, a little time and more performances like Sunday’s could see him possibly work his way into the starting mix.

Miles personally feels he can still be a starter even if he has to go all the way back to college for the last time he tossed three innings in a start.

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“I definitely think I can still do it, you know, down the road with four or five days of rest,” Miles said.

Again, that’s a ways off from being a realistic option, certainly with Miles nowhere close to fully stretched out and not even taking into account his injury history. But on a day where there was little to be positive about from a Jays standpoint, Miles’ three innings of scoreless ball was easily the high point.

QUICK HITS

Angels starter and winner Jose Soriano improved to 6-2 and dropped his ERA to 1.66 with another masterful performance. After starting the year 5-0, Soriano was roughed up a little in his past two starters, both against the White Sox when they got to him for a combined eight runs as he showed the first real chinks in armour this season. But Sunday, after giving up a run in the first on Kazuma Okamoto’s RBI-double, Soriano got right back to that unhittable force he was earlier in the year, retiring 20 Jays in a row at one point on his way to his sixth win.

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INJURY NEWS

A day after throwing out Jorge Soler from right field with a 101.2 mph missile, the hardest thrown ball by a Blue Jays position player in the Statcast ERA (since 2015), Addison Barger showed up at the park Sunday morning feeling rather tender. Barger was sent for an MRI and scratched from the lineup having just returned from the injury list on Saturday. The Jays will update his health on Monday. Meanwhile, Daulton Varsho put a bit of a scare into everyone when he beat out his second infield single of the day in the eighth inning. Schneider and a Blue Jays trainer came out to check on him but Varsho downplayed the situation saying he just jammed his heel as he stretched for the bag. Schneider did not sound at all concerned about anything long-term.

NEXT UP

The Jays welcome the Tampa Bay Rays to town for a three-game series hot on the heels of a three-game sweep by those same Rays last week in Tampa. Game 1 will see RHP Kevin Gausman take on RHP Drew Rasmussen. First pitch is slated for 7:07 p.m.

mganter@postmedia.com

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