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Sloppy Blue Jays blown out as Rays take advantage of Bassitt miscue – Toronto Sun

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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — Chris Bassitt rarely leaves you guessing on how he feels about how his work on the mound is going.

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Or, for that matter, how he feels about his effort following a start.

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So it was when he raised his arms in self disgust after serving up a 90.5 mile per hour cutter over the heart of the plate in the third inning of Friday’s game at Tropicana Field and had to watch Brandon Lowe destroy it for a game slam home run.

The blast essentially sealed the fate of the Jays, who fell 8-2 to drop their record to 1-1 out of the gate in the young MLB season.

“Threw a cutter. Homer,” Bassitt said afterwards. “I felt I threw my pitches basically where I wanted them, it was just one pitch. “Obviously (Lowe) is an unbelievable hitter. I just can’t make that mistake. That was the game. Just one pitch. It was unfortunate.”

As for the frustrated reaction of their workhorse starter, manager John Schneider was sharing the sentiment in a game that wasn’t played with anywhere near the precision of the previous one.

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A night after a crisp and efficient 8-2 win in which his team did pretty much everything to the pre-season script, night two at the Trop was decidedly the other way.

Schneider wasn’t about to jump all over his players, but acknowledged that a double play ball that was botched by Bo Bichette — in his first of two errors on the night — was a contributing factor to the Lowe grand slam.

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“Any team in this league, you have to catch the ball,” Schneider said. “These guys (the Rays) do damage and right after that, grand slam. But errors are a part of it.

“These guys are good. They work their asses off at it. They take a lot of pride in it. Errors are going to happen, it’s part of the game. You move on to tomorrow and hopefully just tighten it up.”

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It didn’t help that the bats were relatively dormant, being held to just six hits, including a solo home run by George Springer in the third inning, his second in as many games.

That, too, is going to happen, a reality in the early season and certainly nothing to dissuade the Jays from their offensive approach.

And in reality, there was plenty to be encouraged from in Bassitt’s outing. The way the lanky right hander’s night started, it looked like he was about to resume the form that had made him one of the Jays most reliable starters last season. Bassitt struck out the first four Rays batters he faced and five through two innings.

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“Stamina is a big key at this time of year,” Bassitt said. “Those longer innings feel a heck of a lot longer in those first couple of games. Overall it’s just getting your feet wet, so to speak.

The third inning was the ugly one for the Jays, thanks to the grand slam from Lowe, the farthest grand slam hit by a Rays hitter in the Statcast era.

After Ben Rortvedt lined a singled into first, Bassitt hit Jose Caballero with a pitch. Yandy Diaz then reached on a fielder’s choice following a fielding error by Bichette. That loaded the bases and set the stage for Lowe, who launched the poor Bassitt offering 444 feet over the wall in right centre field.

He hunkered down to give his team five innings of work, though Bassitt needed 95 pitches to do so. He allowed six hits and five runs (four earned) while striking out six.

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“I thought he was really good, I thought his stuff was good,” Schneider said of Bassitt. “We just didn’t take care of the ball behind him a little bit, obviously. But he continued to battle, kind of what he does.”

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BY GEORGE

Springer’s homer was certainly the encouraging sign for the Jays offensively, marking the first time he had homered in back-to-back games since July 9-10 of 2022.

“I think just getting back to that mindset really, and really having a good understanding of his go zones,” Schneider said of Springer’s early success. “Hanging breaking ball, he does some pretty good damage on that throughout his career. I think just having that intent every single at-bat.

“When George is going, it’s usually a pretty good tone setter for us.”

AROUND THE BASES

Bassitt took the loss and fell to 1-3 in his career against the Rays … Vlad Guerrero Jr. had two hits and a walk and has now hit safely in eight of his previous nine games at the Trop … Wes Parsons made his Jays debut, relieving Bassitt and giving the Jays three innings. The right hander allowed four hits and three runs as the Rays cruised … Pinch hitter Daniel Vogelbach saw his first action in his second stint with the Jays, coming in as a pinch hitter for Isiah Kiner-Falefa in the seventh inning, meekly grounding out to first.

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Canada’s Marina Stakusic falls in Guadalajara Open quarterfinals

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GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.

The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.

Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.

In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.

The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Kirk’s walk-off single in 11th inning lifts Blue Jays past Cardinals 4-3

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TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.

With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.

Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.

Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.

Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.

He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.

The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.

Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.

He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.

George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.

Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.

In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.

St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.

ON DECK

Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.

The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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Stampeders return to Maier at QB eyeing chance to get on track against Alouettes

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CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.

It won’t be an easy assignment.

Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.

“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”

Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”

Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.

After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.

“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”

Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.

“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.

A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.

“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”

But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.

“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”

Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”

“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.

Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.

“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”

While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.

“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”

The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.

“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.

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