Blue Jays takeaways: Toronto left to wonder what the other Brad Hand might be doing

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This article was published 18/08/2021 (1556 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 8-5 loss in Washington, D.C., on Thursday:

The Blue Jays fell behind early in Washington, down by three runs just three batters into the bottom of the first inning, but they clawed back to take the lead on back-to-back home runs by Corey Dickerson and Marcus Semien in the top of the seventh.

As has been the story far too many times this season, the bullpen couldn’t hold it.

Adam Cimber started the bottom of the seventh by giving up a soft line single to longtime Jays nemesis Alcides Escobar, and the sidearmer was lifted for left-hander Brad Hand.

With Tim Mayza having pitched the sixth, a low-leverage spot to get his feet wet on the day he was activated off the injured list, Hand was the southpaw to go to with left-handed slugger Juan Soto due up, followed by switch-hitter Josh Bell and lefty swinger Yadiel Hernández.

Once again, Hand wasn’t up to the task. He walked Soto, then served up a three-run homer to Bell to turn the game around. Two batters later, Carter Kieboom went deep as well.

It was the eighth time Hand has taken the ball since coming to the Jays in a deadline deal with Washington, and the third time things have gone extremely poorly. He also gave up a game-winning home run in extra innings and issued a walk-off walk (on four pitches).

Over his last dozen appearances (including four with the Nationals before the trade), Hand has allowed 14 runs (11 earned) on 12 hits with five walks and four home runs in 9 2/3 innings. The hope was that the veteran lefty, who led the majors in saves last season, would be able to figure things out and get back to the form that had him post a 1.52 ERA over two months before hitting what they’d hoped was just a speed bump in late July.

That hasn’t happened, and while the Jays can’t just throw Hand onto the DFA scrap heap with Rafael Dolis, they also can’t think of him as a legitimate option in a winning situation until (or if) he shakes off whatever he’s going through.

To dig the knife in just a little deeper, Riley Adams, the catcher the Jays traded for Hand at the deadline, followed up his three-hit night on Wednesday with another two Thursday. He’s hitting .714 against the Jays and .149 against everybody else in his big-league career.

• Bye-bye NL: Barring a trip to the World Series, Thursday’s game was the last one the Jays will have to play under National League rules this season, and probably ever. Which is a good thing.

I understand there are people who prefer watching a pitcher have two or three uncompetitive at-bats every game and luck into a hit on a very rare occasion, but I just don’t see the appeal. As a group, pitchers went into Thursday’s action hitting a combined .108/.147/.139 for the season, striking out in 50.8 per cent of their at-bats.

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Even though Washington starter Josiah Gray singled in the second inning for his first major-league hit, pitchers were a net minus at the plate for both teams in the road trip finale.

Jays starter Jose Berríos, who hasn’t gotten a hit in four years, bunted into a double play in the third inning after Reese McGuire was hit by a pitch. He did execute a sacrifice bunt in the fifth, but there was already one out in the inning when he did it, so a hit was required by the next batter for the Jays to score, and that didn’t happen.

The home team suffered more, though, as Adams hit a ground-rule double with two out in the fourth and a runner on first. As soon as the ball bounced into the seats, that was it for the rally since the pitcher was coming up. Berríos struck out Gray on three pitches.

With a new collective bargaining agreement in the offing, expect the National League to finally join pretty much every other baseball league in the world and add the designated hitter on a permanent basis starting next season, which means that Berríos should go down in history as the last Jays pitcher with a bat in his hands.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness