Blue Jays takeaways: Defence drops the ball in series finale against Astros. Rowdy Tellez looks lost

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This article was published 06/06/2021 (1945 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on Sunday’s 6-3 Blue Jays loss to Houston in Buffalo:

Steven Matz didn’t get off to the best start on Sunday afternoon — in any of the five innings he started.

The lefty got touched up by the first batter he faced every time he emerged from the Blue Jays’ dugout, and the swings were big early on.

Jose Altuve led off the game by turning around a 96-mile-per-hour fastball and smacking it over the wall in deep left to give the visitors an instant lead, and rookie Chas McCormick did the same thing (albeit off a slider) to begin the second inning.

Alex Bregman started the third by belting a double to the gap in right-centre, eventually coming around to score on a bloop single by Kyle Tucker.

Matz fared better with the leadoff hitters in the fourth and fifth, but still didn’t retire either of them, allowing a Martin Maldonado single and walking Yulieski Gurriel, respectively.

The lefty wound up allowing a dozen baserunners over 4 1/3 innings of work, putting himself squarely behind the eight-ball all afternoon by failing to retire any of the leadoff hitters.

• Sloppy seventh: Even though they only allowed one run, the top of the seventh was one of the worst defensive innings the Jays have played all season.

It started with a ground ball up the middle by Yordan Alvarez that was played perfectly by Bo Bichette, though a shard of Alvarez’s broken bat went flying out toward the mound and hit Tim Mayza on the heel. Mayza was fine, but for the rest of the inning his teammates were not.

Gurriel followed with a pop-up to shallow centre that Randal Grichuk didn’t see right away. By the time he found it, he sprinted in hard but couldn’t get there before the ball dropped.

After another soft line single to centre, on which nobody had a play, Carl Edwards Jr. took over from Mayza and walked McCormick to load the bases.

Taylor Jones was next and he, too, hit a pop fly to shallow centre. Marcus Semien went back, settled under it and called for the ball, but Grichuk came sprinting in again, and this time bounced off Semien as the second baseman made the catch.

The collision brought back memories of Kevin Pillar and Troy Tulowitzki coming together in shallow left-centre at Yankee Stadium in September of 2015. Pillar’s chin hit Tulowitzki’s shoulder blade and broke it. As far as Sunday’s miscommunication went, both players appeared to emerge unscathed.

Maldonado was next, and he hit a cue shot toward first that was booted by Rowdy Tellez to score the inning’s lone run.

Altuve finally ended it with a sky-high pop fly right in front of the plate that almost fell in among Tellez, Edwards and catcher Reese McGuire, but Joe Panik came sprinting all the way in from third to catch it on the first-base side of home plate.

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• Rowdy’s rough day: His seventh-inning error was part of an especially tough afternoon for Tellez who, like four of his teammates, took the collar as the Jays managed just five hits against four Houston pitchers. It was his second at-bat that stood out the most.

With two on, two out and Houston leading by three, Tellez came up as the tying run against rookie righty Luis Garcia in the bottom of the fourth.

Rowdy got ahead in the count 2-and-0, then took two fastballs right down the middle of the plate before swinging at a 2-and-2 cutter down and in. It was an at-bat that, despite him being ahead in the count, wound up being completely uncompetitive. He looked as betwixt and between as he has at any other time this season, which has been a poor one for the 26-year-old, who the Jays had hoped would emerge as a middle-of-the order slugger after a tremendous last two weeks of his 2020 season.

He looked a lot better in the ninth, putting a good swing on a 1-and-2 fastball and driving it the other way, 100 m.p.h. off the bat, but McCormick made a leaping catch near the left-field wall and Tellez wound up 0-for-4.

Tellez’s line for the season is now an ugly .188/.250/.302 against right-handed pitchers. He’s hit just two home runs in 104 plate appearances against them.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness