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CLEVELAND — In the last week the Toronto Blue Jays have lost both their shortstops, their star centerfielder and a valuable reliever.
And Saturday night, they lost another baseball game. Badly.
The Jays never really gave themselves much of a chance in this one as the Indians went out and pummelled Toronto starter Dustin McGowan for six runs off five hits in a bat-around first inning.
On an offensively challenged Jays team that has managed to score as many as six runs in a game just once over their previous 23 outings, this was a pretty safe lead.
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It was pretty much academic after that as the Indians went on to hammer Toronto 12-0 before 38,141 at Progressive Field to hand the slip-sliding Jays (17-21) their third consecutive loss and second of the four-game series.
The Blue Jays have now been outscored 26-4 over their last three games.
“We haven't had one like that in a while,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said afterward. “We've pitched so good, that's a rarity.”
Most of the talk Saturday focused on the health and welfare of Vernon Wells, a two-time Major League Baseball all-star and three-time Gold Glove winner who injured himself diving for a ball during Friday's 6-1 setback to Cleveland in the series opener.
Wells found out this morning, after a magnetic resonance imaging procedure, that he had broken a bone in his left wrist that he jammed into the field while making the catch. He will be out from between six to eight weeks.
The 29-year-old was placed on the 15-day disabled list, along with reliever Jeremy Accardo, who pitched in Friday's game and afterward complained of right forearm stiffness.
The Jays don't believe the injury to Accardo, who is 0-3 on the year with four saves and a 6.57 earned run average in 16 games, to be that serious – nothing that a little rest and relaxation won't cure.
Wells and Accardo are the latest additions to the Jays' infirmary that also includes David Eckstein and John McDonald, the Toronto shortstops who both hurt themselves during Tuesday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays.
To help fill some of the gaps the Blue Jays went out and obtained veteran free-agent Brad Wilkerson and Kevin Mench, in a deal with the Texas Rangers, on Friday.
Wilkerson started in right field Saturday night and Mench in left.
And Friday, the Jays announced they had recalled utility player Joe Inglett – again – from Triple-A Syracuse along with veteran reliever Armando Benitez, who was signed to a minor league deal by the Jays in March.
“You move on,” a surprisingly even-keeled Gibbons said prior to the game about the spate of injuries. “What are you going to do? What can you do?”
Wells said the Jays have become adept at absorbing all the body blows of late.
“You have to,” he said. “You have to be able to move on. You have to be able to fill the gap until guys get back. Nobody else feels sorry for you.
“It was fortunate that we were able to go get two guys before this happened. We'll be alright. Hopefully guys will start swinging the bats a little better now that I'm out of the lineup.”
That certainly wasn't the case Saturday night as the Jays went rather quietly into the chilly Cleveland night, handcuffed by the relatively unheralded Aaron Laffey, the Indians' starting pitcher.
Laffey dominated the Jays, allowing just two hits over six innings. He wound up lasting seven innings, allowing six hits for his first win of the year.
Laffey was no doubt bolstered by the Indians quick demolition in the first inning of McGowan, whose record is now 2-3.
Grady Sizemore got things started for the Indians with a lead-off home run to right field, his fifth of the season.
Sizemore owned the Jays on this night, going 3-for-5 at the plate with two home runs and a double for five RBI.
McGowan, who also walked and hit a batter in the inning, later gave up a two-run scoring double to Asdrubal Cabrera as the Indians would send 10 batters to the plate and shoot in front 6-0.
McGowan settled down over the next two innings and set the Indians down in order, but he blew up again in the fourth where the Indians got to him for three more runs to chase him from the game.
He left after 3.2-innings, on the hook for all nine Cleveland runs off nine hits, his shortest outing since June 19th of last season when he lasted just 1.2-innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Toronto.
An example of how cold the Jays' offence is running came in the seventh when Toronto collected four hits – all singles – and failed to produce a run.
“That's kind of the way things have been going,” Gibbons said.
