This Week in Baseball: Bullpens Blow It

It's not just Matt Cain of the Giants—whom I've documented several times on here—who suffer from lack of run support and bullpen collapse.

And it's not just the entire Blue Jays staff—led by hard-luck Roy Halladay—either.

Of late, it's been Edwin Jackson of the first-place Tampa Bay Rays.

Jackson has pitched 15 consecutive scoreless innings, but doesn't have a win to show for his last two outings.

It was the third time this season that Jackson has pitched shutout ball for seven innings or more, and yet he's only 1-0 in those outings.

Two starts earlier, Jackson threw a six-hit, eight-inning shutout at Rogers Centre and departed with a 3-0 lead, but closer Troy Percival coughed up the advantage in an eventual 8-3, extra-inning Tampa Bay victory.

In Jackson's previous start against Chien-Ming Wang and the Yankees, the Rays starter threw seven scoreless innings and left with a 1-0 lead. But Percival again got victimized in the ninth to deny Jackson yet another victory, and the Rays eventually won it in extras.

Jackson is 2-3 with a 3.47 ERA this season. He easily could have five wins by now. Still, the Rays are in first place, and as of Thursday have gone 8-2 in their last 10 and own the best record in the entire American League.

Meanwhile, in Cleveland, the Tribe have also gone 8-2 in their past 10 and are first in the Central.

Speaking of hard luck, how about Cliff Lee? Lee, 6-0 this year with an incredible 0.67 ERA, pitched shutout ball for nine innings against the Blue Jays on Monday in the second game of a doubleheader.

Shaun Marcum of the Jays, however, threw his own two-hit gem before leaving after eight, and the game was decided in extras.

Too bad for Lee and Marcum.

The Indians, though, have been getting stellar pitching. Their starters hadn't allowed a single run for five straight games, and that streak finally ended Thursday when starter Aaron Laffey's throwing error gave Oakland an unearned run in Cleveland's 4-2 win.

Still, Cleveland's starting staff hasn't allowed an earned run since last Friday.

The streak of not allowing an earned run by the starters was extended to 50.1 innings, and Jeremy Sowers will try to continue that run Friday when interleague play begins for the first time this year.

Sowers (5.06 ERA) will make his second start of 2008 in Cincinnati.

As the saying goes, as long as you have good pitching, you'll win your fair share of games.

Ironically, despite the Jays losing Vernon Wells for at least six weeks last week, Toronto has now won four straight—thanks to its arms in the rotation—after an ugly losing streak just recently.

Back to Cain. Even the Giants right-hander's luck has improved, unlike the Rays' Jackson.

But Cain has a chance to help out his own cause, which he did Tuesday by hitting a home run, giving himself an extra insurance run.

The Giants won 4-1, as Cain benefited from a three-run outburst in the first inning and did his part with the dinger and two-run ball in his eight innings.

Of course, Cain plays in the National League, where he has to bat.

The Blue Jays staff, without Wells' bat, will have to continue to bear down and hope for the runs to come by.

Jackson? He's got to hope his Rays will score enough runs and Percival doesn't cough up any more leads.