Home run ball hurts R.A. Dickey again, Blue Jays lose to Angels 5-4

TORONTO – It wasn't the hit that won the game, in fact it didn't even give the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim the lead, but it was certainly the one that traveled the farthest in the Angels' 5-4 win over the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night. Once again, R.A. Dickey had to stand alone on the mound and watch a baseball leave the park - a sight that has become far too familiar for the right-hander this season.

Mark Trumbo's two-run shot in the second inning was the 31st home run that Dickey has given up in 2013. Only Oakland's A.J. Griffin has allowed more (33).

"The ball that Trumbo hit would have been out of any park, that was well hit," said Dickey.

Even so, adjusting to the hitter-friendly configurations of the Rogers Centre has been a tricky task for Dickey. Of the 31 home runs he's had the displeasure to watch go over the fence, 21 have come in 102 innings at home compared to only 10 in 100 and one-third innings on the road.

You'll find no such discrepancy in his home/road splits with the New York Mets at pitcher-friendly Citi Field in 2011 (8 at home/10 on the road) or 2012 (12 at home/12 on the road).

Moving half his starts from Citi Field to the Rogers Centre certainly plays a factor, but blame can't be squarely placed at the feet of the mammoth slab of concrete.

Dickey's command has been off all season - or at least not as sharp as it was during his Cy Young season or even the one before that.

Contact rates for knuckleball pitchers are deceiving, as the quality of the contact is typically not as high compared to standard pitchers - the absence of spin on the pitch causing poorer contact. A well-located knuckleball will induce more hits than a well-located fastball, but the quality of those hits won't be as good.

There's one stat that best explains Dickey's troubles with the long ball in Toronto - a staggering change in his ground ball rate.

During his three years as a full-time starter with the Mets, Dickey generated ground balls on 50.7% of the hits he allowed. This season in Toronto, that number is down to 40.8%.

The near-10% decrease in ground balls is a direct result of more knuckleballs being left up in the strike zone and opposing hitters have taken advantage.

On a positive note, the one aspect Dickey has been able to bring to Toronto is his durability. He surpassed 200-innings on Wednesday, the third straight year he's reached that particular benchmark.

"It's hard to throw that many innings ... but the innings need to be quality innings. For a lot of the year they have been, for some of the year they haven't so there's a lot for me to improve on but the one thing you can say is that you were able to take the ball every time it was your turn," said Dickey. "But it's only a silver lining to a season that for the most part has been a struggle."

As this Blue Jays season wraps up, far from the fanfare of the pennant races that seemed like a given six months ago, an optimist would say there's nowhere to go but up, as long as Dickey can keep his knuckleball down.