Long Ball Stories

Come October, assuming the Blue Jays make the playoffs, and these words might come back to bite me big time, the Kansas City Royals will be nowhere in sight, unless they open the banks of prospects and bucks and buy three or four major pieces at the trade deadline.

There is no better testimony to my contention than to point to today’s game between the Jays and the Royals, to see that not only are the Royals not the team they were for the last two years, but that the decline is now obvious, and will only become more so. Last night’s Jays’ 6-2 win was a decent ball game between two competitive teams, a 1-1 tie with both starters still in the game. When Royals’ manager Ned Yost tried to squeeze a seventh inning out of an Edinson Volquez who had pitched well for six, he gave the Jays an opening, and Luke Hochevar stood at the door and waved them through, instead of shutting it. Meanwhile, Sanchez went eight strong, and there was no time left for a comeback. Typical game story. It happens. Not much predictive in it.

Ah, but tonight. It was a resurgent R.A. Dickey taking to the hill for the Jays, still looking for run support, but not conceding a lot to his opponents in the last two months, as an early-season ERA north of 6.00 gradually and inexorably works its way down towards the magical below-4.00 level. And getting the call for the Royals was Chris Young, a six-foot, 10-inch veteran right-hander who has been a regular in the Royals’ rotation for the last couple of years, posting an 11-6 record and an ERA of 3.06. But this year? Nada. His record going in to today’s game was 2-7, with an ERA of 6.24. In his last two starts, he had given up 8 earned runs over 6.1 innings of work. Worst of all, his WHIP is atrocious, at 1.63, meaning that he’s closer to allowing two base-runners an inning than one.

So if the Royals, currently third in the AL Central, three games over .500 after tonight, but only a half game ahead of the White Sox, have any pretensions to contend in their division, let alone the league, why is Chris Young even in the rotation? It’s a definition of something, I don’t remember what, maybe stubborn futility, that you keep doing the same thing over and over again and keep expecting a different result. This is an apt description of Ned Yost sending Chris Young out for his scheduled starts given his performance so far this year.

It didn’t help the Royals tonight that Dickey’s flutterball was jumping all over the zone, but not so much outside the zone, and the Royals’ hitters just could not figure out an approach. When the knuckler’s not moving well, or the hitters have it timed, it’s not very effective, and Dickey’s in big trouble, run support or not. But tonight they didn’t have a chance against him. He struck out the side in the first inning, two more in the second, two more in the fourth. He went seven innings on 111 pitches, and gave up two earned runs on five hits, walked three, and struck out eight. Though they picked up a run off him in the ninth, Manager John Gibbons’ decision to bring in the big young right-hander Joe Biagini, whose fast ball is in the mid nineties, after the knuckler didn’t do a lot to help the Royals mount a comeback.

A word about Dickey’s pitching line and the official scoring before moving on from the pitching to the Jays’ dismantling of Chris Young in the third inning. The two runs given up by Dickey came in the fourth inning, via a two-run homer off the bat of Cheslor Cuthbert, that new guy with a funny name who actually swings the bat pretty well. Maybe he needs a nickname, like Chesty, if that doesn’t sound too much like a stripper. Chesty Cuthbert. No, maybe not. Anyway, his blast came with two outs, immediately after Michael Saunders absolutely butchered a deep shot to left by Salvador Perez. Mind you, the ball was hit hard, but it was eminently catchable. It was originally scored, correctly, I think, as an error, making the two runs unearned because Cuthbert should never have come to the plate in the fourth—that’s how the allocation of earned runs works. But when I was looking over the box score just now, I saw that Dickey’s line showed two earned runs and five hits, not zero and four hits. I went back to the official play-by-play report on MLB.com, and looked at the fourth inning, and there it is: “Salvador Perez doubles on a fly ball to Michael Saunders.” If Perez gets a hit, of course, the runs are earned. I really don’t like this sort of retroactive whitewashing, and it smells even more when it’s a home-team decision, and even more yet when it comes on the very night that Saunders—god bless his soul, and his bats—was named as one of the five candidates for the Final Man Vote for the 2016 All-Star Game. We need a bit more integrity, or at least accountability, from our official scorers. Or has that been said before?

So, how did Chris Young fare against the Jays tonight? Well, not bad, in the first two innings. In the first, he struck out the side, except that the one hitter he didn’t strike out, Josh Donaldson, hit one out on him, putting the home boys up one-nothing. In the second he gave up a bloop single to Justin Smoak, which sounds like an oxymoron, but otherwise retired the side with ease: strikeout number four, a ground-out and a pop-out.

But he ran into a wall in the third, departing with one out, having given up three more homers, five more runs, and five more hits. After two and a third innings, the Jays were up 6-0, the knuckler was dancing, and the game was essentially over. Here’s what happened, for the record: after Josh Thole flied out deep to right for the first out, Zeke Carrera and Donaldson went deep back to back. Edwin Encarnacion singled, Michael Saunders doubled him to third, and Troy Tulowitzki brought them both home with a three-run blast to left. Young’s time on the hill was over, and Ned Yost brought in former Jay Chien-Ming Wang—remember him?—who gave up a single and a walk, but no more runs.

After the Cuthbert homer cut the lead in the fourth, the Jays manufactured another run in their half of the inning against Wang, Donaldson eventually scoring after he had reached on a fielder’s choice, driven in by Encarnacion with a bloop single.

While the Royals continued their futility against Dickey, the score remained at 7-2 until the Jays added another singleton in the seventh at the expense of the magnificently-named rookie Brooks Pounders, just called up to fill the spot on the roster vacated by Wade Davis’ move to the disabled list. Kevin Pillar eventually delivered Donaldson, who had led off the inning with a single, with a sacrifice fly.

With the Jays up 8-2 and Biagini in to finish up for Dickey, the Royals picked up one in the ninth as mentioned earlier to complete the scoring. Not only was it too little, too late, it was fated to be never enough, from the beginning.

So Dickey stifles the Royals, a member of the Royals’ rotation surrenders four homers in two and a third innings, and the Jays are home and cooled out, basically, after three innings. That makes two in a row for the Jays against the formerly intimidating Kansas City Royals, and a lot of the wind has gone out of the big rematch between last year’s titans of the American League.

Tomorrow night it will be Marcus Stroman on the mound for the Jays, hoping to build on the improvement shown in his last start. He’ll be facing Ian Kennedy, who was signed as a major free agent by the Royals in the off-season. From the looks of his record up to this point, maybe the Royals shouldn’t have busted the piggy bank for him.

One of my favourite baseball cartoons is a very old Peanuts strip. In the first panel, Charlie Brown is shown tossing his battered baseball glove into a closet as he says “Good-bye, old friend. I’ll see you next spring.” In the middle panel you see the closed closet door, with a thought bubble saying “Sigh . . .” emanating from it. In the third panel, still looking at the closed door, a second thought bubble says “I’ll probably wake up in February and not be able to get back to sleep.” Such is the hold that baseball has on our imaginations.

The last time the Blue Jays saw the Kansas City Royals they were dancing on the field at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City, in celebration of their completing a 4-2 American League Championship Series win over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Royals were on their way to the World Series to face, and ultimately demolish, the New York Mets in the 2015 MLB World Series. The Blue Jays were on their way home to Toronto to clear out their lockers, disperse to their homes, and spend a few months licking their wounds and pondering what might have been.

Tonight was the first game of the season between the Royals and the Blue Jays, and besides the fact that much has changed about both teams, the other clear message that emerged from the game is that 2015 is so over.

This is not by any means the same Kansas City Royals team that beat the Blue Jays in the playoffs last year. Third baseman Mike Moustakas is gone for the year after knee surgery. Right fielder Alex Rios is gone to free agency. Second baseman Ben Zobrist is gone to free agency. In the short term, for this series, centre fielder Lorenzo Cain and ace closer Wade Davis are both on the disabled list.

And pitching? Wow, what a difference. First off, Yordano Ventura is day-to-day with an ankle sprain—whom did he kick?—so we won’t see him in this series and the Toronto cops can leave their riot gear at home when they draw game assignments. Johnny Cueto is gone to free agency. Edinson Volquez, tonight’s starter, has been mediocre, Chris Young, whom we’ll see tomorrow night, has been less than mediocre, and Ian Kennedy, who has the start Wednesday night, has done little so far to justify the big bucks the Royals put out to sign him. In fact, I don’t see much in Kennedy’s record with the Padres, admittedly a poor team, to justify their offering those big bucks to him. The upshot of all this is that the Royals’ vaunted bullpen, weakened now by the loss of Davis, has had little to do, because the starters don’t create closing situations for them.

Of the players in the every day lineup, Eric Hosmer and Salvador Perez continue to shine, as does the re-signed Alex Gordon, especially in the field, but paradoxically Manager Ned Yost has moved all-round pest and pot-stirrer Alcides Escobar from leadoff to the number eight position in the lineup to install Gordon at the top. The Jays will appreciate that change, after the chaos Escobar caused them in the playoffs last year.

Since we’re past the half-way point in games, almost to the All-Star break, and marking this first visit of the Royals to Toronto, maybe it’s time to consider what this 2016 Blue Jays’ team is all about. One of the most significant changes for the team was on display tonight against Kansas City, as Aaron Sanchez mowed down the formerly intimidating Royals, so let’s take stock before moving on to the game.

It’s a very different Blue Jays’ team from last year. The most obvious change is the improvement in the starting rotation. David Price is gone. Jay Happ is proving to be an incredible bargain replacing him as the left-handed starter. In fact, his numbers have been significantly better than Price’s all year, save for strikeouts. Marco Estrada, despite some nagging injuries and a lack of run support, has picked up exactly where he left off last year, and continues to lead all major league pitchers with the lowest opponents’ batting average against him. R.A. Dickey’s early summer surge started in mid-spring this year, and he is beginning to dominate in his starts in a way that he only occasionally did last year. Marcus Stroman has had his problems, as the Child of Destiny seemed for a while to have lost the road map to the All-Star Game. But what team wouldn’t love to have his stats for their fourth or even third starter: 7-4, 4.89 ERA, 116 innings, and 83 strikeouts?

And then there’s tonight’s starter, Aaron Sanchez. Last year the Royals saw him as a very effective setup man for Roberto Osuna, basically throwing only two pitches. He had been starting to round into shape as a starter earlier in the year before going on the DL, but the Royals never saw him then. Now, after winning the “competition”–was there ever any doubt?–for the “fifth starter” spot in the spring, what a first half he has had, going into tonight’s game with a record of 8-1 and an ERA of 3.08. No one would think of calling him the fifth starter now. Without Sanchez, the Jays’ rotation is clearly the best in the AL East. With him, it’s the best in the whole league, hands down.

There’s always a concern about the possibility of a starter being taken down by injury, but the Jays have Jesse Chavez pitching effectively in longer outings out of the bullpen, and Drew Hutchison throwing very well in Buffalo, and contributing two solid spot starts to the big team. Nobody is talking about what’s wrong with Drew Hutchison any more.

As for the everday lineup, like the Royals, there a lot of changes to note, but for the most part they mark an improvement. Against all expectations, Michael Saunders has come back from his year lost to injury to prove himself a consistent .300 hitter with power against both right- and left-handed pitching. He is a below-average fielder, but of all the players used in left by the Jays last year, save for Kevin Pillar before he moved to centre, Ben Revere was the best one, and that’s not saying much, so we can live with Saunders in left, especially since there are late inning options for defensive purposes when the team is protecting a lead. Kevin Pillar continues to do what he does. Jose Bautista has had a sub-par year; leaving aside two stints on the DL, his offensive numbers have been good except for his average, but his defense has clearly deteriorated. On the bright side, Ezequiel Carrera has gotten most of the innings lost by Bautista, and been a real surprise, hitting , fielding, and running well above what his career record would suggest. The way he’s playing at present, a lot of teams would be happy with him as an every-day player.

The shocking loss of Chris Colabello to a PED suspension has eased the logjam at first and DH, with Justin Smoak and Edwin Encarnacion sharing both positions, though Smoak will sit if Manager John Gibbons wants to rest someone else by using them at DH. Some thought is being given, I expect, to adding Bautista to that mix once he returns from the DL. Edwin’s having a great free-agent year, whereas Smoak has not hit as well as last year, but still serves as a potent bat off the bench and has hit some crucial homers for the Jays. He also caddies for Encarnacion defensively to protect a lead. Josh Donaldson is still Josh Donaldson. Nothing to see here, just move on.

The middle infield corps has been fluid but always effective both at the plate and in the field. The long rehab of Devon Travis, and the lengthy stint on the DL by Troy Tulowitzki have given Darwin Barney and Ryan Goins ample playing time. The defence doesn’t suffer a bit, no matter who’s in there, or where. Goins has struggled at the plate, but also shown his versatility, playing three infield positions, left field, and even an effective inning on the mound, which led to his current status on the DL. He’s also added a trapper to his glove bag, and taken some balls at first, just in case. Barney fits in wherever you put him, and he’s a consistent, gritty .290 hitter who knows how to make contact in the clutch. Tulo had continued to struggle at the plate ever since arriving from Colorada last year, but after his latest stint on the DL he’s been making considerably better contact, and driven in some significant runs. His defensive skills continue to amaze. Devon Travis adds punch and excitement to the lineup, though there may be some unresolved injury issues keeping Manager John Gibbons from handing him the job on a full-time basis.

The catching is not quite as strong as it was last season. Russell Martin has struggled considerably at the plate until just recently, and been less than thrilling as a defensive catcher, for the first time in his career. His ability to contribute key hits is increasing with his batting average. Josh Thole is here to give up the body to Dickey’s knuckle balls, and save Martin from extra punishment. It’s what he does, he’s good at it, and anything else he contributes will count as a big bonus to the team. But so far, not much. It was always awkward for the Jays to be carrying three catchers, but Dioner Navarro is definitely missed, though his fabled role as Marco Estrada’s éminence grise appears to have been somewhat over-rated, since Estrada’s effectiveness hasn’t missed a beat.

So this is the Toronto Blue Jays’ team that took the field tonight against the reigning world champs. Confident and optimistic, especially about the fact that their fearsome offensive might has begun to show itself again even without Bautista in the lineup, they had to be eagerly anticipating the only appearance of K.C. in T.O. this year.

As I suggested, the single biggest improvement in the Jays’ arsenal this year is the emergence of Aaron Sanchez as a marquee young power pitcher, and he gave Kansas City a good dose of the new and improved Aaron Sanchez, starting pitcher esq., tonight, right from the top of the first, when he got Alex Gordon on a grounder to short, and struck out Whit Merrifield and the fearsome Kendrys Morales.

Edinson Volquez, a familiar figure to the Jays from the playoffs last year, got the start for the Royals. Volquez has been meandering along with a 7-7 won/loss record, and a 4.08 ERA, neither here nor there. Tonight he struggled with his control and walked the first two batters, Zeke Carrera and Josh Donaldson, and two subsequent well-placed ground balls moved Carrera to third, then home, without benefit of a hit.

The score would stay that way until the seventh inning. For their part, Kansas City simply never mounted a threat. Through six innings the Royals had two baserunners, a walk to the free-swinging Alcides Escobar, of all people, in the third, and a two-out single to Cheslor Cuthbert (I told you it wasn’t the same Royals’ team) in the fifth. Through six innings Sanchez had only thrown 73 pitches.

Meanwhile, Volquez settled down immediately after the two walks in the first, retiring the side while giving up the run, and retiring the side in order in four of the five succeeding innings. The only inning in which the Jays threatened was the fourth, and the Royals managed to keep the Jays’ lead at one run thanks to some great defence behind Volquez. Edwin Encarnacion led off the inning with a single, but Ian Kinsler made a diving grab at second of a liner by Michael Saunders. Then Volquez fanned Russell Martin for the second out, but Troy Tulowitzki singled Encarnacion to second, and then Kevin Pillar ripped a base hit to left. With two outs Encarnacion was off with the hit, but he was cut down at the plate on a perfect throw and tag play, Alex Gordon to Salvator Perez.

In the top of the seventh, Sanchez made his only real mistake of the game. Unfortunately, he made it to the wrong Royal, and Kendrys Morales, leading off, hit the 3-2 pitch over the fence in right centre to tie the game. The young pitcher immediately returned to form and retired the next three hitters on ground balls.

With the game now tied, and Volquez having given up only 3 hits and thrown 88 pitches, Manager Ned Yost felt comfortable sending his starter out for one more kick at the can, but unfortunately, he missed it. Volquez’ control abandoned him for the second time in the game and after three hitters he was gone, leaving the bases loaded on a walk to Russell Martin and a single by Troy Tulowitzki, following which he nicked Kevin Pillar. That was it for Yost, who summoned right-hander Luke Hochevar to face Devon Travis. Hochevar walked Travis to force in the lead run, the first of Hochevar’s three inherited runners to score. In quick succession the bottom of the Blue Jays’ order tidied up the messy bases, finished Volquez’ record, and gave Sanchez a tidy cushion to carry into the eighth inning.

As he so often does, Darwin Barney followed Travis with a base hit up the middle to score Tulowitzki and Pillar. Zeke Carrera laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Travis and Barney to second and third, and Josh Donaldson drove them in with a single to right. Hochevar then retired Encarnacion and Saunders to end the inning, although he allowed Donaldson to move up to second on a wild pitch. So Hochevar played the kindly gatekeeper for the Jays, ushering home his starter’s three runners left behind, and allowing two more of his own to score, just for good measure.

Sanchez needed some assistance from the high-priced help behind him to finish off his outing without further damage. With one out, Barney threw out Escobar from third after making a sparkling grab, and then, after Jarod Dyson singled to centre, Alex Gordon hit a sinking liner into right centre that Kevin Pillar caught sliding on his knees, just another ordinary putout by Super K. Happy to leave it in the hands of the bullpen for the ninth inning, Sanchez’ line read: 8 innings, 1 run, 3 hits, 1 bb, 3 k, 96 pitches.

Peter Moylan took over from Hochevar and set the Jays down in order on 12 pitches in the bottom of the eighth, and Manager Gibbons called on Brett Cecil to finish things off for the Jays, which he did, with one little lapse, allowing a two-out solo homer to left to Eric Hosmer before fanning Salvador Perez to end the game, a 6-2 win for the home team.

Sometimes this game’s pretty easy: send out a young stud to shut down the other team, bunch your hits in one inning, make some outstanding plays in the field, and, Bob’s yer uncle, you’ve got one in the win column. These world champions aren’t so tough: let’s play ’em again tomorrow night!

Before we get all tangled up in following the consequences of Terry Francona’s decision to raid his rotation on Friday to win the 19-inning game, let’s just get one thing clear: the operative number in the score of today’s game is the “one” next to the Indians’ name. The Jays didn’t win this game primarily because they chased Indians’ ace Cory Kluber early, or because they beat up on an exhausted Tribe bullpen, or because they forced Francona to use a catcher to pitch the last two innings. They won it because Jay Happ pitched a brilliant seven innings, and Drew Storen and Aaron Loup completely closed the door in the eighth and ninth with the pressure off. Whether the score ended up two to one or seventeen to one, this game was won by Jays’ pitching.
After Happ stranded a one-out Jason Kipnis double in the top of the first, one of only five hits he would give up in his seven innings, Russell Martin followed a Josh Donaldson single and a Michael Saunders double with a two-out, three-run homer, giving the Jays a 3-0 lead. It was basically over at that point, barring any breakdown on Happ’s part, and they could have mailed in the results right away, and saved a lot of wear and tear not only on the baseball supply, but also on the egos of Kluber, Tom Gorzelanny, Tommy Hunter, and Chris Gimenez.
There wasn’t going to be any breakdown on Happ’s part today. He gave up one run on five hits in his seven innings, walked none, and struck out eleven. Besides Kipnis in the first, the only baserunners he allowed were a double by Carlos Santana, whom he stranded at third in the fifth, and the three consecutive singles in the seventh that produced the Indians’ only run, driven in by former Jay Yan Gomes. Even in the seventh, in what was to be his last inning, he caught Abraham Almonte looking for the third out, with Jose Ramirez at third and Gomes at first, to go out with flair. Neither Drew Storen, with one strikeout, nor Aaron Loup, with two, allowed a baserunner on mop-up duty.
In keeping with my contention that the Jays’ starting pitching is their strong point, regardless of how well the offence does, I thought I’d start looking at each series they play, to make the simple comparison of how many innings are thrown by the Jays’ starters and their opponents. In this series, for example, Happ today and R.A. Dickey went seven innings each, and Marcus Stroman pitched in (sorry about that) 6.2 innings. Marco Estrada, struggling with his back issue, had the shortest outing, at five innings. For those of you who aren’t keeping score at home, that’s 25 and two thirds innings worked by Jays’ starters in the four games. Carlos Corrasco went 7.1 innings on Thursday night in his gem of a start. Josh Tomlin went six on Friday, but Cory Kluber went only 3.1 today, and let’s give manager Terry Francona the benefit of the doubt, and count the 3.2 innings contributed by Shawn Morimando as a start—after all, he was the guy who was designated to eat the innings for the Tribe on Saturday. So, ka-ching, ka-ching, that’s a grand total of 20 and a third innings for Cleveland’s starters in the four-game series. The salient point to be drawn from this little exercise is that, on top of putting in the innings you would expect them to, the Indians’ relievers had to log five and a third more innings of work than the Jays’ bullpen.

Watch this space for future comparisons of starting-pitcher workloads. It’s pretty clear that if they carry on as they have over the first half of the season, the accumulation of “extra” innings by the starters will contribute to a lessening of the workload on the Jays’ relievers, which in turn might help to mask any perceived deficiencies in the Toronto relief corps.
After the Martin home run in the first, Kluber, the putative ace of the Cleveland staff, found himself surrounded by Jays in the second following an error, a walk, a neat sacrifice bunt by Zeke Carrera, and an intentional walk to Josh Donaldson. However, he braced up and fanned Michael Saunders and Edwin Encarnacion to get out of the jam. In the bottom of the third, he gave up a single and a walk but again escaped. Even if he held the Jays in check from this point on, his rising pitch count would guarantee a short day for him.
There was no improvement in the fourth inning, and after four batters he was gone, down 4-0, having given up seven hits and walked four, and thrown 95 pitches over his three and a third innings of work. Zeke Carrera led off the inning with a walk. Josh Donaldson singled him to third. Edwin Encarnacion plated Carrera with a sacrifice fly, the only out Kluber would record in the inning, and Michael Saunders doubled Josh to third. Kluber exited, still responsible for the runners at second and third. Joba Chamberlain came in, and intentionally walked Russell Martin to load the bases (good idea, Terry Francona?), but allowed the sacrifice fly off the bat of Troy Tulowitzki to mark the fifth and final run against Kluber’s ledger for today.
Kluber ended the day’s work with a record of 8-8, and an ERA of 3.79. I notice that his name has come up amidst the swirling speculation about which starting pitchers might make the All-Star team, and I have to wonder, you know? I know Cleveland has played well so far, and compiled a terrific record on the year, but if Cory Kluber is their best starter, I don’t see the Indians as serious post-season threats.
As I warned you, I’m going to return just once more to Terry Francona’s quixoitc decision to use Trevor Bauer in relief in Friday’s baseball-a-thon. Today, Chamberlain gave up an inherited runner in the fourth before finishing off the Jays, and then laboured painfully through the fifth, giving up two walks and seeing Darwin Barney reach on a throwing error by Jason Kipnis, but keeping the Jays from scoring again, while throwing 33 pitches in total over his inning and two thirds.
Obviously, Francona had to go to the pen again for the sixth, and it wasn’t so much that he picked Tom Gorzelanny to come in and try to hold the Jays—remember, the score at this point was 5-0, not insurmountable if Happ should start to struggle, especially for a team that was 49 and 31 going into today’s game. Rather, it was the fact that Gorzelanny, who had only pitched once in the series, throwing six pitches for one out on Friday, was the second last man standing in the Indians’ bullpen. With three innings to go, and four if the Tribe mounted a comeback, Gorzelanny and Tommy Hunter would have to make do between them. But all they managed was the sixth, Francona was out of pitchers, and the Jays’ baserunners were out of breath from circling the bases.
Gorzelanny started by walking Saunders and Martin, and then gave up a three-run homer to Troy Tulowitzky. 8-0. Justin Smoak grounded out to Francisco Lindor, the highlight of Gorzelanny’s day, the only out he would record. Then he walked Junior Lake, and gave up a single to Darwin Barney, the first of three consecutive base hits. Carrera knocked in Lake. Donaldson knocked in Barney. 10-0. It was time to save Gorzelanny from further damage, and Tommy Hunter, the Lonesome Cowboy of Cleveland, came to the rescue. Sort of. Encarnacion doubled in Carrera. 11-0. Saunders singled in Donaldson. 12-0. Martin singled in Encarnacion. 13-0. Seven straight hits, encouragingly, only one of which, the first, left the yard. Mercifully, Tulowitzki popped out and Smoak struck out. The Jays’ lead had grown by eight, the Indians’ bullpen was flat out, and catcher-utility infielder Chris Gimenez, who had been inserted at third at the beginning of the Jays’ sixth, was trotting down to the Cleveland bullpen to start warming up, Goins and Barney redux.
Now, I’ve described these events entirely from the perspective of the Indians’ search for an effective pitcher, any pitcher at all, today, but we should give a nod to the Jays’ hitters as well. This is the first time this season that we’ve seen the line drives to all parts of the park, the passing on of the baton, the stirring of the pot, to use last year’s meme. Gorzellany paid the price for walking the first two batters he faced, but the rest of the Jays’ lineup took matters into their own hands after that. Also encouraging is the continued revitalization of both Tulowitzky and Martin, and the surprisingly strong season-long performance of Saunders at the plate. Looking a good ways down the road, seeing how the deck is stacked for us even with Jose Bautista on the DL, it’s not too hard imagining a future where a solid Jays’ offence has been made secure for the next few years by letting Bautista go, and plowing the money saved into re-signing Encarnacion and Saunders. I have profound respect for Jose Bautista as a consummate professional, and I’ve always been a great supporter of him, but there it is: the Jays actually can live without him.
As we did with Goins and Barney a few days back, we must end with a tip of the cap to Chris Gimenez, who took the mound for the sake of the team, consequences be damned. He had a good seventh inning, in fact, getting three hitters in a row to put the ball in the air for outs. But in the eighth the Jays caught up with him, as an Encarnacion double scored Donaldson from second after he led off with a double. Martin eventually scored Encarnacion with a base hit, and then rode home on Justin Smoak’s ninth homer of the season. Gimenez finally secured the third out, getting Junior Lake to ground out to second, and left the mound with only one consolation: Despite an ERA that read 18.00, he had not been saddled with the loss, so take that, Darwin Barney, with your fancy 9.00 ERA!
So the Indians settle for a split after running their win streak to 14, and the Jays happily take a split after losing the first two of the series. Cleveland goes home licking their wounds, but also licking their chops in anticipation of hosting their division rival Tigers, who haven’t beaten them yet this year. The Jays await the first and only appearance in Toronto this year of the 2015 American League and World Series Champion Kansas City Royals. Pay back time!

I never thought I’d be an enthusiast for the video appeal system that MLB has adopted, but after today, when I saw it get the play right, and the play decided the game, I’m all for it, as long as it’s not abused. When the initial call was “out” on Zeke Carrera’s scintillating slide into home with the lead run in the bottom of the eighth, and the review unequivocally turned the call around, it was the best thing that happened in the game.

Before we go on to the details of this tight, exciting game, though, we have a bit of unfinished business from yesterday to deal with.

There probably isn’t a person under the age of sixty who hasn’t at least once in his teen years stood sheepishly and heard that “decisions have consequences”. As could have been foreseen, the pitching decisions made by both managers yesterday have rebounded on them with powerful effect.

Jays’ Manager John Gibbons on the surface would appear to have made the better decision in terms of the long run by using position players at the end of the game, rather than disrupting his rotation. Yet, problems emerged from the decisions he made. The last pitcher left in his bullpen, Bo Schulz, threw two and two thirds innings, 48 pitches in total. Until recently Schultz had spent the entire season, including spring training, on the disabled list while recovering from hip surgery during the off-season. Toward the end of his appearance yesterday he seemed to be favouring his hip, but gamely soldiered on, knowing that there wasn’t a pitcher behind him in the bullpen. Today, it was announced that he had been optioned back to Buffalo. While this might seem to be a cruel reward for his efforts, it makes sense. Though the injury doesn’t appear to warrant a stint on the DL, it’s clear that he needs a few days to recover, and with the innings that the Jays’ bullpen have put in lately, they can’t afford to have someone occupying a spot who can’t pitch. Better he should recuperate in Buffalo. With the grit he showed yesterday, he’ll be back soon enough, no doubt.

Somewhat more troubling is that we now have the answer to why Ryan Goins was replaced by Darwin Barney on the hill for the nineteenth inning, when the plan had been to have him go another inning. It turns out that after his first inning he reported some forearm tightness, and they knew that they had to shut him down. The immediate consequence of this was Barney going to the hill with almost no warmup, contributing probably to the fact that he surrendered the winning homer to Carlos Santana, the first batter he faced. Once loose, as we recall, he set the side down in order, but the damage was done. Longer term, the consequence of Goins pitching is that this morning he was placed on the DL for fifteen days in order to sort out his forearm issues.

There’s no doubt that the adrenalin rush experienced by a position player suddenly dispatched to the mound might lead him to try things that otherwise he might not consider. In Goins’ case, recalling his experiences pitching in college ball, he could not resist trotting out the arsenal of breakng pitches he had once utilized. It’s no wonder that someone would develop an arm problem after trying to execute pitches he had not thrown in years.

Pitching stats geeks Nick Dika and Mike Sonne were so inspired by the appearance of a number of position players on the mound in the past week, that they decided to apply the various criteria they use to rank the effectiveness of real pitchers to see how the stand-in position players ranked. Their results, published on the Baseball Prospectus Toronto web site, primarily used change in velocity and spin rate to rank the 71 players they looked at since 2007. Ryan Goins ranked third out of 71 on the list, primarily because of his spin rates. Dika and Sonne singled out a curve ball he threw that dropped an incredible 21.2 inches in comparison with his fast ball, which was in the low 90s. Is there any wonder he’s on the DL today?

As for Terry Francona, his task was to find someone, anyone, anywhere in their system, who could come in take the start for which Trevor Bauer, who pitched five innings in relief yesterday, had been scheduled. They chose a big, raw left-handed pitcher from their double-A team in Akron, Shawn Marimondo, to call up for his big debut. However, Marimondo didn’t quite make it to Toronto in time for a proper warm-up, so Francona had to cover two innings while Marimondo got ready.

He had no choice but to go back to the same cast that had pitched the day before. Zach McAllister was chosen to start. He would pitch the first inning after throwing 27 pitches in one full inning on Friday. Jeff Manship would follow, after 16 pitches over one and a third innings on Friday. Manship did fine in the second, allowing a walk and throwing 16 pitches. But the Indians were already down 3-0, because McAllister was rocked by Edwin Encarnacion after failing to locate. He hit Zeke Carrera leading off, struck out Devon Travis on a foul tip, and walked Josh Donaldson on a 3-2 count. Encarnacion then hit a blast to centre, the first ball hit in fair territory off McAllister, and it was 3-1. He then walked Michael Saunders before retiring Russell Martin and Troy Tulowitzki, taking 31 pitches to get through the inning.

By then the rookie callup Morimondo was ready for his prime time debut. All told, he didn’t do badly, while giving the Indians’ bullpen some needed innings of respite. He pitched three and two thirds, and gave up two runs on six hits, walking one and striking out four, on 75 pitches. When he departed in the sixth, with two outs and nobody on, so that righty Dan Otero could face Devon Travis, the only damage against him had been a two-run Troy Tulowitzki homer in the fifth.

Morimando left the Indians only one-run down, so to this point in the game it would seem that Francona’s use of Bauer the day before had been neutralized. On the other hand, the jury was still out on John Gibbon’s decision to preserve his rotation It wouldn’t have impacted today’s game in any case, since Marco Estrada was questionable to start even on full rest because of his back. As it was, though, Estrada nearly added to his amazing, MLB all-time-record streak of 12 straight games giving up five or fewer hits while pitching six or more innings, and only missed it by one inning. But he was not fully himself today. Because he pitches to contact, and pitches up in the zone much of the time, Estrada is of course vulnerable to the home run. Still, it was a bit of a shock to see Rajai Davis take him out of the park on the first Indian at-bat of the game. Estrada gave up additional solo runs in the third, when Davis tripled—remember that—home a Tyler Naquin single, and the fourth, on a solo homer by Carlos Santana.

So it was by virtue of Tulowitzki’s two-run shot off Morimando in the bottom of the fifth that Estrada departed the game with no chance of losing, but one inning short of extending his record, and in line for the win. Considering that he had taken treatment between each inning, the only thing wrong with his line of 3 runs, 5 hits, seven strikeouts over five innings was that it took him 96 pitches to accomplish it.

For the Jays, the game was now in the hands of the bullpen, not to mention the hitters, who weren’t quite through yet, and it would remain to be seen whose bullpen better survived the endurance contest of the day before. Of course, in this regard we should point out, in case it’s been forgotten, that Francona was already two deep into his relievers, by virtue of their deployment at the start of the game.

Joe Biagini came in first for the Jays to pitch the sixth, and by virtue of his own lack of control the Indians creeped even closer, narrowing the score to five-four when Biagini hit Jason Kipnis with a pitch with the bases loaded by way of a single, a walk, and a wild-pitch third strike. Aaron Loup, added to the roster after the marathon yesterday, came in to secure the third out for Biagini.

In the seventh Drew Hutchison made his first relief appearance since his most recent recall from Buffalo, and was touched up for two runs by the Indians, who bookended a Jose Ramirez single with doubles by Rajai Davis—remember that—and Mike Napoli, putting the Tribe into the lead for the first time in the game. In the bottom of the inning, Otero, who had gone one and a third the day before, keep in mind, dished one up to Josh Donaldson, who promptly joshed it out of the park, though surely it was no joke to Otero, and the game was tied again, at six. Despite having to strand Michael Saunders, who singled, and Troy Tulowitzki, who reached on an error by the third baseman, Otero managed to finish the inning.

Jason Grilli fired up the crowd again by retiring the side with two strikeouts in the top of the eighth. Remarkably, he pitched one clean inning in the marathon and struck out two on 13 pitches, and today he did the same, except he needed three more pitches, so it wasn’t quite such a great day for him at the office. Nevertheless, it seems like the Jays have found their igniter: Grilli comes in, all enthusiasm and fist-pumps, does his pitching thing, and leaves behind elevated pulse rates all around. Since Francona’s use of two tired relievers to start the game hadn’t resulted in a total disaster, you could point to the bottom of the eighth as the next point of reference to Francona’s pitching management over the last two games. Perhaps feeling he had little choice, he sent Otero, who had already blown the lead in the seventh, out to start the eighth, which would see him put the winning run on base and ultimately take the loss for the Indians.

Let’s take another run at why I think it was such a mistake for Francona to use Bauer yesterday: by doing so, he gave up the chance of having a proper starter eat some valuable innings today to give the bullpen a rest, as Estrada did for the Jays. He used Bauer to secure the win, to be sure, but condemned himself to going back to a tired pen too often today.

Otero faced two batters in his final inning. He caught Darwin Barney looking, but then walked Zeke Carrera. This would be the end of the line for him, but not the end of his pitching line, unfortunately for him. Francona brought in Tommy Hunter, another veteran of the Friday afternoon wars, who had gone two innings and twenty-five pitches, to try to keep the Jays off the board. Didn’t work. Too tired? Who knows, but this is what transpired.

Devon Travis singled to centre, Carrera stopping at second. Josh Donaldson singled to centre, and Carrera turned for the plate with the lead run. Lonnie Chisenhall rifled the ball to the plate on a hop, catcher Chris Gimenez turned and dove to swipe the tag by Carrera, who made a sweeping, swooping slide in foul territory, trying to evade it, and swiped his hand across the plate. But, alas, Gimenez got him, and he was out. Or was he?

Carrera immediately pointed to the plate, and gestured to the dugout. He later told reporters (through an interpreter) that he knew that he hadn’t been tagged. Of course Manager John Gibbons requested a video review. As we sat and watched angle after angle, view after view, the two umps stood by the dugout with their headsets on. And stood. And stood. And stood. With apologies to Tom Boswell, if time begins on opening day, it stops during video replay. As we watched the endless loop of views, we knew, for a certainty, that the tag had not been made. Gimenez’ glove never bumped or wavered in its sweep, so no contact. Carrera’s pantleg didn’t twitch, so no contact. Isn’t that air we can see between the glove and the leg? Obviously, no contact. In our heart of hearts, we knew what the video actualy showed: Zeke Carrera was safe, and the Jays had the lead.

Bill Klem was the most renowned umpire in Major League Baseball, in a career that crossed several decades at the beginning of the twentieth century. Universally known as “the Old Arbiter”, he set a record that has never been equalled of serving as an umpire in eighteen World Series. One of the defining stories about Bill Klem, who was well known to turn an apt phrase, was about a close play at the plate during which the runner slid in in a cloud of dust, and upended the catcher. There was a long delay, during which both the runner and the catcher waited to find out the call. Finally, the runner could contain himself no longer. “Well, sir,” he said, “is it safe, or is it out?” In his stentorian voice (umps always had stentorian voices, in the old days), Bill Klem bellowed, “Son, it ain’t nothing until I call it.”

We may all have known that Carrera was safe, but it would not become fact and part of the record until the umps delivered their verdict. The longer they take, the more worried you become: “what aren’t they seeing that’s so obvious to me?” And this one took a very long time indeed. Finally, they reached up, slo-o-o-o-wly removed their headsets, and the crew chief, John Hirschbeck, swept his arms out flat, in the age-old signal. Carrera was safe, and pandemonium broke loose, in the stands, and in the dugout.

I have always thought that the most fraught moment in all of sport is when the pitcher stands on the rubber, ready to deliver, score tied, bases loaded, full count. The moment before he rocks into his motion is a moment in which no true fan could die, because no fan would allow himself to be carried away without knowing the outcome of the pitch. Now, with the video review, mechanical though it may be, there is a rival to the pitcher’s moment of truth: it’s the moment just as the umps are removing their headsets. Today, it was a good moment.

As you can see from the score, the Jays added two more runs in the inning, to give Roberto Osuna a little cushion to buck him up. But because it was Carrera who scored the lead run, and who had reached base on a leadoff walk by Dan Otero, Otero was saddled with the loss. The extra runs came courtesy of another interesting decision by Terry Francona, who decided not to issue an intentional pass to Michael Saunders with runners on second and third and two out. The Carrera play at the plate had left Travis on second and Donaldson on first. While Edwin Encarnacion was striking out, they crossed up the Royals, everyone else, to be sure, by pulling off a double steal. At this point, Francona chose not to put Saunders on to set up the force. I guess he wasn’t up on the story of the guy who was about to win the fan “final vote” spot in the All-Star Game. In typical Saunders fashion, he stroked the ball the other way, driving in both runners with a double to left.

Roberto Osuna finished the Indians off for the save, working around a one-out single and stolen base by Rajai Davis. Remember him? Remember I told you to take note of his hits today? Well, this single was the last hit Davis needed to complete a reverse-order natural cycle. Well done, Rajai. Glad to know you still feel at home in the TV Dome!

So, did Francona make the right decision to use Trevor Bauer ahead of schedule in the long Friday game? Well, baseball is played on a continuum, and one game affects the next throughout the season, so we’ll just have to wait and see about that one, but there were some interesting short-term implications today.

Tomorrow it’s Jay Happ against Indians’ ace Cory Kluber, the Jays playing for the split and the Indians for the win.

This may sound a bit ridiculous, but once my heart rate and blood pressure stabilized after the end of today’s 19-inning Canada Day celebration of baseball, and I started thinking about how I could possibly do justice to this day on “paper”, a certain song from The Sound of Music started running through my head. The answer to the question in the title, borrowed with thanks from Rodgers and Hammerstein, is, of course, that you can’t.

Though in the end I desperately wanted the Jays to be rewarded with a W after the investment of six hours and thirteen minutes of their time, when you think back on it, it doesn’t really matter—much—who won the game. If in the outcome the Jays, in particular their pitching staff, had to have their hearts broken, it’s equally the case that if we had won the game, the Indians and their pitchers would just as unfairly have have been let down.

The events of today in a closed TV Dome—imagine how hot and how muggy, and how eternal it must have felt to be in attendance—referenced virtually every scenario, every man-to-man confrontation, every challenge to the courage of an athlete, that you can possibly imagine. It also summoned for us every cliché, every meme, every philosophical reflection on the nature of baseball that comes to mind. Let’s just stick with one, for simplicity’s sake.

You have to start, as always,, with Yogi Berra. That’s right: “it ain’t over ’til it’s over”. This one could have been over in the top of the first, if Marcus Stroman hadn’t immediately shown that, on this day, anyway, he had his mojo back. It certainly could have been over in the bottom of the first, when the incomprehensible strike zone of the incompetent Vic Carapazza led to the even more incomprehensible ejection of the Jays’ own Mr. Teddy Bear, Edwin Encarnacion. Without wanting to disparage Devon Travis, he did go one for seven and left five runners on base when pressed into service as the replacement DH for Edwin. At what point might the game have ended before the nineteenth inning if the potent and streaky-hot bat of Encarnacion had remained in the lineup? I refuse to give Carapazza the dignity of ever referring to this incident again. If you want to wallow in the injustice of it all, look up Gregg Zaun’s comments. Normally I just find him annoyingly cranky, but on the topic of the accountability of MLB’s umpires I think he’s spot on.

There also was a gathering sense of it being over when the Indians took an early lead in the third inning. They combined two of their five hits against Stroman, a leadoff double by Carlos Santana and an RBI single by Jason Kipnis, to produce the only run in the game until Justin Smoak tied it in the sixth with a solo homer. The problem was that, as effective as Stroman was, Indians’ starter Josh Tomlin was equally effective, as their remarkably comparative pitching lines show. Stroman went six and two thirds innings, giving up one run on five hits, one walk, and six strikeouts. Compared to his recent outings, the return to effectiveness was remarkable. But there was nothing to choose from between him and Josh Tomlin, a veteran righty with five years of sometimes limited service with Cleveland. But this year, Tomlin’s record has surged right alongside the Indians’, standing at 9-1 with a 3.32 ERA going into today’s game. So how did he perform today? Six innings, one run on seven hits, two walks, and eight strikeouts. Stroman threw 96 pitches, Tomlin 99. So, until Smoak smoked one in the sixth off Tomlin, it was looking like another one of those games for the Jays’ hitters.

I’m sorry, you’re right. I just have to stop using that corny Smoak joke. (See? Can’t help myself!)

While Indians’ manager Terry Francona allowed Tomlin the good grace to slip away quietly at the end of six with the game tied, Jays’ Acting Manager DeMarlo Hale (oh, did I mention that John Gibbons was pitched by Carapazza about four seconds after Encarnacion in the first inning?) elected to send Stroman back out for the seventh. Though he did get two additional outs, he also loaded the bases for himself on a single, a rare fielding error by Justin Smoak, and a walk, and left the mound in serious danger of having overstayed his welcome and equally in danger of being collared for the loss. Fortunately, Brett Cecil came in to a lefty-lefty leverage situation for the first time since his return to the acive roster, after pitching an inning the night before in the loss to Carrasco and the Indians. Cecil threw three pitches in the zone, Jason Kipnis lofted the third one to centre field, and the threat was over, but the game wasn’t, because it ain’t over . . .

By the end of the regulation nine it looked like we were settling in for a fairly long afternoon in front of the sea of red that filled the entire stadium. It didn’t seem quite right to play the Canada Day game under the dome, but it had been raining earlier in the day, so there wasn’t much choice. As things progressed, of course, it became obvious that you don’t need sunlight and fresh air to keep you glued to your seats in a game like this. After the starters left and Cecil had done his little thing, the Indians’ trio of Dan Otero, Tom Gorzelanny, and Jeff Manship sailed to the end of nine for the Tribe. Hale, however, chose to follow the pattern that Gibbie has used lately (who was that guy he was talking to on the dugout phone, anyway?), gambling that his most recent setup man, Jason Grilli, and his closer, Roberto Osuna, could be profitably used to shut the opponents down while we scratched out the win at home. Well, Grilli and Osuna did their jobs, complete with the now-familiar Grilli fist-pump after the concluding strikeout, and Osuna’s fervent thanksgivings. But the Jays’ hitters didn’t hold up their end of the deal, and off to the tenth inning we went. No problem, we’re the home team, we’ve got the hammer, right? How long’s it gonna take to put one across?

Turns out, too long, in fact, never. As you know, “never” is a long, long time. Especially today.

But that doesn’t mean that the last ten innings didn’t have their moments. I love the stylish French term for orgasm, petit mort. Well, let me tell you, there were tons of petits morts yet to come for the fans, but not too many were thinking about sex, I can assure you, except for the fifteen-year-old boys in the crowd who never think about anything else.

This game was now totally in the hands of the pitchers, and then some, in the case of the Jays. Let’s run through the performances on both sides. Such heroism deserves recognition.

The Indians used Bryan Shaw and Zach McAllister for one inning each, Tommy Hunter for two, and Joba Chamberlain for one, before Terry Francona made the momentous decision to put Trevor Bauer, his scheduled starter for Saturday, into the game. I’ll address this move in a moment, but first let’s look at the work of his predecessors. Shaw whipped through the tenth in six pitches. McAllister escaped from a jam of his own making by getting Justin Smoak to pop up in foul territory to Jose Ramirez at third. He stranded Devon Travis and Troy Tulowitzki, who had both walked, Travis having stolen second and moved to third on a wild pitch. Hunter retired six of seven he faced over two, only Josh Donaldson reaching on a hit batsman. It was Hunter who got the sardonic pleasure, I suppose, of watching Russell Martin get tossed by Carapazza after he objected too vociferously, supposedly, for being rung up on a disputed checked swing call. Martin, who had watched his teammates get jobbed at the plate all day, and also watched his own pitchers get equally jobbed, went bat-poop crazy when he was thrown out while walking away from the umpire. Thus ended Hunter’s two innings of work, and Francona then turned to the last man standing in the Indians’ bullpen, Chamberlain. It’s pretty desperate when you have to call on the former rock star of the Yankees, now reduced to a rock-digger for the Indians, to keep you in a long, extra-inning affair.

Chamberlain did not disappoint, at least from the Jays’ perspective. The only thing he didn’t do for them was unlock the turnstile to the plate so what was left of the crowd could go watch fireworks. After he had loaded the bases on Tulowitzki’s single, a short, sharp double to left by Darwin Barney on which Kevin Pillar was held at third, and a walk to Ezequiel Carrera, mixed in with a couple of fielder’s choices to second that swapped out one runner for the next, it all came down to this: Josh Donaldson at the plate with a two-two count, and Pillar leading off third with the winning run. Excruciatingly, Donaldson grounded out to Mike Napoli at first to end the inning. This let Mr. Chamberlain escape to the dugout with his skin, and the tie, intact.

Now we come to the point where the two managerial paths diverged in the wood, and Terry Francona took the one less travelled by, and that made some difference, anyway, even if what he chose to do might be as significant to the last two games of the series as it was to this one. In a decision perhaps hinging largely on the fact that the Indians were trying to preserve a winning streak that had reached thirteen games, Francona decided to raid the rotation and bring Trevor Bauer, scheduled to start on Saturday, into the game, since his bullpen well had run dry.

In terms of the game in front of him, you have to say that this was a bold but ultimately successful decision. Bauer gave them five full innings, and held on to be the beneficiary of Carlos Santana’s nineteenth-inning homer that won the game. Oh, you didn’t know that? Sorry. Thought everybody knew how it turned out by now. He actually pitched pretty well, as befits a starter who came out of this game with a record of 7-2 and an ERA of 3.02. Only in the sixteenth was he in any trouble, when he induced Darwin Barney to pop out and struck out Ezequiel Carrera with runners on first and third after giving up base hits. Geez, you’d think a guy would bounce one to the backstop once in a while with a runner on third in extra innings!

Not having any more arms in his bullpen than Francona, DeMarlo Hale actually faced exactly the same decision, but his options were considerably more limited, as we shall see. Before we get to that point in the game, though, let’s look at some of the thrills and chills delivered by our relievers from the tenth inning to the seventeenth, when Hale’s well finally ran dry and he came to the same divergence on the path.

Okay, enough with the Robert Frost here, not to mention mixed metaphors. Let’s get to the performance of the Jays’ relievers, real pitchers or otherwise, from the tenth inning on.

Joe Biagini took the ball in the tenth, and skated on thin ice, hitting Jason Kipnis and giving up a single to Mike Napoli before Kevin Pillar saved his prosciutto with one of his patented catches diving to the left.

Jesse Chavez came in for the eleventh and was brilliant for three innings, setting the Indians down in order and striking out two. More often than not, Chavez’ appearances look like serious auditions for a spot in the starting rotation. After all, his resume shows two years of full participation in the Oakland rotation before coming here. His presence in the Toronto bullpen is primarily because all the starting spots are well spoken for. If somebody falters, though, it’s an open question as to whether the callup for the rotation would go to Chavez or the more obvious candidate, Drew Hutchison, now that Gavin Floyd’s stay on the DL looks to be pretty lengthy.

Drew Storen and then Bo Schultz took over from Chavez. Lonnie Chisenhall led off the fourteenth with a base hit, then advanced to second and third on ground balls, but died there as Storen chalked up a third straight ground ball out. Hale sent him back out for the fifteenth, and he got Carlos Santana on a fly ball to left before faltering. He walked Jason Kipnis, and gave up a single to Francisco Lindor that moved Kipnis around to third with one out. Hale went back to the pen and pulled out Schulz, who was basically the last man standing out there. Schultz quickly ended the uprising by getting Mike Napoli to ground into an around-the-horn double play.

That earned Schultz a return to the mound in the sixteenth. Apparently thinking he pitches better under pressure, he gave up singles to the first two hitters, just so he could feel comfy out there, Jose Ramirez going first-to-third on the single by Lonnie Chisenhall. The dark clouds gathered again for the Blue Jays, but dissipated with the advent of a brilliant sun as Schultz teased a popup, a strikeout, and a line out from the Indians to leave Ramirez gathering artificial daisies from the artificial turf around third. It’s a measure of the grit of Schultz, recently returned to the active roster after undergoing hip surgery earlier in the year, that he started to show obvious signs of discomfort in the hip area while on the mound, yet soldiered on, successfully as it turned out, because there was no one left in the bullpen. Except Ryan Goins. As they say on the internet, “Wha-a-a-a-a-t??”

You will recall that DeMarlo Hale faced the same unpalatable choice as Terry Francona, but with less flexibility. Generally, the problem Hale faced was created by the success of the rotation so far this year. Every starter is coming off an outing of 90 pitches, so the five-day rest is a real need. R.A. Dickey had thrown 92 pitches the night before. Marco Estrada is now questionable from start to start with his recurring back problems. Jay Happ was scheduled for his hard bullpen work the following day, and nobody is going to mess with Aaron Sanchez’ arm.

The TV audience probably knew about the plan to use Goins before the fans in the stands did. The bullpen camera picked him up, and his starting to throw was remarked upon by Buck and Pat. In truth, I had already thought something was odd, because I had checked the available bench listing on the on-line box score, and noticed that it showed the Jays’ bench as stripped, whereas Goins hadn’t been used yet. My first thought was that he was sick or something, and had been pulled from the lineup card. But there he was, up and throwing in the pen. It makes perfect sense when you think about it, though. If you’re going to use a position player to pitch, who better than a guy who knows all the other positions anyway, and has the strongest infield arm on the team, to boot?

So Goins took the ball in the top of the eighteenth, and, by golly, he looked good, showing poise on the mound and displaying an arsenal of interesting if sometimes dinky pitches. But earnestness and a good front don’t cut it much against major league hitters. He immediately gave up a single to Jose Ramirez, and another to Chisenhall, which sent Ramirez around to third. With the infield in, Michael Martinez hit a grounder to short, and Barney went to the plate as Chisenhall didn’t get a good jump. A rundown ensued, and Goins nominated himself fifth infielder to put the tag on the runner. Meanwhile, Ramirez and Martinez came around to second and third. Goins then issued an intentional pass to Tyler Naquin, and then made the strategy pay off by getting catcher Chris Gimenez to ground into a double play to end the inning.

The Jays had no else warming up in the bullpen, so it looked like Goins would get another inning if the Jays didn’t score against Bauer in the bottom of the eighteenth. But when they took the field for the nineteenth, low and behold, there was Darwin Barney on the mound, and Devon Travis, who had been serving as the DH in Encarnacion’s absence, at second base. The Jays thereby lost their DH, but it hardly mattered, since their pitcher’s spot would now be occupied by a position player from this point on.

Following the idea that a baseball game can theoretically go on forever, the Jays were now in the position of having no one else left on the bench or in the pen except starting pitchers, and you could imagine the game carrying on inning after inning, with the pitching chores being handed round to all the players in their turn. But, alas, it was not to be. For all of the marvellous skills he deploys from day to day on the diamond, even Darwin Barney can’t come in and pitch effectively without a warmup session in the bullpen. Of course he couldn’t warm up. He had been playing second the previous inning, and was due to hit fourth in the bottom of the eighteenth, so he had just too darn much to do to take the time to get his arm loose enough to pitch.

Sadly, perhaps inevitably, after going to three and two on leadoff hitter Carlos Santana, he served up one that was a little too juicy, and Santana juiced it back, over the fence in right centre, for the lead run that would win the marathon for the Indians. By now Barney was loose enough to retire the side in order, ending on a high note by fanning slugger Mike Napoli on a one-two count with, according to Pitch Tracker, a 78 MPH slider down and away.

Barney threw 16 pitches in his inning of work, and Goins had thrown fifteen. The results, when you compare them with most other instances when position players have been called on to pitch, were really quite good. In fact, both of them seem to have studied at the Marco Estrada school of precision and sang froid. There’s no doubt that the Jays’ manager would not hesitate to call on either of them if the need should arise again. But the question remains: why didn’t Ryan Goins, who is a gamer to the core, not answer the bell for the nineteenth inning?

With all the wind sucked out of the dome by Santana’s blast, the Jays went meekly and mildly in the bottom of the inning. Trevor Bauer only needed nine pitches to secure the win. Darwin Barney would go into the books as the loser in this one, but in another, more important book, the book of the heart, he, Ryan Goins, and Bo Schultz, jouneymen ballplayers all, are recorded as the true heroes of this wonderful and entertaining game.

The Indians have taken the first two games of the series, and their winning streak now stands at fourteen, but where does Terry Francona go from here? He decided to raid the Tribe’s starting rotation because this game was so important to his team, but what consequence will there be for making that call?

Marco Estrada is scheduled to start for Toronto tomorrow. The Cleveland starter is “to be announced”.