Long Ball Stories

It was a battle of the young guys today, Jason Montgomery, 24, versus Joe Biagini, 27, but going on 15, because who’s younger at heart than Joe Biagini?

For Biagini, tonight was the night, the biggest night of his transition to starter. The limits would be off, the pitch count forgotten, at least up to the first hundred, and he could go as far as his talent and skill could take him.

Fun fact: in this day and age when 100 pitches is the magic number, time to pull the pitcher or at the very next baserunner, in the 1968 World Series between the Tigers and the Cardinals, Bob Gibson and Mickey Lolich each started three games. Each completed three games, 27 innings. We don’t have the pitch counts readily available, but Lolich pitched game seven for the Tigers on two days’ rest after a complete game and threw another complete game to win the Series. Surprise your friends: Bob Gibson was not the MVP of the 1968 World Series. Mickey Lolich was.

Jason Montgomery, the Yankees’ starter, has flown under the radar compared to the other young giants on the team, Sanchez, Hicks, Judge, maybe because doing a steady job in the rotation isn’t as spectacular as pounding the ball out of the park. Yet the big lefty, and he is big, six foot six and 225 pounds has been one of the few consistent spots, along with Luis Severino and Michael fuss-budget Pineda, in the Yankees’ rotation.

Since Joe Girardi first handed him the ball on April twelfth against Tampa Bay for his major league debut, Montgomery had made eight more starts for the Yankees, and totalled fifty and a third innings over the nine starts prior to today’s game, pitching to an ERA of 4.11. He has provided a steady left-handed presence for the Yankees that at his age and experience may not have come as a total surprise to Yankees’ management, but has definitely exceeded whatever expectations they might have had for him for 2017.

So the young starters worked through the first two innings without any problems, Biagini on 29 pitches and Montgomery on 32. Biagini walked Aaron Judge, again not necessarily a pitching mistake, in the first, the only baserunner he allowed. Montgomery’s path was a little rockier. In the first inning Judge had to make a nice diving catch on a Texas Leaguer by Kevin Pillar, and Josh Donaldson got most of one and hit it deep to Aaron Hicks in centre. In the second Montgomery skated even closer to the edge, walking Justin Smoak and Troy Tulowitzki , followed by Devon Travis hitting one to the warning track in left. Darwin Barney popped out to short to strand the walks.

The third inning defined the outcome of the game, in terms of both starters and the final score. Biagini, who seems to be becoming the victim of a trend, was nicked for two cheap unearned runs, while Montgomery benefitted from a really fine defensive play by Chase Headley at third that reduced Toronto’s chances of coming right back to make it a game.

After Biagini fanned catcher Austin Romine to start the inning, Rob Refsnyder hit an easy grounder to short. Tulo just bobbled the play, fumbling it a couple of times so that he couldn’t make a throw. With Gardner batting, Refsnyder stole second, and then was able to advance to third on Gardner’s deep fly to centre. So, without benefit of a hit, the Yankees had a runner on third with one out, carrying an unearned run. Which scored when Aaron Hicks hit a flukey blooper down the line in right that went for a double. Then the Judge delivered Hicks with a booming double to centre that just went off Pillar’s glove as he raced back for the wall. The second run was also unearned, because the inning should have ended on Gardner’s fly to centre.

When Montgomery dodged the bullet meant for him in the bottom of the third, a through-narrative could be predicted: this would be a night for the Yankee pitcher, and not the Toronto pitcher. Luke Maile led off for Toronto and hit a hard smash down the third base line. Chase Headley made a valiant dive toward the line for the ball, and partially deflected it into foul territory. Maile had an infield hit, but Headley had definitely saved a leadoff double. So when Pillar followed with his own opposite-field base hit to right, Maile would have scored, instead of advancing to second as he did.

This would have cut the lead to 2-1, put Toronto on the board against Montgomery, and may very well have changed the approach of the Toronto Murderer’s Row of Donaldson, Bautista, and Kendrys Morales. As it was, though, Donaldson fouled out to the catcher, and the three and four hitters both went down on strikes, leaving Maile and Pillar on the bases, and Jason Montgomery pumped, no doubt.

Both pitchers posted goose eggs for the middle three innings. Biagini, in fact, starting from the last out in the third, retired ten in a row, with three strikeouts. Montgomery, pitching on the slim lead, was only a little less effective, giving up a single to Maile and a walk to Donaldson in the fifth before retiring the side on Bautista’s fielder’s choice to third.

Biagini came back out for the seventh, marking his longest and best outing so far as a starter, but hit a bit more bad luck that cost him his only earned run of the game, and ran the Yankee lead to 3-0. Starlin Castro led off with the bloopiest of bloop doubles you’d ever see. The Jays were in the usual configuration of the shift for the right-handed Castro, that is to say the infield was shifted toward left, but the outfield was more or less straight up. I still don’t get it.

Anyway, Castro got a piece of the ball and hit a high popup down the line in left that had a lot of spin on it. Darwin Barney, playing left tonight with the left-handed Montgomery on the mound for the Yankees, had a long run for it, and couldn’t get under it in time. When it hit the turf, it bounced high with so much spin on it that it bounced back over Barney’s head, and Castro made an easy if cheap two-bagger out of it. Then didn’t Didi Gregorius, hitting from the other side, hit almost exactly the same ball, to the same location, but with left-handed spin on it. It hit just inside the foul line and spun away from Barney into foul territory almost to the wall. Castro scored, Gregorius ended up on second, and Barney must have been wondering when the game of go fetch might end.

Biagini got three ground balls to get out of the inning, one of which resulted in Gregorius trying to advance to third on a ball to short and being tagged out by Donaldson with an asssist to Tulowitzki.

Half-way through the seventh, both pitchers were done. If you looked at their lines, you’d see that Biagini had slightly the better of the numbers, and Montgomery had slightly the better of the good fortune. Biagini went seven innings, gave up one earned run on four hits with one walk and six strikeouts on exactly 100 pitches. Montgomery, who would not come out for the Jays’ seventh, went six innings, gave up no runs on three hits, walked three and struck out five on 103 pitches.

Well done, young fellas, and I hope you enjoyed your shakes at the milk bar after the game.

Adam Warren picked up Montgomery in the seventh and pitched around a walk to Zeke Carrera who hit for Barney and also stole a base. Tyler Clippard took over in the eighth and retired the Bash Boys in the two/three/four slots on 13 pitches, and then Dellin Betances threw 13 pitches to retire Toronto in the ninth, despite walking Tulowitzki. Betances came in despite the Yankees’ seven-run lead, presumably because he needed the work, not having been used yet in this series.

Wait a minute. Seven-run lead? Didn’t Biagini only give up three, only one earned? Seven runs?

Well, try this one on for size: Jason Grilli came in to pitch the eighth for Toronto and the Yankees hit Four. Solo. Home. Runs. Off. Him. Gardner hit one out leading off. Hicks hit one hard but right at Carrera in left. Judge was called out on strikes. Then the parade. Holliday hit one out. Castro hit one out. Gregorius hit one out.

It was horrible. I felt like I was watching Jason Grilli’s career swirl down the drain and wash away to the sea. This was beyond any concern about the game being out of reach. Three runs is usually plenty enough for the Yankees’ bullpen, so the runs were probably superfluous. And it wasn’t like John Gibbons was going to waste another arm to finish it off, though in the end he did have mercy and brought J.P. Howell in to get the last out, a redemption of sorts for Howell after yesterday’s disastrous stint to be able to retire Headley on a grounder to Smoak on only three pitches.

Though it would be very sad to see, I would not be at all surprised if Jason Grilli has thrown his last pitch for Toronto. With Joe Smith firmly ensconced as the setup man, the heady days of 2016’s BenGriNa are long over, and life, and baseball, move on.

Just to wrap it up, Danny Barnes came on for Howell and chewed through the Yankees on eight pitches. Barn door open. Nothing left of the horse except a pile of what horses always leave behind.

It’s Marcus Stroman versus Luis (“Do I get two shots at him if I miss the first one?”) Severino tomorrow. Apparently, Severino has been colouring inside the lines this year, so it’ll be a tough matchup for Toronto to split the series.

Oh, the pressure was terrible.

The Yankees had scored a wipeout win in game one of the series and we had to get that game back. Michael Pineda was pitching for New York and he’s had a good year so far, but usually struggles at the TV Dome. And tonight marked the return of Francisco Liriano to the mound after a stint on the disabled list.

Like I said, the pressure was terrible. And that’s just me.

One batter into the game, the pressure, on Liriano and on the Blue Jays was not theoretical, not something airy and vague, but real and immediate. The one thing that Liriano and his mates absolutely did not need after last night’s embarrassing walkover was leadoff batter Brett Gardiner standing on third base courtesy of a three-base error by left-fielder Zeke Carrera.

Back in April Greg Wisniewski published a fascinating article on Baseball Prospectus Toronto, “Coming Up Short: Ezequiel Carrera’s Hidden Problem”, that you can read here: ,http://toronto.locals.baseballprospectus.com/2016/04/27/coming-up-short-ezequiel-carreras-hidden-problem/ The article was based on an interview with Carrera, in which he told how he had realized from studying videos of his own play in the outfield that he had often over-run balls and missed them by reaching too far, not slowing down at the right moment, and so on, and he had determined that he’d been being misguided by a perception that his glove arm, or more accurately his reach, wasn’t as long as it actually was, and he would regularly sense that he was still going to come up short when he had in fact already reached the right spot to make contact with the ball. He revealed, in fact, that he had often been teased as a child by the other kids for having short arms, and this had created an on-going body-image misperception that actually interfered with his fielding as I’ve described. If you looked back over videos of bad Carrera plays in the outfield you would see that almost all of them were caused by his over-running the ball.

Watching the replay of Gardner’s admittedly tricky slice into the left-field corner, that somehow made contact with Carrera’s back side because he had over-run the ball, suggested immediately to me that he had run into that old problem again. In any case, Gardner was on third, Zeke was sheepishly in the doghouse, to mix up my animals a little, and Liriano was in the deep doo-doo, only six pitches into the game.

Ah, but this was the post-disabled-list, new and improved Francisco Liriano, the guy we saw when he arrived from Pittsburgh last year, and his help-mate and support, Russell Martin, wasn’t even behind the plate, still sitting out with that vaguely-descibed muscle strain problem. (Not that it matters these days, as well as Luke Maile has been doing behind the dish.)

All Liriano had to do was retire Gary Sanchez, Aaron Judge, and Matt Holliday to strand Gardner at third. So Sanchez hit a hard chopper to third. Josh Donaldson, playing maybe half-way, gloved it smartly to his left, glanced Gardner back to third, and fired out Sanchez.

Up to the plate strode the imposing figure of Aaron Judge. (I pledge to you all hear and now that I will never use the line “Here come de judge!” to refer to Aaron Judge.) If pitchers around the league are learning anything about Aaron Judge, it’s not to throw him fastballs, and generally not to throw him anything above his shoelaces, unless it’s really high, and really fast. The PitchCast chart for Liriano’s strikeout of Aaron Judge makes it look like Liriano was trying to extinguish a particularly annoying bunch of ants that was threatening his picnic. Only Liriano’s first pitch, called a ball by plate umpire Adrian Johnson, a low and outside four-seamer, might have been on the black. Everything else was headed for the dirt, with Liriano trusting that his catcher would catch or block them all. Judge laid off the second one, a changeup for a ball, but then he couldn’t resist, and starting swinging. He swung over a fast ball, a chageup, and one of Liriano’s finest, a slider. Judge was out, and Gardner still on third, now with two outs.

On a 1-2 pitch, Matt Holliday got under an inside pitch and hit a lazy fly ball to left. The happiest person in the ball park, beside Francisco Liriano, must have been Zeke Carrera as he settled under the can of corn for the third out, while Gardner trotted down the line, abandoned by his mates, his run stranded by the Jays’ starter.

So what other writer do you know could tease 773 words out of the top of the first inning of a ball game. Well, you know what? I’m proud of it. I’ll wear it. I own it. That half inning might have been the entire ball game.

Because, by god, whether it was inspired by Liriano’s tough stand or not, what happened in the bottom of the first, after the miracle of the top half of the inning, put Toronto completely in charge of this game, a position which they never relinquished.

After Kevin Pillar led off against Pineda by pounding one up the middle that Starlin Castro fielded in the shift to throw him out, Donaldson came up, took one pitch for a ball, and crushed the next one to left for a 1-0 Jays’ lead. His shot looked like it was going to be solo lightning in a bottle when Jose Bautista skied weakly to left for the second out, but then the fussin’ and fiddlin’ Michael Pineda that we’ve all come to know and love (not!) became obsessed with pitching Kendrys Morales low and away. After he managed to throw one low in the zone for a 1-1 count, he threw three in the dirt and turned his attention to Justin Smoak with two on and two out.

After throwing his fourth straignt in the dirt for ball one to Smoak, Pineda gave up and threw a strike, any strike, a four-seamer in the zone, which was exactly what Smoak was looking for, and suddenly Pineda and the Yankees were down 3-0 after one.

Now it wasn’t like Liriano settled down and just blew the lights out after the first inning. He had more moments in the second and third, moments, in fact, to rival the first, if you like that sort of thing. In the second he had to strike out Didi Gregorius and induce Chase Headley to fly out to left after Double-or-Nothing Aaron Hicks hit a one-out double to right centre.

The third was fun, and had a different flavour all its own. Chris Carter, hitting ninth, started things off with a ground-rule double to centre. When Liriano walked Gardner, it was a cue for the “oh, no-o-o” groans to start. Gary Sanchez then hit one right on the nose on a line at Devon Travis. Luckily for the Yankees, both runners avoided wandering off into what could very possibly have been a Toronto triple play.

So, two outs, runners on first and second, Aaron Judge at the plate: walking him: a good thing, or a bad thing, with Matt Holliday looming on deck with his menacing veteran National League vibe going for him. In this case, a good thing, because Holliday hit into a fine and sharp around-the-horn double play initiated by a good Donaldson grab, and ended by a great Smoak scoop. Still 3-0. Whaddaya think of that?

The Blue Jays were so excited by the sharp play they had just pulled off that they added a run in the bottom of the inning by playing good old-fashioned baseball. Bautista worked Pineda for a 3-2 walk after being behind 1-2. Then, if you can believe it, they started Bautista with Morales at the plate. this opened a seam in the New York shift deployed against Morales. The cleanup hitter hit the seam with precision, and Bautista sailed around to third, a perfect hit-and-run. The new-model Justin Smoak came up looking for a pitch to drive and got it, going fairly deep to centre field, plenty enough to plate Bautista with a sacrifice fly, and Liriano had a lovely add-on run to work with.

Seemingly heartened by that taste of pretty baseball, Liriano set the Yankees down in order on only six pitches in the fourth inning, and turned it back to the offence. With some help from the sloppy Pineda, theystretched the lead once more. Luke Maile, who is showing a penchant for the key base hit despite his low average, led off with a single to centre. Aaron Hicks, showing off his athleticism, made a nice sliding catch on a sinking liner by Kevin Pillar, which actually averted a big inning for Toronto. Josh Donaldson made the second out with a fly ball to centre, bringing Bautista back to the plate, and this time he was on the back end of a surprising first-to-third dash by Maile, who’s pretty agile for a catcher, when he singled to right. This left Maile in position to score on a wild pitch by Pineda, and Liriano’s cushion was up to five.

This was even more of a tonic for the Venezuelan lefty, who merely came out in the fifth and struck out the side, Chase Headley, Chris Carter, and Brett Gardner, on fifteen pitches. On the other hand, Pineda had another rocky inning, though this time he managed to keep Toronto off the board. Justin Smoak, continuing to make effective contact however he can, dropped a Texas Leaguer into left. Troy Tulowitzki followed with a single to centre. Devon Travis blunted the threat by bouncing into a double play with Smoak going to third. But Pineda still walked Zeke Carrera before fanning Luke Maile, who can’t do everything, to end the inning.

Liriano’s fun night on his return to the mound ended quickly in the sixth, with a couple of not-so-fun at-bats that caused John Gibbons to call for reinforcements for Liriano.

Gary Sanchez singled to centre leading off, and somebody—is that you hiding back there young Mr. Liriano?—finally grooved a fast ball to Aaron Judge, and he judiciously pounded it over the fence in right field to cut the Toronto lead to 5-2. Cue the laconic Gibbie march to the mound, and the call to the bullpen for Danny Barnes.

For only the fifth time in eighteen appearances this year, Barnes came in with gas, rather than heat, to throw on the fire. He walked Matt Holliday on a 3-2 pitch, and then free swinger Starlin Castro didn’t wait around for any old balls and strikes, but lined the first one over the fence in right centre to tighten the noose to 5-4. For some reason Barnes didn’t have his strikeout mojo working, and he was a bit lucky that he threw several right-at-ems. Hicks lined out to right. Gregorius singled to right. Headley flew out to left. Chris Carter flew out to right to end the inning.

For once Toronto was in the position to push the ante up on its opponent, with the Yankees having closed the gap. Joe Girardi decided not to risk more foolishness from Pineda, and brought in Johnathon Holder to try to keep the Jays close. Holder, a big (what else?) young righty didn’t quite do the job, retiring three but giving up Donaldson’s second homer of the night, a solo shot to left that gave the Jays a little breathing room.

Aaron Loup started the seventh for Toronto and did his matchup job, striking out Brett Gardner on four pitches, then yielding to Ryan Tepera to pitch to the next four right-handed batters. If he were a hitter he’d have done really well, “batting” .500; but that means he fanned Gary Sanchez for the second out, and Starlin Castro for the third, but in the meantime walked Aaron Judge, and gave up a double over Kevin Pillar’s head to Matt Holliday. Judge, who may look somewhat like an ostrich, runs more like a gazelle, and scored from first with two outs, to cut the Toronto lead once again to one. (Actually, that’s not a great line, because as I recall ostriches run pretty damned fast as well.)

How many times have we been in this boat:? Time for somebody else to suffer. As soon as the Yankees cut the lead to one, they gave the run back to us, via an error by Chris Carter at first that allowed Justin Smoak to reach leading off. It was a curious play, actually. The Yankees were in the usual extreme switch for Smoak, with Castro playing a deep rover in right centre. Smoak hit a medium-speed grounder out to Castro. The latter had a long throw to first, it was a little off the mark, and Carter was charged with an error for not keeping contact with the bag. There comes a point when the placement of the second baseman, no matter how accurate it might be to the hitting charts, means he is being asked to make throws that are well beyond the comfort zone of any previous experience.

In this case it could be argued that the shift was responsible for the unearned run. Tulo followed Smoak with a double to left, bringing Smoak around to third whence he scored on another—can you believe it—sacrifice fly, this time delivered by Travis.

With the 7-5 lead, Joe Smith came in for the eighth. After giving up a leadoff single to Aaron Hicks, who never gives up, Smith kept the ball between himself and the catcher by striking out Gregorius, retiring Headley on a comebacker, and taking Carter’s soft liner himself. This guy Smith is making a name for himself.

After Chasen Shreve breezed through the Toronto ninth, Roberto Osuna did the same for the Blue Jays, finishing the game off with an electric strikeout of Aaron Judge on three pitches, Judge reaching to foul the first two off as Osuna climbed the ladder to the clincher, a 95 mph fast ball on the upper outside corner. The only difference between Shreve’s ninth and Osuna’s ninth, besides the fact that Osuna threw eight pitfhes to Shreve’s sixteen, is that Osuna got an “S” for his efforts.

So Francisco Liriano returns to the mound, performs a Houdini act for three innings and then cruises for two, Josh Donaldson hits two homers, Justin Smoak hits a two-run dinger for the early lead, and Toronto goes wire-to-wire for the win that ties the series.

Sure, the Yankees have a big lead in aggregate runs, but this ain’t soccer, eh?

A question we never asked: what if Marco Estrada came out to pitch and forgot to bring his good changeup?

Today, we found out. All pitchers will have a bad outing from time to time. The difference between a power pitcher and a finesse pitcher is that when a power pitcher has a bad day, he comes out and can’t find the plate, is all over the place, and it’s very easy for the manager to put it down to control problems and pull the plug, because you can’t sit there and watch him miss the strike zone all day.

But with the finesse pitcher who is having a bad day, the problem is usually location within the strike zone, which means that he’s still hitting the strike zone, but not where he wants to, or without the same kind of spin that he usually has. In the case of the finesse pitcher having a bad day, the results can be pretty ugly. In fact, only a masochist would seek out a broadcast of the “Blue Jays in 30” to go over the highlights of tonight’s game.

On the second pitch of the game, Brett Gardner doubled to right. Because of Marco Estrada’s recent tendency to give up one booming hit in the first inning and then settle down, it was easy enough to mutter imprecations and move on. It was easy to ignore the pop in Gary Sanchez’ bat when he lined out to Kevin Pillar in centre for the first out, which moved Gardner to third. Doesn’t he always throw fly balls, sometimes to hard contact?

It was less easy to ignore the single that Aaron Judge hit through the left side to count Gardner with the first run, though, of course Judge is a beast at the plate, it was only one run, a DP ball will finish it off, and all that.

Not so easy to ignore that Darwin Barney, spelling Devon Travis at second because of a “sore” Travis knee, maybe played a possible double-play ball off the bat of Matt Holiday into a single into no-man’s-land that let Judge storm around to third. Sometimes you need stellar defence to help a pitcher settle down, and it doesn’t help if you don’t get it.

A little more worrisome still was the four-pitch walk to Starlin Castro, though somehow I always feel like there’s hardly any difference between first and third and one out and bases loaded and one out. It’s easy to rationalize while the storm clouds gather. We breathed a little easier when Estrada struck out Didi Gregorius on what was actually a very good Estrada changeup.

But then switch-hitter Aaron Hicks, swinging port-side like Gardner, showed us the difference between two on and the bases loaded: when somebody hits a bases-loaded double, an extra run scores, and even though number eight hitter Chase Headley and the Yankees were retired on a short fly to centre, Toronto was down 4-0 before ever swinging a bat in this early-season “crucial” series. And curiously, for Estrada, the ball never left the yard.

As the Jays came up for the first time, the question was whether this was going to be one of “those” games, with runs scoring willy-nilly on both sides, or whether it was essentially over already. But when C.C. Sabathia came out and went groundout-strikeout-strikeout on Kevin Pillar, Josh Donaldson, and Jose Bautista, all on thirtees pitches, we kind of had the answer.

Oh, and that thing about the ball not even leaving the yard? That didn’t last very long for Estrada. Despite the fact that he emulated Sabathia in going groundout-strikeout-strikeout in the second inning, with two outs already in the bag the ball finally did leave the park, courtesy of the bat of Gary Sanchez, and Aaron Judge reached base again, this time on a base on balls.

As Toronto led off the bottom of the second, the question about one of “those” games arose briefly, but wasn’t sustainable against the crafty slants of the portly, aging lefty Sabathia. Kendrys Morales got a base hit. Justin Smoak got a base hit. With those two on base, the Jays weren’t going to run themselves into a rally, so it was up to the lineup to keep putting the ball safely in play. But Troy Tulowitzki flew out to right, Darwin Barney hit a short fly to centre, and Zele Carrera struck out. Morales and Smoak never budged off first and second.

You can always hope, of course, but sometimes it’s just a bunch of wasted emotion. This was one of the days when we should have put the hope away early. It would have been easier.

But then there was the third that made us hold on a little. Estrada got Starlin Castro and Didi Gregorius on popups and Chase Headley on a grounder to Smoak, even though Aaron Hicks had a two-out single. Only fourteen pitches, too. Now, if we could only solve Sabathia. And after two outs, a glimmer: a solid double by Donaldson to right. Unfortunately, Jose Bautista followed by driving Headley to the track in left, but still, they hit the ball hard, Josh and Jose, didn’t they?

There’s nothing worse when you’re going on faint hope to see the other team go in the opposite direction before you can even get untracked. In the fourth inning the Yankees pushed the lead to seven on a home run by Gary Sanchez after a single by Headley. Let it be noted here that plate umpire Gabe Morales had stiffed Estrada on a called third strike on Sanchez—look at pitch four on the chart if you don’t believe me. Now maybe if these were the first Yankee runs you might go all ballistic about this, but when it’s New York’s sixth and seventh it’s another story.

After the Sanchez homer Estrada fanned Aaron Judge, an event worthy of its own special line in the box score in a just world, and then gave up a single to Headley, the last batter Estrada faced.

John Gibbons brought in Leonel Campos—remember him?–to pick up Estrada, and he got a ground ball for the last out.

Just in case you haven’t figured it out, yes the Jays designated Mike Bolsinger for assignment, and brought Campos back up for a one-day guest appearance, since he’ll be going back to Buffalo after the game to make room for Francisco Liriano, who’s finished his rehab stint and will start tomorrow night.

It’s interesting that this shuffling of pitchers between Triple A and the majors, while it’s always gone on, and despite that it seems more common these days with the advent of the ten-day disabled list, still has its advantages both for the team and the individual pitcher. Whoever picks up Mike Bolsinger has a body of recent work to look at on his resumé for reference. When, not if, Toronto recalls Dominic Leone they will know exactly what they are getting, and he will come up knowing he can do his job. And so with Campos, the 29-year-old Venezuelan who had appeared in 25 games over three seasons with the Padres prior to being picked up by the Jays off waivers last November.

Gibbie got a nice night’s work out of Campos, and this outing just adds another name to the list of possible replacement pieces that the team’s management knows can be relied on.

After Campos finished off the fourth for Estrada, he retired the side in order in the fifth

and fanned Hicks and Headley. In the sixth he walked Cris Carter leading off and then fanned Gardner and Sanchez before getting Judge to hit into a fielder’s choice. In the seventh, he got three straight ground balls and should have been out of the game with a final clean inning, except that with two outs Darwin Barney failed to handle Didi Gregorius’ grounder to second, and the error opened the gates to two unearned runs that reached on the only two base hits he allowed.

Yet after weeks of starters averaging less than six innings a game, overtaxing a bullpen that has been shortened by John Gibbons’ lack of confidence in J. P. Howell and the transition of Joe Biagini to the rotation, Campos’ contribution was huge tonight, and his line was pretty darn good as well: three innings pitched, two unearned runs, two hits, one walk, four strikeouts, and a wild pitch that didn’t figure in the scoring, on 48 pitches. He’ll go back to Buffalo all right, but with an open ticket to return to Toronto at the next opportunity. In the meantime, that’s not a bad Buffalo bullpen with Leone and Campos in the back end.

Gibbie had to go back to the ‘pen before the end of the seventh, because he had to look at pitch count for Campos after the inning was prolonged. Now down 9-0, it was an opportunity to give the ball to J.P. Howell and see what he might do.

Howell quickly finished the seventh and then encouragingly pitched a tidy eighth, retiring the top of the order on eleven pitches, striking out Sanchez, who may have hit a homer today but went down on strikes for the second time here, and Judge, who also went down for the second time. I might mention that for all his talent, Aaron Judge can still look as foolish as the next guy chasing a breaking ball with two strikes on him.

After Howell had picked up Campos in the seventh, the Jays finally got on the board in the bottom of the seventh, as C.C. Sabathia’s fine outing was winding down. After Kendrys Morales broke the shutout with a leadoff homer, Manager Joe Girardi gave the veteran lefty one more batter, and he benefitted from a terrible call from plate umpire Morales to catch Justin Smoak looking. Again, you can look it up: the pitch was one full grid square outside. Morales must have had an early dinner reservation after the game.

Chad Green came on to finish up for the Yankees, and with the lead they were sitting on, he could be pretty sure that he was going to carry it home for the Yanks, unless somebody nailed him with a line drive. Green finished off Troy Tulowitzki and Darwin Barney on seven pitches, then came back out for the eighth to face Zeke Carrera, who homered off him to put the score at 9-2. Luke Maile singled to left, and Kevin Pillar stirred some hearts by hitting it hard, but right at centre-fielder Aaron Hicks, and then Josh Donaldson grounded into a double play.

So Howell came back out for the top of the ninth, hoping to finish off a good audition for further work. But he ran into trouble of his own, and to his great frustration had to be rescued himself by Ryan Tepera, a move John Gibbons surely did not want to make.

Matt Holiday led off with a single, and then Howell fanned Ronald Torreyes, who had been inserted at second for Starlin Castro at the start of the eighth. Didi Gregorius singled Holliday to second, bringing Aaron Hicks to the plate. With all the attention that the other Aaron has been getting, this Aaron has been flying a bit under the radar. But with Jacoby Ellsbury out under the concussion protocol, Hicks is getting a chance in the sun and he’s taking full advantage. It was his double to left, plating both Holliday and Gregorius, that finished off Howell, and brought him into the dugout exploding with frustration.

Tepera gave up a single to Headley which finished Howell’s record with three earned runs before retiring the side. But there have to be consequences for a bullpen that has to heat up a major late-inning arm and use him for ten pitches to finish off the ninth in a blowout. Somewhere off stage the sound of an axe chunking into a tree is heard.

The television cameras were quite fascinated to observe J.P. Howell’s mini-tantrum in the dugout, an intrusion that I would prefer they not make. But the focus on Howell in the dugout gave us an interesting insight into the Jose Bautista that you don’t normally see. After stomping around for a while, and looking for innocuous things like paper cups to crush and fire against the back wall, Howell finally sat down and dropped his head into his hands, the picture of misery. Bautista came over, stood near him, and just put his hand on Howell’s shoulder and left it there for a moment before moving away. But then the camera caught him coming back to Howell, twice, and just resting that hand on that shoulder for a moment before walking off. It was an intimate moment of a kind you don’t expect to see in the midst of a sports engagement.

Chad Green gave the rest of the Yankee bullpen a break by finishing off neatly, with the added flourish of striking out Morales and Smoak to end Toronto’s misery, and any hopeful dream of sweeping the Yankees, and radically altering the landscape of the American League East in one dizzying weekend.

Now the best they can do is three out of four, and that starts tomorrow night with Francisco Liriano returning to the hill.

But first, for Leonel Campos, not good-bye, but see you soon.

The life of a pitcher on the bubble in major league baseball is not an easy one.

Consider the situation of Mike Bolsinger as John Gibbons gave him the ball for today’s start against the Cincinnati Reds. A veteran major leaguer with limited service yet out of options, Bolsinger has to stay with Toronto on the 25-man roster, clear waivers and be reassigned to Buffalo to await another inevitable callup to Toronto, and eventually end up in the same situation he is now, or be claimed off waivers by any other team, even and especially including the Cincinnati team he faced today, and signed to a major-league contract.

The reason he is in this situation is that having been brought up from Buffalo to fill in in the absence of up to three Toronto starters, he can’t just be sent back there, because of what I’ve just outlined. Jay Happ has already returned to the rotation, and Francisco Liriano is returning for a start Friday night against the Yankees, which will require someone—Bolsinger—to be removed from the active roster, since with only Aaron Sanchez still out for an indeterminate amount of time, the Sanchez spot would appear to be reasonably well-covered by Joe Biagini.

Thus he was in the position I’ve suggested in my title, of hearing, after the game, even if he went seven good innings, something to the effect of, “Great job, Mike! Here’s your hat. What’s your hurry?”

On the other hand, this is a year of great opportunity for journeyman starting pitchers, given the absolutely incredible attrition of rotation members in the major leagues this year. Look at Seattle, which was missing four starters when we played them on the road. And one team that could be taking a good look at Bolsinger was right in front of him today. The Reds have had to fill in with Lisalverto Bonilla and Asher Wojie in the first two games of this series, and only today were able to start Tim Adleman, who was actually projected to be a rotation member. Would I claim Mike Bolsinger off waivers for the Reds and put him in the rotation? In a minute.

I have to interject a note of extreme petty jealousy here. I’m not proud of it, I would like it not to be, but there it is. I cannot disavow it. I have to own it. Unbeknownst to me until just a few minutes ago, my grand-daughter was actually in attendance at this week-day May game, games for which the Jays sell lots of packages to schools. She was there. (Spoiler alert): She saw Joey Votto hit a home town homer. She saw Luke Maile hit a home run to tie the game. She saw Devon Travis hit a home run to win the game. She was there. I was not. I am bereft. Who was there to explain the fine points to her?

Now (sob!) back to the game.

It might have looked like the Jays were at a disadvantage this afternoon in trying to win their eighth of nine games, since they were the ones starting a fill-in instead of their opponents, who actually had a rotation member on the hill for once.

And yet, after one inning it was clear that Toronto was in the driver’s seat, and had the Cincinnati Reds right where they wanted them: sitting on a 2-1 lead against the home team. After all, hadn’t the Reds jumped out into a lead in the first inning of each of the first two games of this series, only to have Toronto end up on the long end of the score?

Things looked pretty good for Bolsinger to start the first inning, as he managed to keep Billy Hamilton off the bases, striking him out with high heat after fighting back from a 3-0 count. Even the ensuing base hit he gave up to Zack Cozart was a good thing, because his blast off the wall in left was hit so hard and handled so well by Chris Coghlan, playing left today, Cozart was held to a single, keeping the double play in order.

As I’ve already noted, though, limiting Cozart to a walk or a single instead of an extra-base hit is a good thing, but only keeping in mind that it does result in Joey Votto coming to the plate with a man on. This time it wasn’t a good thing, because the confident Votto turned on a good curve ball from Bolsinger, down and in but a strike, and drilled it to centre. The Reds had an instant two-run lead, and Bolsie had to limit the damage. He fanned Adam Duvall, and retired Eugenio Suarez on a sharp grounder to third on which super-sub third baseman Russell Martin made an even sharper backhand grab, ending with a strong throw to retire Suarez.

These days it seems like a little incentive is a positive influence on the Jays. How else do you explain a Toronto team that would go to work down 2-0 in the first and immediately get a run back with a combination of a single, a hit-and-run single, and a sacrifice fly by the cleanup hitter?

With Kevin Pillar finally getting a night off, maybe to try to shake up the batting slump he’s in, Devon Travis led off, and grounded out to first. Zeke Carrera singled to right, and broke for second as Jose Bautista rifled a single to left, which still allowed Carrera to make it to third. First-inning hit and run? No way, Jose! Kendrys Morales picked out a nice driveable 2-0 pitch to loft deep enough to left to score Carrera, and Toronto was on the board and Bolsinger down only 2-1.

As he often does, however, Bolsinger walked, so to speak, right back into trouble, issuing passes to Scott Schebler and Scooter Genette to lead off the inning. It almost seems like Bolsie’s not comfortable if he’s not surrounded by friendly opponents. This time he got the ground ball from Tucker Barnhart and his infield turned a double play, with Schebler going to third. But then with two down Jose Peraza hit a ground-rule double to right centre, and Schebler trotted in, restoring the two-run Cinci lead before Billy Hamilton popped out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the second a rare mental lapse by Russell Martin cost Toronto a chance to cut the Reds’ lead back to one again. Martin had led off with a solid single to left, but after Adleman walked Chris Coghlan, Martin carelessly got himself picked off second for the first out of the inning. Since Ryan Goins drew another walk from Adleman after the pass to Coghlan, Martin would have been on third with nobody out when Luke Maile muscled a solid fly to centre that would easily have gone as a sacrifice fly, but Martin was back on the bench by then.

Bolsie walked Cozart leading off the third, like I’ve been saying, a move that I generally like because I’d rather he not beat you with the homer. In the first inning he got burned by letting Cozart on when Votto followed with the homer. This time no problem, as the Toronto righty got the Toronto native on a weak fly to left, and retired Duvall and Suarez in quick succession. Adleman returned the favour after Zeke Carrera’s leadoff single, and both pitchers rolled on through the fourth without a baserunner.

Bolsinger continued to roll through the fifth, racking up nine outs in a row, and even picking up a couple of strikeouts to run his total to six on the game, by fanning Peraza and Cozart, wrapped around a Hamilton roundup. Who is this guy, and do we need to rethink the roster plan?

Adleman matched Bolsinger out for out and strikeout for strikeout. Almost. With two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Ryan Goins, playing shortstop for Troy Tulowitzki in John Gibbons’ alternate-world plan of resting Donaldson and Tulo and giving Maile the game behind the dish, threw a nasty little monkey wrench into Adleman’s works and testified to his manager’s genius by dropping a perfectly-executed bunt toward third on a 2-1 pitch and was on with a base hit.

With two outs and nobody on this might have seemed a rather quixotic notion, especially with the number nine hitter Maile coming to the plate. But then the other coin dropped on Gibbie’s intuitive chops as the otherwise-light-hitting Maile jerked one hard into the seats in left. Suddenly, just when you were lulled to a fitful sleep by a couple of effective if not spectacular pitching performances, the game was all tied up.

After that, Bolsie even got to come out to start the sixth, his longest outing for the Jays thus far. But his streak of outs was rudely cut off by home plate umpire Carlos Torres at nine when the latter didn’t give him a 3-2 pitch high on the black (check it out for yourself) against Votto leading off the inning. He struck out Duvall for the second time on the night, but Suarez followed with a single, and that was enough for Gibbie, who decided to call it a night (a season?) on Mike Bolsinger.

Faced with the lefties Schebler and Gennett, Gibbie brought Aaron Loup in from the pen, and burnished his little “Genius” star a bit more when Loup fanned both to end the inning. Adleman ended his outing with a flourish by retiring the side in his half of the fifth, adding a KO of Russell Martin to finish off his night with his fifth strikeout.

Jason Grilli came on in the seventh for Toronto and contributed some patented Jason-Grilli-type dramatics to the scene. Oh, he got Tucker Barnhart easily enough on a grounder to second. But then Jose Peraza, the little pest, bunted his way on, no doubt thinking, “take that, Ryan Goins!” Then he stole second, which put him one up on Goins. But unfortunately for the Reds, there was no Luke Maile lurking in the shadows to drive him home. Billy Hamilton slapped a late, lazy fly to left, and then Grilli did what Grilli does best, fanned Zach Cozart with high heat. Actually, what Grilli does best is the fist pump afterwards, but as we have learned this season, he has to earn it first. This time it was a yes.

Came the Jays’ seventh, the end of the line for Tim Adleman, and the arrival of Wandy Peralta, who must have been a short-order cook in a previous life, because he sure knows how to make a hash of things.

Peralta started off not badly, putting pinch-hitter Kevin Pillar, hitting for Chris Coghlan in the hole at 0-1 before Pillar grounded out to short. He quickly jumped ahead of Goins 1-2, before going off the tracks and burying three straight balls for the walk. Luke Maile wasn’t able to find lightning in a bottle twice and flew out to centre. Then when Devon Travis stood in at the plate, Peralta became strangely concerned with Goins at first, and threw over there three times before throwing a pitch to Travis. As if Goins were going to steal, which would have been silly in the circustance. Even in terms of keeping Goins close to shorten his jump with two outs, the preoccupation with throwing over didn’t make sense because it was obvious that Goins didn’t have much of a lead.

The Travis at bat went like this: three throws to first, two balls, two fouls, for a 2-2 count. Another pickoff attempt (number four). Two more foul balls, then pickoff attempt number five. Suitably wound up now, Peralta did just what he didn’t want to do, and handed Goins second base by uncorking one that went over everybody’s head and actually bounced over the screen into the seats behind the plate. Then Travis fouled off pitch number eight. Finally, as so often happens in an at-bat like this, number nine was an “oh here, hit it somewhere” pitch. It was at the top of the zone, and on the inner half, and where Travis hit it was high and deep to straitaway left, and we had to wait to see if it would clear the fence. It did.

The lead brought Joe Smith in for Toronto for the top of the eighth, and he was at his best, taking fifteen pitches to strike out Votto and Suarez, and get Duvall to fly out to centre.

Drew Storen, if you can believe it, pitched the bottom of the eighth for Cincinnati, and pitched like it was 2016 and he was a Blue Jay . . .. in an alternative universe, where he actually fulfilled the optimism the Toronto management had for him when they traded Ben Revere to the Nationals for him. Really, striking out Bautista and Morales before getting Smoak to line out to first in foul territory. What’s up with that?

The Reds’ ninth brought the game to a close with some of the highest drama we’ve seen this year. It was Roberto Osuna’s game to close, of course, and not a good one for him at all. With every pitch the pile of little bits of fingernails grew at my feet.

On the first one Scott Schebler narrowed the lead to one with his sixteenth homer of the season to right field. Scooter Gennett struck out. But Tucker Barnhart, of all people, got his first hit of the series, a base hit to centre. With Patrick Kivlehan at first running for Barnhart and the Jays in a moderate shift to right with the lefty Peraza up, Osuna got what he needed, a game-ending double-play ball to Ryan Goins, stationed right behind the bag at second. But Goins, whom I just called for to take over short full time while the Jays trade Troy Tulowitzki, came up on the ball. It deflected off his glove for an error with Kivlehan reaching third.

The only thing I can say other than that shit happens is that Goins may have been rushing because Peraza’s speed in the past three games had gotten into the heads of the Jays, and Goins was rushing the play.

With that same speed, Peraza stole second to eliminate the next (we should be so lucky) double play. Unfazed or not, Osuna saved the game, the day, the series sweep, and Goins’ face by buckling down and fanning Billy Hamilton and the—need I say it?–dangerous Zack Cozart.

Today’s win and the sweep over Cincinnati brought Toronto to within one game of .500, and set them up for the big four-game home series with the league-leading Yankees starting Thursday night. It’s early for a crucial series, but you can’t call it anything else.

Meanwhile, journeyman Mike Bolsinger, nice guy who gives good effort, was packing his things and waiting for the inevitable phone call. But if the Jays can figure out how to do it, especially if another starter goes down, I don’t think we’ve seen the last of the curve-balling righty in a Toronto uniform this year.