Today is St. Jean Baptiste Day, la fête nationale du Quebec. While it’s possible that Montreal native Russell Martin ordered poutine for the Jays’ post-game snack, if he had ordered the flooding of the clubhouse for a little celebratory log-rolling, that would have been cancelled after another dispiriting one-run loss to the Chicago White Sox.
The Pale Hose, who looked so good earlier in the year are now wallowing around the .500 mark, amid rumours that ace starter Chris Sale is on the trading block. Dumping the salary of the best pitcher in the league for future prospects is a pretty sure sign that your season isn’t going anywhere. However, tonight they were good enough for the win as the Jays yet again squandered chance after chance, and utterly failed to support Aaron Sanchez, who laboured, to be sure, but turned in another quality start. Though it pains me to say it, neither team showed much evidence tonight that it was up for making a serious run at post-season play this year.
It’s kind of funny, when you think of it, that such a stuffy-sounding synonym for the White Sox ever got traction. Mind you, you don’t hear it much any more. And isn’t it kind of strange that the Red Sox were never known as the “Scarlet Hose”? Or were they?
Tonight’s game was a dreary affair on both sides. Aaron Sanchez struggled with his control, and allowed baserunners in every inning he pitched. Though he normally works quickly, the number of times he was in trouble tonight dictated that the game would slow right down when the Sox were at bat. On the other hand, Sox starter Carlos Rodon, along with Sanchez an up-and-coming young starter who’s also 23 years old, slows the game down just by putting his uniform on. They used to call the twitchy Mike Hargroves, who was probably suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, come to think of it, the “human rain delay” for his agonizingly ritualistic pattern of patting various parts of his uniform, readjusting a seam here and a seam there, setting and resetting his grip, undoing and redoing the straps on his batting gloves. All of this with one foot planted outside the box, so that the pitcher couldn’t force the issue by throwing more quickly. In any case, Rodon is painful to watch, and induces much shouting at the TV, in the vein of, “Just throw the damn ball, will ya?”
The game was peppered with odd plays, more than the usual number of video replay appeals, more “hold on for a sec while I check with my video guys” moments, a very strange decision by Sox manager Robin Ventura to let Rodon twist in the wind while his pitch count ballooned to 115 over five and two thirds innings, and two nearly inexplicable balk calls, one against each team. Though to be fair, all balk calls, almost, are inexplicable, as is the balk rule itself. When I coached at a fairly competitive level, the only thing I ever knew for sure was that if a left-handed pitcher’s right leg “broke the plane” of less than 90 degrees toward the plate, and he threw over to first, like a sideways dart toss, it was a balk. Other than that, all I ever told my pitchers was don’t move anything for a moment before you start your pitch, and don’t stop once you’ve started the motion. Tonight, Rodon in the sixth, and Drew Storen in the eighth, were both called for balks with runners on first basically for doing exactly the same thing they had done on all previous deliveries with runners on first. Go figure.
Though the call on Storen didn’t hurt the Jays, the call on Rodon led directly to the Jays’ tying run, and cost the young pitcher his chance at a victory.
The patterns for the night were set early. After retiring the side in order in the first, Rodon allowed a leadoff double to left by Michael Saunders, and a walk to Troy Tulowitzki after striking out Russell Martin, who did not have a great night at the plate on the fête, going 0 for 3 with a strikeout and stranding two. Kevin Pillar followed with a bloop single to centre that scored Saunders, who read the hit perfectly and got a great jump from second. Though they took the lead, the rally fizzled as Devon Travis fouled out to the right fielder, and Junior Lake, starting in right field on the day he was called up from Buffalo, struck out, the first of two he would suffer on the evening.
Having wasted a golden opportunity in the second, the Jays would go on to abandon runners in every inning but the fourth, off Rodon, and the seventh, with Nate Jones pitching effectively for Chicago. This familiar pattern culminated in their epic failure of the ninth, when they failed to cash the tying run with the bases loaded and one out, and their two best clutch hitters, Edwin Encarnacion and Michael Saunders, coming up to hit. Sadly, they had Chicago closer David Robertson on the ropes, but couldn’t put him down.
As for Sanchez, this was not one of his best performances, and certainly not dominant. In the first he allowed a two-out single to Melky Cabrera, who went three for four on the night and hit the solo homer that gave the Sox the lead in the fifth inning. Though Sanchez went on to fan Todd Frazier to end the first, it was the first of six consecutive innings in which he allowed one or more baserunners. It’s a testimony to his grit and his growing maturity as a pitcher that he departed after six innings tied at two, having thrown 105 pitches, on a night when, as he later admitted, his curve ball was just not effective and had to be abandoned.
The White Sox got on the board in the fourth when Sanchez issued a leadoff walk to catcher Alex Avila, and he eventually came around to score on a Brett Lawrie base hit followed by two strategically located ground balls. They then took the lead in the sixth on Cabrera’s home run to right. The Jays immediately tied it up in their half of the sixth, as the tiring Rodon created his own problems, and finally forced Ventura to pull the plug, but not until after Rodon hit Saunders to lead off, balked him to second, and saw him take third on a well-hit deep fly to centre by Troy Tulowitzki. He then yielded a disputed infield hit to Kevin Pillar for his second RBI of the night, and a Devon Travis single to right that moved Pillar to third. Finally, Ventura felt that Matt Albers was ready to come in and mercifully sent Rodon to his rest on the bench. Albers did his job, inducing a hard one-hopper to second for the third out by Ryan Goins, sent up to pinch-hit for Junior Lake.
Jesse Chavez came in to pick up Sanchez in the seventh and ended up taking the loss, though it was a pretty tough one to hang on him. Tim Anderson led off and hit a funny bouncer down the third-base line. Josh Donaldson came over and in, and was about to pick it when it took an unpredictable hop and scooted by him untouched, squibbing down into foul territory. By the time Ryan Goins had come over to corral the errant pill, Anderson was at second with a decidedly cheesy double. Yes, I did say that was Ryan Goins in left. Keep in mind that he had hit for Junior Lake in the sixth, and then been inserted into left field, with Ezequiel Carrera being moved to right. Now the fact that it was Goins in left would become immediately crucial, though not nearly as crucial as a certain tackily-dressed, loud-mouthed former catcher and expert commentator would have us believe.
The next batter, Adam Eaton, lofted an easy fly to left that Goins drifted to his left to catch. Anderson tagged at second and surprisingly broke for third. Goins caught the ball, whirled, and fired to third. Luckily for Anderson, he barely beat the throw and was safe at third. Now the estimable Mr. Zaun later made a big deal about how Goins isn’t very experienced in the outfield, hadn’t circled the ball properly to set up the throw, and blew his chance of getting the out at third. And of course since Anderson scored the winning run, that little misplay cost the Jays the lead, and eventually the game, right? Well, no. First of all, Eaton’s fly ball was the first out of the inning. Anderson was already in scoring position with a hot Melky Cabrera and a dangerous Todd Frazier coming up. I would hope he was chewed up by a coach or two for taking a stupid chance like that, even if he got away with it.
Then we have to look at what happened next. Cabrera hit a hot one-hopper that looked to be over Encarnacion’s head and down the right field line. But Edwin leapt/dove back and snagged the ball on his backhand, and basically crawled to first to record the out. Now, in the real world where Anderson was already at third, he hesitated, and missed an easy chance to score. Melky, a generally easy-going guy, was annoyed enough to show his feelings in a “what the hell??” gesture. This, by the way, is an instance of a new game event phenomenon that I have just created. You remember the TOOBLAN, right, “thrown out on the bases like a nincompoop”? Well, I propose there should also be an event that recognizes the obverse case. It is to be called a FTALAN. That would be “failed to advance like a nincompoop.” Which is exactly what Anderson did, or didn’t do. (I know it’s kind of hard to pronounce, but just think of a hissing cat, which is how you feel when one of your guys does it.)
But suppose Anderson had remained at second? (If he had been thrown out at third, this discussion wouldn’t be taking place.) He would surely have advanced to third on Cabrera’s ball; not doing so would have been a FTALAN too far. Ergo, he would have been on third when Frazier hit the RBI single anyway. So stuff it, Gregg, you Don Cherry wannabe!
Chavez struck out Avila to end the inning, and Drew Storen pitched around the Avisail Garcia single, the balk, and the Tyler Saladino hit batsman in the eighth, to keep the lead at one. Zach Duke had walked Russell Martin and stranded him in the Jays’ eighth, and after Storen retired the Sox, Chicago’s very good veteran closer David Robertson came in to lock down the win. Which he did, after a fashion. It wasn’t his best outing by any criterion, but he got the outs when he needed them to preserve the win. After Devon Travis flew out to left on the first pitch, Robertson walked Darwin Barney, hitting for Goins, to culminate an epic at-bat that saw him safely across first on a wild-pitch third strike, sent back to the plate after it had been decided that it had been a foul ball, and then finally walked for real, by which time manager John Gibbons had been tossed by crew chief Ted Barrett. Gibbie was more than a little incensed that home plate umpire Gabe Morales had basically listened to Sox manager Robin Ventura’s whining, and changed his call. Zeke Carrera then followed with a single to left, bringing up Donaldson. Donaldson hit a hard grounder to third that the third baseman Saladino bobbled to his left, grabbed, and then dove to tag Barney, as Barney was diving for the bag. Barney was called safe, the Sox appealed, the review confirmed he was safe, and the bases were loaded on the infield single for first Encarnacion, and then Saunders. While they waited for the review decision, Saladino and Barney stood around third chatting, and it occurred to this observer anyway that the two of them are definitely candidates for one of those “separated at birth” collections. As I reported earlier, Robertson shut the door on our three and four hitters, and that was the ball game.
So, the game, and the story, end on a great deal of talk about a very small play and its ramifications. However, as Aaron Sanchez and all the rest of the Jays well know, if our boys could muster a few base hits with runners in scoring position, how Ryan Goins approached catching the Adam Eaton fly ball wouldn’t matter a whit.
Taking the series from the White Sox is now an uphill task. First they have to win tomorrow, R.A. Dickey going against Miguel Gonzalez, and then they have to give some run support to Marcus Stroman on Sunday, and they have to do it against Chris Sale.
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