Today’s deciding game of the Jays-Rockies interleague series at Denver’s Beer Barrel Park offered a number of interesting story lines. Would the two teams, both built to take advantage of cozy dimensions in their home parks, continue to put up the big numbers they had in the first two games, in which they scored a combined 37 runs? Would the Jays find a way to put a leash on Nolan Arenado and Carlos Gonzalez, Colorado’s version of the Bash Brothers? Would Edwin Encarnacion keep mashing baseballs into pulp? Finally, could Aaron Sanchez master the Rockies in their home park as he has most of the teams he’s faced this year?
So as not to keep you in suspense, here are the answers provided by the events of today: no, the run production didn’t keep up. The two teams totalled eight runs, as opposed to over 18 a game in the first two games . The biggest bashers on both sides were more or less quiet, both Arenado and Gonzalez getting one base hit and neither producing a run, while Edwin went two for three with a double and an RBI, but failed to hit one out of the park, so it was a relatively modest day for him at the plate. Maybe it made sense for the starting pitching to be the best part of today’s game, since today’s starters would have been the least affected by the lateness of last night’s game and the short twelve-hour turnaround for today’s 1:00 local start. As for whether Sanchez could continue his series of solid starts today against the Rockies in Denver, the answer is most decidedly yes.
If I had to say what kind of mold Aaron Sanchez seems to be fitting into as this first full season of his starting career unfolds, I think I’d put him in the category of a Jack Morris. Compared to the big power pitchers in the Naional League, like Stephen Strasburg and Noah Syndergard, he’s not dominating or intimidating, despite his obvious size and strength. You kind of expect, when you look at him, that he’s going to blow batters away big time, with high strikeout totals. But that’s not what he does. If you wanted another Blue Jay analogy, it might be that he’s more Dave Stieb than Roy Halladay. But without the attitude. Of either of them.
Today, for example, he went eight full innings, and not for the first time this year. He allowed one run and six hits, walked two, and struck out three. It’s not like he’ll go long stretches of, say, 12, or 15 outs in a row. Teams get their runners on base against him, like in four of the eight innings he pitched today, but he has the highly valued ability to bear down and get the outs he needs after yielding baserunners.
One of the criticisms I would consistently make about Jays’ Manager John Gibbons’ handling of his starting pitchers is his tendency to assume the end has come when the starter gets in a spot of trouble in the sixth or seventh inning. I realize that, especially with Sanchez and Marcus Stroman, who are pretty young to carry the responsibility that they do, there is a tendency to be a little protective, both of their confidence and their arms. But to me one mark of a mature major league starter is that he has developed the ability to work his way out of his own jams. If, for example, Sanchez or Stroman were more experienced, I would respect them for saying to the manager, “Listen, I’ve got plenty left in the tank. I can do this. Piss off, and take your hook back to the dugout.” That’s what Jack Morris would say. I have no doubt that that’s what David Price says, hiding it behind his big goofy grin.
To me the most significant moment in today’s game, both as a turning point for the Jays’ win, and as a significant signpost on the road to Aaron Sanchez establishing his bona fides as a top-of-the-rotation starter, came in the Rockies’ seventh. They had opened the inning with a Mark Reynolds single, following which Sanchez had walked Daniel Descalso. After getting Brandon Barnes to fly out to Kevin Pillar in centre, he issued another base on balls, to catcher Tony Wolters. I had expected to see Gibbie pop out of the dugout after the Descalso walk, so I thought sure that the second walk would be it for Sanchez. But, no: Gibbie to his credit left him in—you’re a big boy, you can get out of this—and didn’t Sanchez induce an inning-ending double-play ball from pinch-hitter Ryan Raburn?
Just to show that Gibbie had made the right call in the long run, he sent Sanchez back out for the eighth, already at 96 pitches, and Sanchez finished up his day’s work by getting two ground ball outs and a foul popup from the top of the Colorado batting order on just ten pitches, to finish at 106 pitches, and, by now, a 5-1 lead.
The Jays’ manager turned the ball over to Roberto Osuna for the ninth in the non-save situation, partly because Osuna needed the work, and partly because, well, just because. The Jays’ shaky bullpen, right? And as usual in non-save situations, Osuna was less than perfect. In fact, I’d like to see the split of his save-situation ERA versus his non-save situation ERA. Maybe even thrown in a third split, for when he’s used in tie games or when the Jays are down one, and seriously need a hold. Today, for example, he struck out the side . . . on 29 pitches . . . giving up two runs on three hits, a walk, and a hit batsman. This is what it looked like: Gonzalez walk, Reynolds double, Descalso double, Barnes whiff, Wolters double, Hundley pinch-hitting whiff, Blackmon hit by pitch, Adames whiff. All in a day’s work, right, Bobbie? Piece of cake, was it?
Colorado rookie lefty Tyler Anderson pitched well enough to win as well, going six innings on 107 pitches. He gave up two earned runs on eight hits, walked two, and struck out six. Like Sanchez, Anderson must have reaped the benefits of having been able to cuddle up on the bench in a hoodie during the previous night’s crazy rain-delayed slugfest.
The Jays broke on top in the second on an RBI double by Junior Lake, but couldn’t cash Pillar on third and Lake on second with one out, letting Anderson wriggle off the hook. They increased the lead to 3-0 in the third with a massive solo shot by Josh Donaldson, followed by a an Edwin Encarnacion double, Edwin was then delivered by Troy Tulowitzki who went the other way to single to right. Sanchez gave up his only run in the fourth when Descalso delivered Nolan Arenado from third with a two-out base hit. This, after the first two Rockies’ hitters had reached on base hits, and Sanchez had dampened the threat by getting Mark Reynolds to hit into a double play.
The lead was extended to 4-1 in the seventh on three base hits, the RBI going to—who else—Encarnacion. This may have given Sanchez the extra gas he needed to pitch out of the bottom-of-the-seventh jam I described earlier. We added a fifth run in the top of the ninth without a base hit, as very raw right-hander Carlos Estevez came in wild as a March hare, and helped the Jays along with two walks, a hit batter, and a wild pitch that finally plated Ryan Goins, who was running for Encarnacion who had walked.
The extra runs picked up by the Jays in the seventh and the ninth then, were actually needed by Osuna to give him the cushion to protect, finally, the sparkling effort by Aaron Sanchez.
I haven’t weighed in yet on the question of preserving Sanchez by sending him to the bullpen a little further into the season. I have done a lot of teeth-grinding over it, though. How do you arbitrarily shut down, assuming his arm would still be healthy, a guy who is your number one-A starter after Marco Estrada, just because he woud be going where he had never gone before, past 130 innings? Methinks, however, that the decision to shut Sanchez down may not be irrevocable after all, and the pressure on Jays’ management to rethink the whole thing must be building.
So tomorrow we return to the TV Dome, having a saw-off to show for the six-game westward swing. Not great, but minimally acceptable. But now we’re looking at Cleveland though, and how ’bout them Indians, eh?
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