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.
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