Call me a Pollyanna if you will, but I sense something building here. Today’s finale between the Blue Jays and the Orioles, this slugfest-turned-squeaker that gave the Jays the series win, contained so many of the elements of August through October of last year that it’s feeling like 2015 all over again.
A boffo start, laser-like extra-base hits raining around the park, unlikely heroes, shocking turnabouts, unbearable drama, frustration, hope, joy, they were all there today, and left us limp but elated at the end. And when all was said and done, here’s where we stand: on the dance floor for the first time all year, instead of hanging around outside the washroom slicking down our cowlicks with the other losers: five games over 500 at 35 and 30, two and a half games behind both Baltimore and Boston. (We closed the gap on the Orioles ourselves, and in another minor miracle the Twins took a walkoff win over Boston with a first-ever major-league homer in the tenth inning by a raw rookie). Another game ahead of the Yankees, who lost to the Tigers. Tied with the Mariners for the second wild card spot. And emerging from this crazy string of sixteen of our last nineteen games against the Orioles, Red Sox, and Yankees with a glittering record of twelve wins against only four losses.
It was a typical Aaron Sanchez first inning. He walked leadoff batter Adam Jones and saw him steal second, but also caught Manny Machado looking and fanned Chris Davis, throwing a few too many pitches, 22, but hey, no big deal, right?
When the Jays came in to take their licks, it was unclear whether they would be facing the Ubaldo Jimenez who gave them fits last year, or the Ubaldo Jimenez who’s stunk up the joint so far this year, to the tune, after today’s abbreviated showing, of a 3-7 won/loss record and an ERA of 6.89. It didn’t take them long to find out, as they batted through the order, smacked doubles all over the park, put up five big ones on the board, and, not surprisingly, waved goodbye to the backside of Jimenez, who only retired one batter.
It all went down like this: Carrera opposite-field double, Donaldson opposite-field ground rule double, Encarnacion hard bouncer to centre, Saunders strikeout (who let him play?), Martin line single to centre, Pillar double to left, Travis slash double down right-field line. You go, Ubaldo. Hello Vance Worley—Manager Buck Showalter thanking his lucky stars he had saved somebody for just such an occasion as this. Goins caught looking, Barney fans. The last two must have been sulking at missing their chance to hack at Jimenez. All in all, not a bad inning for the Orioles. Sure, they gave up five runs and six hits, but, hey, they struck out the side!
We didn’t much care that Sanchez came out in the second, got the first two hitters, and then gave up three straight hits and a run. He’d been sitting on the bench for a long time while the Jays hit in the first, and deserved to have cooled off a bit. Besides, we got that one right back in the second, on perhaps the funniest baserunning spectacle of the year. With two outs, Edwin Encarnacion, continuing an amazing streak of hot hitting in the series that started with his walk-off homer Friday night, hit a double to left. Then, in a move he’s probably been dreaming about all year, given the extreme shift opposing teams have been putting on for the left-handed Michael Saunders, he decided to take off for third with the pitch and see if he could beat erstwhile third baseman Ryan Flaherty, positioned almost behind second, to the bag. He didn’t, quite, mostly thanks to a belly-plant slide started too early, but it didn’t matter because catcher Matt Wieters, shocked out of his gourd, couldn’t hit the moving target posed by Flaherty racing for the bag. The ball glanced off his reaching glove for a Wieters error, and trickled into short left. Encarnacion, finally having secured the stolen base, looked around, saw the ball in no man’s land, got up, and headed for the plate. He would have been dead to rights, too, if left fielder Hyun Soo Kim had managed to handle the ball cleanly. However, after he picked the ball up, Kim decided he didn’t like how it felt in his hand, and dropped it to the turf to see if it would feel better the second time he picked it up. By then it was too late even to attempt a throw. So Encarnacion scored on a stolen base and a throwing error, but I think there should have been an error on Kim as well, because he had a definite shot at Encarnacion at the plate.
When Edwin finally took his seat on the bench, his sweet round face lit up in a happy smile, his teammates fanned him with towels to cool him off after his strenuous labours.
Sanchez settled nicely in the third, retiring the side in order, though his pitch count through three was a bit disturbing at 61. No matter, though, when Kevin Pillar led off the home half of the third with a booming third-deck shot to left that extended the Jays’ lead to 7-1. Time to break out the peanut butter and jam, folks, this one was toast. For a while.
The Orioles crept a little closer in the fourth, when, once again with two outs, Sanchez wavered and the designated hitter Pedro Alvarez hit a solo shot to centre, but still, it was 7-2 going to the fifth. But then the O’s climbed all over Sanchez, and they didn’t wait until two were out to do it, either. Adam Jones led off with a homer, then Machado doubled to right after Kim struck out, bringing Chris Davis to the plate, who hits in the TV Dome like its the batting cage in his garage, and he took one out to centre. Now it was 7-5, and still only one out.
After Mark Trumbo, the league home run leader who had a terrible series in Toronto, grounded out to short for the second out, Wieters hit one out the opposite way, to left, and the lead was down to one. Despite the rally, and despite the fact that Sanchez allowed two more baserunners before finishing off the inning, Manager John Gibbons just let him carry on. Perhaps it was for the best, as the damage was already done, Sanchez still appeared to have good stuff, he wasn’t going to go another inning, and as it turned out this would enable Gibbie to bring in Jesse Chavez with a clean slate to start the sixth.
But first there was the bottom of the fifth to get through, and this was notable for bringing the fine stint of Vance Worley to an end after four and a third innings that he ate for the team. His line was pretty impressive: 2 runs, 1 unearned, 4 hits, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts, and just 63 pitches. After Worley got the first two outs, Showalter decided to bring in the lefty Brian Duensing to pitch to the left-handed Ryan Goins. This looked like a pretty sharp move on Showalter’s part, as Gibbie had to let Goins hit, or lose his DH, since Josh Donaldson was the only infielder not already in the game. Not wanting to do that, and also not wanting to use Jose Bautista as a pinch-hitter yet, if ever, today, he let Goins hit, and the latter confounded Showalter by pounding one over Jones’ head in centre for another Jays’ double. The lefty thing did work out in the end, though, because Duensing issued a free pass to right-handed Darwin Barney, and pitched to the lefty Carrera, who grounded out to second to end the inning.
Jesse Chavez showed his appreciation for the fresh inning to work by striking out the side, which must have given new life to the Jays. Facing the hard-throwing and very effective Mychal Givens in their half of the sixth, Donaldson and Saunders patiently waited out bases on balls, Encarnacion grounding into a fielder’s choice to erase Donaldson in between, bringing today’s cleanup hitter, Russell Martin, to the plate. Martin, hints of whose revival at the plate are getting harder to ignore, took Givens out straightaway to centre to restore some breathing room for his mates, the score now 10-6 Jays.
My favourite switch-pitcher, Pat Venditte, then made his first appearance since his most recent recall from Buffalo. He breezed through the top of the seventh on nine pitches, striking out Wieters to end the inning after yet another application of the “Venditte rule”. Briefly put, the Venditte rule says that any switch pitcher (they’re all over the place these days, you know) must choose his pitching hand first, and allow a switch-hitter to pick his side of the plate last. Venditte chose left, Wieters chose right, and Venditte won the chess game by fanning Wieters to end the inning.
In the bottom of the inning Showalter used two more arms to skate around another Jays’ threat, T.J. McFarland getting two outs before yielding a single to Carrera, who bounced the ball into left through the huge hole created by the Orioles’ shift to the right. This guy does fun things, and I love to watch him. And he had one more trick up his sleeve for the bottom of the ninth. Then Brad Brach came in and walked Donaldson before Manny Machado saved his skin and further damage when he made a great stop on a hard smash by Encarnacion, and threw him out to end the inning.
So, six outs to go, a four-run lead, good enough on most days, but remember, these are the Orioles, who just don’t quit hacking away. Looking really sharp, Venditte fanned Alvarez and Jonathan Schoop, for five quick outs in a row. Then the number nine hitter, Ryan Flaherty, bounced one slowly to Venditte’s left, which he just missed snagging, and was too slow for Travis to make the play. So close to finishing clean, Venditte quickly took Adam Jones to 0-2, before Jones pounded one over the fence in centre, reducing the lead to 10-8. Venditte retired Kim on a grounder, but the noose was a little tighter around the Jays’ neck.
The Jays missed another glorious chance to add insurance when they wasted Saunders’ leadoff ground rule double to right in the bottom of the eighth. Brach, who remained in the game, was up to the challenge, striking out Martin, getting a fly ball out from Kevin Pillar, and fanning Travis to strand Saunders, who, it should be noted, had been a triple short of hitting for the cycle on Saturday, and picked up three more hits in four at-bats today. Who knew?
Jason Grilli appeared out of the bullpen for the save opportunity for the Jays. We could see it was coming, because only he, and not Roberto Osuna, had warmed up, but we only learned from Gibbie after the game that Osuna was feeling “a little sore”, and not available today. Well, I was fine with Grilli coming in, because he’d had only good outings since arriving, and still retained the ability to get the big strikeout when needed. And he did get the save, in the end. But, the Orioles, right?
Mind you, Grilli didn’t help himself with his inability to locate. After Machado led off with a bloop single to left, he walked Davis, fanned Trumbo, and walked Wieters to load them up with one out. This brought the free-swinging Alvarez to the plate, and Pat Tabler made sure to point out how many career grand slams Alvarez has. Frankly, I don’t recall the number—I didn’t want to know. The dread rose in my chest, and I’m sure I wasn’t alone, as Grilli went two balls and no strikes, before giving Alvarez something he could pull, which he did, right to the wall in right, where Zeke Carrera (remember I said he had one more trick to pull?) backed, backed, reached the wall, timed his jump, and made the catch. Machado scored on the sacrifice, Davis advanced to third, and that brought Jonathan Schoop to the plate, now with two outs. Cue the big strikeout: four-seamer, slider, four-seamer, three swings and misses, and the gritty Grilli was into his victory dance. That fella sure does get excited! Me, I just wanted to faint after all that.
So, the Orioles pounded the hell out of the ball, but they only got six runs off four home runs, the Jays’ pitching was just that little bit more effective (well a lot more effective in the case of Jimenez), the Orioles made an error that actually mattered, and the Jays had an extra gem or two in the field on their opponents. Add it all up, and it comes out the Jays, in a squeaker. If baseball were poker, you could say that 7 doubles beats 4 homers.
You will recall that in yesterday’s report I suggested that the Orioles’ rotation would eventually cause them to fall behind Toronto and Boston in the division. In this series, the Orioles’ starters logged 17.1 innings, and the Jays’ starters 23.1. The disparity would have been even greater if one or more of Stroman, Sanchez, or Estrada had gone the one inning deeper that has been characteristic of their starts so far this season. In fact, Sanchez is as likely to go eight as he is to go only five. The result, of course, is more recourse to the bullpen, more wear and tear on the relief corps, and the game-to-game domino effect of overusing the bullpen. In fact, the Jays should be okay against Philadelphia tonight bullpen-wise, while Baltimore is very fortunate that they have a night off to regroup before going into that snakepit, Fenway Park. Good luck there, fellers! I just hope neither team sweeps.
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