This morning was a tense time for the Blue Jays’ faithful.
Going into today’s series closer against the Seattle Mariners, here’s where we stood: we’d lost four of seven since the All-Star break. We’d been stifled for two straight games by strong Seattle pitching. After a classic Friday-night pitchers’ battle, the loss of which could be tolerated, we’d been humiliated on Saturday, as R.A. Dickey had his shortest start of the season, and the bullpen imploded in Titanic proportions. The Orioles were still rolling along, finding ways to win with a starting rotation consisting of Eric Tillman and a lot of bailing wire. Boston was still winning enough to stay ahead of us, with a starting rotation in which their two best pitchers are not named David Price, and their high-priced acquisition might be a dud. And the Yankees were doing a number on the tough Giants, staying uncomfortably close in our rear-view mirror despite declaring to the entire world that they’re going to be sellers this July.
In short, we needed a win in the worst way. (That’s a funny expression, isn’t it? Can you need something “in the best way”? What would that mean, even?) And what better way to get a W than with a short, crisp, clean 2-0 shutout, in which four Jays’ hurlers combined for a one-hitter, and the offensive punch was provided by Edwin’s big bat and Josh Thole’s cheeky hand?
But before we get on to the satisfying story of today’s game, here’s a philosophical question for you: If the player you were traded for is released, did you ever really exist? Before the game the Jays’ front office made an announcement of a player change that both surprised and didn’t surprise. Drew Storen has been “designated for assignment”, and Ryan Tepera, designated yo-yo, has been called up yet again from Buffalo to take his place on the twenty-five man roster. I hope Tepera puts in a claim for mileage for the time he spends on the QEW.
Like most Jays’ fans, I suspect, I was sorry to see Ben Revere go in the off-season, but totally understood that with Michael Saunders returning and Dalton Pompey waiting patiently in the wings it made perfect sense to cash in Revere’s value in exchange for an important piece of a bullpen that was short of important pieces. Drew Storen seemed to fill the bill, even if there were some concerns about his loss of status in the Washington bullpen in the latter half of 2015.
On the other hand, I liked having Ben Revere around. I liked him a lot, his infectious smile, his bounce, his obvious joy in playing the game, and getting to play it with big chips on the table for once. Yet, in reality, he was a short-armed corner outfielder (for us—he would never have switched to centre over Kevin Pillar) who lacked power, was slower than the norm for outfielders and especially for a leadoff man. His OBP wasn’t really all that good for leading off, and frankly it became annoying to see him slap the ball the other way and ground out early in the count so often. Ben Revere, meet Jose Reyes. He was a stop-gap at best, who made one great catch and got a couple of clutch hits, but struck out way too often, especially in high-leverage situations. He was not a major contributor in the playoffs, hitting .255, down from .319 in the regular season with the Jays, with one double in 47 plate appearance. He did steal two bases, but struck out more than he walked (7/4).
There’s not much need to dwell on why Drew Storen is no longer a Blue Jay this fine July Sunday. Though he had some good outings, his numbers overall were terrible, and he suffered through some of the worst relief outings in recent Jays’ history. The role that he had been expected to fill seems to have fallen firmly onto the capable shouders of Jason Grilli, grateful for the opportunity, who wasn’t on the radar when Storen was acquired. Still, some thoughtful commentators have pointed out that the unintended positive outcomes of Storen-for-Revere still outweigh the negatives. Storen’s arrival made it easier to make the call in the spring to move Aaron Sanchez to the rotation, and Revere’s departure provided the playing time that Michael Saunders has used so well to his and the team’s great good. So, other than the fact that the Jays will have to eat some or most of Storen’s contract, it’s all good for the team, and too bad that it didn’t work out here for Drew Storen.
So with Storen gone, Tepera on hand, Jose Bautista apparently returning for Monday’s game, Ryan Goins in the wings, and Chris Colabello trying to get his bat untracked at Buffalo, there’s a sense of reinforcements on the way. I expect the Jays to play the hand they have from this point, and not get too caught up in the trade deadline frenzy. They might want a starting pitcher if, heaven forfend, the decision is made to shunt Aaron Sanchez to the bullpen, but at the extreme cost established by the Boston deal for Drew Pomerantz, it’s likely that Drew Hutchison will give them as much of what they need as any rental pitcher on the market, and all they have to do is keep paying his salary.
As we’ve noted (ahem!) more than once in this space, the Blue Jays stand fortunate indeed in terms of the quality of their starting pitchers, especially within their own division. The sensible decision to let David Price go, spend some of his cash on Jay Happ and Marco Estrada, and pocket the rest of the difference for a rainy day is looking better and better. Today Happ showed once again how significant was the early-winter decision by the Jays’ front office to bring him back to Toronto, regardless of the huge level of indifference with which the news was greeted by many at the time.
I was a little worried about how Happ would do today, given the abbreviated nature of his last outing. You will recall that last Sunday in Oakland he soldiered on to finish the fourth inning and go two thirds into the fifth inning after having a baseball tattoo stamped on his left forearm by a vicious line drive. With Happ it’s a two-fold worry, firstly, of course, that his pitching arm was hit, but secondly, and of more long-range concern, that he is a recent victim of severe concussion caused by a batted ball. In his previous tenure with Toronto, he was stretchered off the field in Tampa Bay in May of 2013 after being hit by a line drive off the bat of Desmond Jennings. Though he’s obviously recovered long since from the physical effects of the injury, and is currently achieving at the very highest level of his entire pitching career, you can never discount the lifelong trauma that must be associated with such an event. So, how would he react after the incident in Oakland?
If you just looked at his pitching line, you would think, and rightly so, that he came back just fine from last week. 6 innings, no runs, one hit, what’s not to like, right? But though he was extremely effective at getting outs and avoiding hard contact, he did have to work a little harder than usual, resulting in a pitch count of 103, and a slightly earlier departure, after six innings, than you would expect from someone throwing a one-hitter. Besides his six strikeouts, he did have four walks and hit Robinson Cano in the fourth inning after walking Chris Iannetta, the only inning in which he struggled even slightly. I wouldn’t want to dwell on this further, but it’s hard to tell if he was back to normal; he has been tending to higher pitch counts in his more recent starts in any case, so was this the forearm hurting some, or just a bit of trouble spotting his pitches?
In any case, Happ and his three successors totally suppressed the Mariners for the entire game, which was an impressive feat considering how freely they’d swung on Saturday against Dickey, Chavez, and the now-departed Storen. Happ gave up the only hit, a single to right by Leonys Martin with one out in the third, but the Mariners to my mind wasted that one by having the shortstop, Luis Sardinas, who admittedly is only hitting .188, sacrifice him to second for the second out. That’s a move I just don’t get unless you’re playing National League rules and you’ve got a really poor-hitting pitcher at the plate. Aoki grounded out to Devon Travis at second to end that “threat”.
Brett Cecil, Jason Grilli, and Roberto Osuna for the save picked up the left-handed starter, and all contributed to preserving the one-hitter he had passed on to them. Cecil walked Kyle Seager with one out in the seventh, and that was the only runner allowed by the three relievers, who struck out four of the nine batters they faced. If this is the new face of the back end of the Blue Jays’ bullpen, I like it. On past record this year, Cecil is the question mark of the three, but he was particularly sharp today, with his curve ball mesmerizing batters as of old.
Wade Miley, whom the Jays have battered somewhat in the past, today matched Happ pretty well pitch for pitch. He gave up two runs on four hits over six innings, while walking only two, and striking out four, and kept his pitch count to 89 over the six innings. The paper-thin margin between the two performances on the mound was the two hard drives given up by Miley, Edwin Encarnacion’s solo blast to centre in the fourth that eventually stood up for the win, and Josh Thole’s leadoff shot to right centre in the sixth that split the outfielders for a double. Thole, who has begun to contribute offensively from time to time, then showed a bit of daring that resulted in the insurance run that it turned out the Jays didn’t actually need.
Darwin Barney hit a sharp grounder right to first baseman Dae-ho Lee. Without hesitation Lee whipped it to third baseman Seager to try to cut off the advancing Thole. The throw was there in plenty of time, but a little on the home plate side of the bag. Thole slid to the left field corner of the bag, and extended his hand to the bag just as Seager tried to sweep across with the tag. The initial call was safe, and as we awaited the review there was little doubt from the replays that the call would stand. With runners on the corners and no one out for Josh Donaldson, Thole scored easily as the latter hit into a double play, and the Jays turned a 2-0 lead over to the bullpen.
Tom Wilhelmsen and Joaquin Benoit finished up for Miley, and were equally as effective over two innings as the Jays’ trio was over three innings, and at the end of the game, when Roberto Osuna caught Adam Lind looking for the third out in the ninth and his twentieth save, the scoreboard still showed a big, fat goose egg for the Mariners, who had to pack away their unused brooms before leaving town.
Tomorrow night it’s back to interleague play as the Padres come in for three, and Aaron Sanchez looks to keep pace with Jay Happ in the double-digit win column. I have no idea how effective he’d be against the Blue Jays, but it’s a good job Drew Pomerantz is now wearing a Boston uniform, and won’t be pitching against us this week.
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