After tonight’s efficient four to one win over the Astros in Houston, at the end of a day that was dominated by big news off the field, the answer to the question posed by my title is “Umm, yep.”
Jay Happ failed tonight, in only lasting six innings, to extend the Blue Jays’ starting rotation’s seven-inning start streak to six in a row. Oh, but he did go six innings, giving up one run on four hits while walking one and striking out six on only 89 pitches. And that was enough to hand a two to one lead over to a bullpen that was once again nearly perfect in suppressing the Astros’ hitters while the Jays added insurance runs in both the eighth and ninth innings.
By the time Manager John Gibbons was turning to the bullpen to try to perserve Happ’s eventual win, the Texas Rangers had already closed out their five-three victory in Baltimore, which meant that our bullpen was also trying to protect a share of first place in the American League East for Toronto.
But to the truly engaged, make that obsessed, Toronto fan, all of this, while very nice indeed, was small potatoes compared to the big news of the day: Ross Atkins flew to Houston earlier today ostensibly to discuss Aaron Sanchez’ impending move to the bullpen. Instead, after closed-door meetings, he made the stunning announcement that Francisco Liriano was not going to replace Aaron Sanchez in the rotation, but join him, in what would become a six-man rotation, an innovative solution to a very real problem.
With this announcement, Atkins and his boss Mark Shapiro have shown themselves to be flexible and creative, and with this one stunning decision may have erased any lingering doubts about their arrival here under less than favourable circumstances. It’s no secret that the plan to protect Sanchez’ arm by moving him to the bullpen for the stretch run was becoming more and more controversial. Sanchez himself didn’t help the matter, by putting up a string of Cy Young-worthy starts in a row, while showing absolutely no signs of tiring. The players on the team were speaking out more freely on the issue, most notably Russell Martin, who came down firmly on the side of keeping him in the rotation. It was becoming more and more awkward for Shapiro and Atkins to stick to their guns, yet from their perspective slowing Sanchez down was the right thing to do, and they were not particularly interested in being dictated to by the howls of the mob. This surprise compromise seems to met the needs of the moment pretty well.
It’s not necessarily the case that this rotation will last through the regular season, and in fact it may delay a more definitive decision on Sanchez for only a couple of weeks. In the meantime, one major positive for management in doing it this way is that at the moment they’re unsure of what they have in Francisco Liriano, who, based on this year’s performance, should be seen as a reclamation project. If they had taken Sanchez out of the rotation, and Liriano had tanked, they would have been left with a messy situation. Now, if Liriano tanks, and there’s no saying he will, they still have a five-man rotation, though without Drew Hutchinson standing at the ready in Buffalo. (Whoops. Let’s not forget that we spent some of our retirement nest egg it get Liriano.) The ex-pirate is scheduled to open the series in Kansas City tomorrow night. The jury is waiting to consider the evidence.
Meanwhile, for the baseball fan, as opposed to the Stratego player, there was a game to watch, and a game to savour, yet again, if your particular brand of fandom wears royal blue sweaters.
Jay Happ and Mike Fiers combined to present a tightly-pitched and efficient product for the first four innings last night. Fiers made a mistake in the first inning, and leadoff hitter Devon Travis turned it into a double. In the midst of all the strikeouts throughout this series, Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson managed to make outs on batted balls for a change, allowing Travis to move to third on a deep fly to centre, and score on a Donaldson grounder to second. After the Travis double Fiers retired twelve Blue Jays in a row, to go into the fifth down only one-nothing. In the meantime, Happ allowed only one baserunner, Tyler White, who singled in the fourth.
In the fifth inning the two teams traded runs. Fiers got a little snaky in his half of the inning, throwing two wild pitches that eventually allowed Russell Martin, who led off with an infield single to short, to come around and score. In his return to the lineup after the chip fracture in his thumb, Troy Tulowitzki contributed a sharp single to left with one out hit so hard that Martin running from second had to be held at third, only to come in to score on Fiers’ second wild pitch.
Unfortunately, Happ gave that one back in his half of the inning, the gods not willing to let him have any sort of a cushion. A leadoff double to left by Evan Gaddis, and a two-out double to left by Tyler White produced the run, and we headed for the sixth still clinging to a one-run lead. Fiers gave up a leadoff bunt single to Devon Travis, got the double play ball from Bautista, then gave up a single to Donaldson. He finally ended the inning and his night by getting Edwin Encarnacion to pop out to first. Happ had an exciting ride in the sixth, was able to hold onto the lead, but laboured his way out of the game in the process.
After fanning George Springer twice, Happ walked him to lead off the sixth. Alex Bregman finally got his second hit in the major leagues, a single to left. Then Happ had to face the two best hitters Houston has this year. Jose Altuve put a big charge in one, but sent it to Death Valley, where it settled in Kevin Pillar’s glove, for the first out, while Springer advanced to third. Then came Carlos Correa, who grounded a one-two pitch out to Troy Tulowitzki, who combined with Devon Travis for a quick turnover to first and the double play.
Once again, and it still seems strange saying this, the Jays’ bullpen held the fort, Happ having finished six with another fine effort but not much left in the tank. Once again Manager John Gibbons chose to rely on the two old coots and the young upstart, and once again they kept the scoresheet clean. Joakim Benoit breezed through the seventh on 11 pitches, Jason Grilli gave up an infield hit to Jake Marisnick with one out, but then reaped the benefits of a second baserunning mistake in two nights by Marisnick, one that he paid for this time, by wandering too far off first and getting doubled off when Travis caught Springer’s little looper headed toward right. Roberto Osuna made up for a leadoff walk by striking out the side for the save.
The Astros weren’t so fortunate with their relievers this time. Oh, Pat Neshek made the three Jays he faced looked silly, like he always does, in the seventh. But Will Harris, who has been scrambling to find a role with Houston since he lost the closer’s job, didn’t fare so well in the eighth, when he got a lucky break to erase Justin Smoak’s ground rule double at third, but still fell victim to the pinprick torments of Pillar and Travis for a nice insurance run. With Smoak at second and nobody out, Pillar went right side and hit a grounder to Altuve, who brilliantly came up throwing and nipped Smoak at third. But Pillar wasn’t done, no sir. He stole second. He cunningly advanced to third on a short wild pitch, taking the bag with his hand in a beautiful sweep-around movement that took several minutes of analysis to determine had evaded the tage. Travis then delivered him with a two-out single past Altuve for a 3-1 lead.
James Hoyt came on to pitch the ninth, and, just like the night before, had a brilliant and easy time of it, striking out two Jays, and getting the last out when Troy Tulowitzki grounded out to third. Unfortunately, this time he did it after warming up by throwing a home run ball to Edwin Encarnacion, and Osuna had a three run lead to work with in the bottom of the ninth, and he did just that after the leadoff walk to Bregman.
So, a nice neat, clean game in which a lot of people did their little bits to contribute to the win, while the fans were looking elsewhere for excitement. They won’t have to wait too long to see how the new regime stacks up, because tomorrow Francisco Liriano makes his first start for the Jays in Kansas City. So we’re goin’ to Kansas City, and I hope our boys concentrate on the task at hand, and forget about the “crazy little women there”!
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