It’s a good thing that the dome was open tonight, because it helped dissipate the stench of Tuesday night’s clunker of a loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. So when Jay Happ raised his mighty left arm to smite the pesky Rays, and Troy Tulowitzki brandished his mighty sword to strike them a fatal blow, the rest of the Jays rose from their graves like a bunch of knicker-clad zombies to breathe in the fresh, clean air of victory.
Now, that was a bit much, wasn’t it? All the same, we can’t overstate the relief that floods us all when a good game follows a bad one, to reassure us that the looming portals to Hades aren’t really beckoning us forward to our doom.
Okay, that’s really enough of that. Let’s put the mythology text back on the shelf and talk baseball. Perhaps it was only appropriate that two of the quietest, least prepossessing members of the Blue Jays were the ones to step up and lead by example to ensure that the Jays would remain in first place in the division into the weekend, and not wear the weight of yesterday’s sloppy loss too heavily.
Not that it was easy, at least at the start. Jay Happ, going for his sixteenth win against three losses, started out looking as if, like R.A. Dickey and Marco Estrada before him, he were going to be pecked to death by the pesky Rays. Logan Forsythe continued his hot series against the Blue Jays, leading off by stroking a single to left. Kevin Kiermaier followed by dropping a great bunt down the third base line for a hit. There ought to be a law against speedy guys like Kiermaier bunting against the shift. Or at least public shaming.
Then came the play that took us into déjà vu all over again territory. Evan Longoria smacked a hard one-hopper right at Devon Travis, a perfect, pluperfect, double-play ball. But Travis, who’s suffered a few defensive lapses in the last few games, bobbled the ball, and had to pick it up again, with no choice but to go to first to get Longoria as the runners moved up. So it was up to Happ to help himself, with an assist from yet another subtle base-running mistake by Forsythe. (If you combined Forsythe’s base-running gaffes and Travis’ defensive miscues in this series, you’d have one frustrating second baseman.) With the contact play on, Forsythe didn’t make that slight pause to be sure the ball was past the mound before breaking for the plate. Brad Miller hit a little bouncer back to Happ, Forsythe broke too early, Happ’s throw to Russell Martin, who applied the tag in plenty of time, was perfect, and the pressure was eased immensely, now that there were two outs and third base was vacated. Blessed with this reprieve, Happ didn’t make a mistake as he caught Mikie Mahtook looking for the third out, and happily evacuated the mound unblemished.
There was more nail-biting about whither the Blue Jays to come in the bottom of the first, that only came to an end for the Jays when Troy Tulowitzki hit a laser shot of a line drive out of the park to left with two on and two out to give the Jays a 3-0 lead.
Very young-looking 23-year-old left-hander Blake Snell, who bears a more than passing resemblance to Aaron Sanchez, got the start for Tampa Bay. Snell has pitched well since being dropped into the Rays’ rotation, with an ERA of 2.95, and an average of over five innings per start. He might have continued his good stretch, but we’ll never know, because tonight’s start was derailed very quickly by an unfortunate outfield error, and he never really settled down after that.
Devon Travis, who on the other hand has contributed significantly offensively during this series, led off the game for the Blue Jays with a single to left. Josh Donaldson followed by slicing a lazy foul fly down the right field line. Steven Souza, playing right, admittedly had a long run for the ball, with the outfielders swung around to the left as they always are for Donaldson, but he got under it in plenty of time. Then the ball just plain clanked off his glove in foul territory and fell harmlessly to the turf, giving Donaldson new life at the plate. With the killer instinct of a good hitter, Josh hit the ball to Souza again, this time for a base hit. But Snell caught Edwin Encarnacion looking, and got Russell Martin to fly out to centre field, and it looked like another promising Jays’ inning was going to go a-glimmer. When Tulo jumped on a two-one pitch and hammered it over the fence into the bullpen in left, the Jays had finally cashed some base-runners after a string of seventeen consecutive solo homers from the Jays’ sluggers.
If Souza had caught the foul fly, Martin’s fly ball to centre would have ended the inning before Tulo came to the plate, so all three runs were unearned. Too bad for Snell, but it sure was nice to see a big “3” in the first inning on the scoreboard. Such are the vagaries . . .
Perhaps surprised by the largesse of the Jays’ hitters, Happ wasn’t quite ready to settle in to his rhythm yet. He walked Souza to lead off the second, and then after fanning Tim Beckham he gave up a single to Richie Shaffer, the designated hitter. Enough was enough, though, and he quickly fanned Luke Maile, and got Forsythe to fly out to Michael Saunders in right to end the threat.
That’s right, that was Saunders in right tonight. Before game time today the Jays got the bad news that Jose Bautista had suffered a left knee strain in that awkward fall in last night’s game, and had been placed on the fifteen-day DL. Outfield bodies are becoming a worry for the Jays, with Zeke Carrera not back yet, Kevin Pillar out with his damaged thumb, and now Bautista. Unless the team can find reinforcements elsewhere, for the time being it looks like Melvin Upton in centre, Saunders in left (which was patrolled by Darwin Barney tonight) and Junior Lake and Darren Ceciliani sharing the duties in right.
Maybe Happ needed a bit more reassurance before he settled down to business. The Jays came out in their half of the second to score two more runs, with considerable help from young Mr. Snell, who didn’t survive the inning. With one out Darwin Barney doubled to right. Travis followed with his patented lean-the-other-way stroke to hit a single to right to score Barney. Then the wheels really fell off, as Snell walked three straight to force in the Jays’ fifth run, and take himself out of the game. Manager Kevin Cash brought in Dylan Floro to face Melvin Upton, who popped out to second to leave the bases loaded.
Happ went out for the third and gave up a single to Kevin Kiermaier, reminding us yet again what a difficult bunch the top of the Rays’ order is. But then he settled in, got Longoria to hit into a double play, and struck out Brad Miller. The double play started a string of eight retired in a row for Happ before he walked Forsythe with two out in the fifth, and then struck out Kiermaier to end the inning, and retired the side in the sixth, to finish with a line of six innings, no runs, four hits, two walks, 7 strikeouts, and 98 pitches, dropping his ERA to 2.96. This gives the Blue Jays three starting pitchers, Happ, Estrada, and Sanchez, with ERAs under three, the best record in the American League.
Floro did a good job plugging the gap for Snell, going two and a third and giving up just one hit while fanning four. After Floro’s stint, Danny Farqhhar came in and pitched around a Melvin Upton single and stolen base in the fifth, and got the first two outs in the sixth before developing a spell of wildness, walking Encarnacion and winging Russell Martin with a pitch; his last batter, Tulo, brought Cash out of the dugout again by singling Encarnacion home.
Ryan Garton came on to get Upton to fly out to right to leave two runners aboard. He came back out for the seventh and kept the Jays batters at bay, except for Justin Smoak, whose homer to right (solo, of course), closed out the Toronto scoring at 7-0.
Cash gave an inning of work in the eighth to one of his back-end relievers, Kevin Jepsen, and he retired the side in order briskly with two srikeouts and a popup to the catcher.
The Jays pen made sure that Happ’s shutout stayed intact. Joe Biagini gave up a ground-rule double to Richie Shaffer with two outs in the seventh, but struck out catcher Luke Maile to end the inning. Jason Grilli took ten pitches to dispatch the Rays in the eighth, and Ryan Tepera, just off the QEW from Buffalo again, took twelve pitches to retire the side in the ninth to close out Jay Happ’s comfortable and competent sixteenth win.
Not too high, not too low, always win after you lose, and keep a solid lefty ready to go at all times, and you can’t go wrong. If the A’s beat the O’s in the Blood Type Series in Oakland tonight, we’re in first alone. Yay!
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