On the night when Edwin Encarnacion hit career home run number 300, 229 of which have come as a member of the Toronto Blue Jays, he had to share the spotlight with a young pitcher named Joe Musgrove, whose association with the Blue Jays was much briefer than that of Encarnacion. I have no doubt that Edwin would have postponed the celebration over his milestone homer, which came in the ninth inning of a 5-3 loss to the Houston Astros, if he could have traded it for a win tonight to keep his team ahead of the Baltimore Orioles in the American League East standings.
After all, Edwin would have hit the career mark of 300 sooner, rather than later, but tonight’s game was lost for good, and the team won’t get another shot at it.
Before tonight, Blue Jays’ fans had two reasons to be familiar with the name Joe Musgrove. For those who follow every twist and turn in the development of Blue Jay prospects, Musgrove was originally a first-round draft pick of Toronto in 2011. Between the short season of 2011 and the beginning of 2012, he made only eleven mound appearances at the rookie level in the Jays’ system, before being traded to Houston in 2012 in a multi-player deal most notable for making one left-handed starter named J.A. Happ a Blue Jay for the first time. Since then he has toiled and advanced in the Houston system until being called up to the big league team on August first of this year. And that brings us to the second reason Jays’ fans have to be familiar with the name and talent of Joe Musgrove. The day after he was called up to the Astros, on August second, he made his debut against the team that drafted him.
You will recall that Musgrove entered that game in the fifth inning when Lance McCullers, the Astros’ young starter, developed arm problems after holding the Jays mostly in check, leaving with a 2-0 deficit because R.A. Dickey was throwing a gem at his mates. Musgrove finished out that game, pitching four and two thirds innings in his major league debut, allowing only one hit and one walk while striking out eight Jays. It was certainly not his fault that Dickey, rookie Danny Barnes, also making his major league debut, and Jason Grilli, only allowed one run against them. By the time Musgrove’s night was done, it was clear that the more irrational Jays’ faithful had a new cause célèbre, for a variation on the very helpful Syndergaard-for-Dickey tirade we’ve come to know and love.
After his impressive debut against the Jays, it was obvious that the Astros would find a place in their rotation for Musgrove. He made his first start on August seventh against Texas, and went seven innings for a no decision, giving up one run on five hits while striking out six against the tough Rangers’ lineup. There was no question that he’d be a tough nut for Toronto’s hitters to crack.
Francisco Liriano made his second start for the Jays since arriving from Pittsburgh in the last-minute trade deadline deal that sent Drew Hutchinson to the Pirates. Liriano is under really close scrutiny by both management and fans for a number of reasons. First, his arrival at least partly triggered the decision to go to a six-man rotation. If he doesn’t work out, they’ll have to revisit the Aaron Sanchez question immediately. Second, he was traded for a known quantity, Hutchinson, who had been patiently (we imagine) waiting in Buffalo for a call to Toronto if needed. Hutch is young, has a live arm, and has shown no reason for us to think that his strange record last year would be typical of his career. In essence, it seems, the trade for Liriano was desirable from the Jays’ standpoint because Liriano is left-handed, and because he brings considerable playoff experience to Toronto with him. In terms of the team’s hopes for him, the thought was that his struggles with control this year in Pittsburgh that had resulted n a less than stellar record might be resolved by a change of scenery and by being reunited with his former Pirate battery mate Russell Martin.
In his first start last Friday night in Kansas City, Liriano didn’t disappoint, really. There was little evidence of the control problems carrying over from Pittsburgh. He delivered a quality start and did not get the decision in the Jays’ eventual 4-3 win. He showed the ability to eat a significant number of innings while keeping his team within range of the opposition. What he did not show is the lights-out ability to dominate that is a key characteristic of the rest of the rotation. He will not, frankly, likely be the winning pitcher in any 1-0 games.
Neither pitcher exactly sailed through the first two innings. Liriano delivered the only three-up three-down inning in the Houston first. Then, after erasing a rare Josh Donaldson fielding error with a double-play ball, he stranded Evan Gattis at second after Gattis hit a two-out double. Musgrove, meanwhile, pitched over his own two-out double, to Edwin Encarnacion in the first, and stranded a walk in the second.
If anything, Liriano had the better of it at the start, not walking anyone and throwing only 20 pitches compared to Musgrove’s 36.
But in the top of the third Liriano let up and walked the first batter, the impressive rookie outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, on a 3-1 pitch. After getting catcher Jason Castro to fly out to centre field, he walked George Springer on a 3-2 pitch. Both walks came after Liriano had fallen behind the hitter, which suggested a lapse in concentration. The rookie third baseman Alex Bregman, who has been hitting much better since we saw him in Houston the week before, singled sharply to centre, loading the bases as Hernandez was held at third. Josh Donaldson did his best to ward off the disaster Liriano had set up for himself, by making a leaping, back-handed stab of a liner that Jose Altuve stung toward the left-field corner. But now that Bregman is starting to hit, it’s pretty hard to go through the top of the Houston order without experiencing some damage. Shortstop Carlos Correa delivered a two-out hit that scored the first two Houston runs before Marwin Gonzalez lined out sharply to centre to end the inning.
The Blue Jays got one of the runs back in their half of the third, showing to their relief that it was indeed possible to hit and score runs off the solid Musgrove. But after two straight hits to start the inning he snuffed out a potentially very big inning for the Jays while giving up only one run. Darrell Ceciliani, getting the start in left with Michael Saunders in right, led off the inning with a booming double off the wall in right centre field. Devon Travis followed with a hard-hit ground ball through the right side that forced Ceciliani to stop at third. Ceciliani scored when Donaldson grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, and with the rally already snuffed, Musgrove retired Encarnacion on a grounder to third.
Liriano again allowed the first Houston batter to reach base in the top of the fourth when Evan Gattis hit a double to left centre, but Liriano left him there as he struck out the next batter, rookie first baseman Tyler White, and then retired the next two on an easy fly ball and a ground-out to third by Castro. Things looked better for him when Michael Saunders hit a solo (what else?) homer to centre to tie the game, leading off in the fifth, but with two outs Justin Smoak tried to stretch a single into a double in a test of George Springer’s arm, and Springer’s arm passed the test easily, thank you very much.
Somehow Liriano wasn’t able to enjoy a fresh start, as the first three Houston batters in the fifth, the top of the order, natch, went single (Springer), double (Bregman), with Springer stopping at third, and Altuve (double) delivering both for a 4-2 lead for the Astros that ended up being all that Joe Musgrove needed. Obviously better able to capitalize on new life than Liriano, Musgrove finished out his start with three innings of facing one batter over the minimum, a leadoff double by Donaldson in the fifth that went for naught, and striking out five of nine. His line for seven innings was another impressive one: two runs on six hits, one walk and seven strikeouts on 94 pitches. Judging from his first three major league appearances, Joe Musgrove should have a long and productive career as a starting pitcher in major league baseball.
Liriano got to within one out of six innings in a respectable losing cause before running out of gas. After Evan Gattis grounded out to shortstop to lead off the sixth, Tyler White struck out on a foul tip, and it looked like the Jays might go to the bottom of the sixth with a chance to erase the deficit for Liriano, or even put him in position for the win. But with the two outs already recorded, Liriano removed himself from the possibility of benefitting from a comeback by the Jays. Teoscar Hernandez, who arrived just in time for tonight’s game, got his first hit as a big leaguer, and it was a good one, a solid dinger to left to increase the Houston lead to 5-2. Manager John Gibbons was still willing to stick with Liriano, but not after he hit Jason Castro with a pitch. So, five and two thirds innings, five runs on eight hits with two walks and four strikeouts on 95 pitches. A seriously middling start, and not good enough to help the Jays to a win against a tough pitcher like Musgrove was tonight.
Ryan Tepera was brought in to pick up Liriano, and after walking Springer, he got Bregman to ground out to third to end the sixth inning. He then whizzed through Houston’s three-four-five hitters on 14 pitches in the seventh, but was ambushed by two infield hits in the eighth, while catching pinch hitter Tony Kemp’s popped-up sac bunt attempt himself in between the two hits. Gibbie turned to Brett Cecil after the second hit, and Tepera departed having done a pretty good job over one and two thirds innings, for a guy who’s major contribution to the team so far this year has been driving the shuttle bus back and forth between Toronto and Buffalo.
Cecil came in and struck out Castro, walked Springer to load the bases, and got Bregman to fly out to right to keep the deficit at three.
Meanwhile, with Musgrove deservedly cooling out in the Houston dugout, Manager A.J. Hinch brought in Pat Neshek to hold the lead for Musgrove. Now this is just not fair. Who could hit against a guy with a delivery like that, and great stuff to boot? Of course, the Jays went three up, three down against him on 19 pitches. At least Devon Travis made decent contact when he lined out to right for the second out. Since the Astros seem to be having trouble sorting out their closer spot—witness Will Harris serving up Edwin’s 300th in the bottom of the ninth before finishing it off—I don’t understand why they don’t just make Neshek their closer. Isn’t the point of a closer to be unhittable?
Scott Feldman finished off for the Jays, and had another rough outing, though he escaped without being scored on. He got the first two outs before the Houston gnats came out to play. If the Oakland A’s play “small ball”, based on this series, maybe the Astros play “weenie” ball, as in teenie-weenie, not hot dog, you dummies! With two outs and a three-run lead, slugger Marwin Gonzalez bunted his way on against the shift, for pete’s sake, and slugger Evan Gattis snaked one up the middle that Tulo got to but couldn’t make the throw on time at first. Feldman than walked Tony Kemp to load the bases before getting the rookie Hernandez to ground into a forceout at second.
By the way, four of the Astros’ twelve hits came via the infield route in the eighth and ninth. Seems like when they get a lead, instead of delivering the coup de grâce, they prefer to dish out the coup de nibble. They can get almost annoying as those damned Kansas City Royals!
As I said, Will Harris came on for the save for Houston, and gave the huge crowd their biggest jolt of the night by serving up Edwin Encarnacion’s long-awaited home run number 300. This closed the gap to 5-3, and almost made up for losing the game. Almost. But well done, Ed-wing! No one deserves the accolades more than you.
Now we have to win two straight to secure the series. Tomorrow afternoon we’ve got the right guy out there for it, Aaron Sanchez, and well-rested, to boot. Sock it to ’em, Sanchie!
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