Before you pledge your love to the goddess Baseball, know that she is a cruel mistress.
Though she may fill your bed more often than not with the fragrant aroma of rose petals, occasionally what rises from the conjugal bed as you approach in the dark is the stench of death and despair, for this time she has coldly abandoned you for another.
Just such a nasty trick did she play on the Blue Jays and their legions of adoring fans last night in Cleveland, in the opener of a three-game series with the Indians.
Francisco Liriano, who in this new starting rotation cooked up by the Jays’ poobahs seems to have become the go-to Friday night series-starter, pitched his heart out over six innings. He was followed by the greying but dynamite relief duo of Joaquin Benoit and Jason Grilli who protected his one-run lead and turned it over to closer Roberto Osuna for the save.
This seemed a perfect prescription for a win in a tight, well-pitched duel between Liriano and Cleveland starter Trevor Bauer. But then Osuna tried to sneak a one-out, two-strike changeup past Indians’ third baseman Jose Ramirez, and didn’t get away with it. As was inevitable, Osuna’s streak of converted saves dating back to early June was broken, and who could complain about that, really? The Jays were still in the game, and would just have to reach down a little deeper to pull it out.
Then unmitigated disaster struck, as a whole flock of pigeons came home to roost, and the Indians danced on the field. But let’s put off the description of the grisly end for a while. I’m not ready to wallow yet.
Trevor Bauer had already earned due respect from the Blue Jays for his memorable performance in the nineteen-inning Canada Day game in the TV Dome in Toronto. Plucked from his scheduled start the next day by Manager Terry Francona to do what he could to give the Indians a chance to win the marathon, he had thrown five peerless innings of shutout relief, giving up only two hits and earning the win. That Francona’s decision to plunder his rotation to win the game had repercussions down the line in that four-game series did not reflect negatively in the least on Bauer’s great achievement that day.
It was encouraging, then, that the Jays struck early against him tonight. It was so sudden that many among the Canadian throng who had flocked to Cleveland for the series were still milling around the gates trying to get in when Russell Martin, continuing his hot hitting from New York, blasted them into a two-run lead. Devon Travis grounded out to third to open the game. Michael Saunders walked, one of only two walks Bauer issued tonight. Edwin Encarnacion popped out. Then Martin settled into the batter’s box, but not for long. He turned on the first pitch he saw, a four-seamer, and crushed it. You knew it was gone from the moment of contact, and so did he, as he admired it on the way to first. Trevor Bauer would not shut the Blue Jays out this time.
When quintessential leadoff man Rajai Davis singled to left on a ground ball between third and short, it looked like the Indians would put themselves right back in it. But Jason Kipnis hit another grounder to the left side, but right at Ryan Goins, who started a smooth double play. Francisco Lindor followed with a ground single through the same spot Davis had hit, but died at first as Mike Napoli flied out to centre.
Wait a minute, what’s that? Ryan Goins started the double play? Oh, that’s right, I forgot to mention that tonight’s Blue Jays’ lineup was actually five players short of the original starting nine, as the injury bug seems to have taken on a momentum of its own. Josh Donaldson sat tonight because his jammed thumb was not ready to go. Troy Tulowitzki sat tonight because of what is being described as a “light” calf muscle strain. So the left side of the infield was patrolled by Goins at short and Darwin Barney at third, Goins having been recalled from Buffalo once the Tulo injury became known. To make room for him, Darrell Ceciliani was optioned back to the Bisons, leaving the Jays short-handed in the outfield until Keven Pillar, and after him, Jose Bautista return. Tonight’s outfield had Zeke Carrera in left, Melvin Upton in centre, and Michael Saunders in right. So, we had two replacements and Saunders out of position in the outfield, plus the left side of the infield subbed in, though with little drop-off in defence, at least in the infield. The Jays have been remarkably effective at playing over injuries so far, but tonight they may have reached the limits of their good fortune, as we shall see.
Despite the messy starts, both pitchers settled in after the first, and went pitch to pitch through the top of the sixth. Liriano retired ten in a row from the last out of the first until he opened the fifth by walking Carlos Santana. Then things got a little dicey for him, thanks to Devon Travis. Jose Ramirez hit a hard one-hopper into the hole at short; Goins went down for it, to his right, and made a nice pick. He unloaded the ball to Travis quickly, but there was no hope for a double play. Travis didn’t get the memo though, and tried to force it to first, throwing wide of Edwin Encarnacion and into the Indians’ dugout. Santana was out, but Ramirez was on second, not first, with only one out, not two.
Brandon Guyer, who leads the league in hit-by-pitch, then let a Liriano bouncer hit his front leg, which he never even twitched to get out of the way. There used to be a rule about that . . . That set up the double play again, but Liriano went a different route, fanning Abraham Almonte and getting Roberto Perez to ground into yet another 6-4 forceout to end the “threat”, which, it should be noted, did not include a base hit.
Bauer had a great run, pitching through the eighth inning on 110 pitches. He stranded a single by Ryan Goins in the third, a walk to Melvin Upton and a single to Zeke Carrera in the fourth, the only inning in which he allowed two baserunners except the first. He stranded singles by Martin in the sixth and Saunders in the eighth. Moreover, in a sad and familiar story, he struck out a career high thirteen Blue Jays, while walking only two.
Jeff Manship came in to pitch the ninth for Bauer, and breezed on a popup and two strikeouts, throwing eleven pitches. Once again the Jays were shut down by an outstanding pitching performance, once again it was Trevor Bauer who did the deed, and were it not for Martin’s blast in the first, the Jays would never have been in the game.
After Liriano survived that fifth inning, the defence let him down again in the sixth. This time the Indians took advantage of it to score an unearned run and halve the Jays’ lead.
With one out, Jason Kipnis singled to centre, just the third hit off Liriano. Then he threw a short one that got away from Martin behind the plate. Kipnis, a good base-runner, hesitated, and then took off for second. Martin pounced on the ball and fired a strike to second base, a ball that arrived right on the bag and just before Kipnis’ feet arrived. A clean pick by Travis of a perfect throw, and Kipnis was out. But Travis missed the catch, the replay showing that it just glanced off his wrist. As the ball bounded away, Kipnis hopped up and took third; Travis was charged with an error. Instead of two outs and nobody on, there now was one out and a runner at third. Liriano almost stranded Kipnis there to survive the error. Almost. He struck out Francisco Lindor on a 3-2 pitch, but Mike Napoli lined a 2-2 pitch into left field to drive in Kipnis with the Indians’ first run of the game. Liriano walked Carlos Santana, but fanned Jose Ramirez to finish off his start with a 2-1lead to hand over to the bullpen.
There’s an elephant in the room here that needs to be outed, and no one seems willing to do it. For all of Devon Travis’ undoubted offensive value, what won him the starting job at second base last year, and what guaranteed that he would return to it this year when he finished his recovery from shoulder surgery, was his surprisingly good defence, surprising in the sense that he had always been labelled as a plus offensively but a minus defensively. Cracks are starting to show in the fielding facade, though. He has made a number of crucial errors recently, and they have unspooled in spectacular fashion: the ball rolling out of his throwing hand on at least two occasions, more than one rushed throw to first, and, tonight, terrible judgement in trying to turn an impossible double play, and then completely missing a game-changing catch-and-tag at second.
Now that Goins is back up with the big club, and as soon as Tulo and Donaldson are both sound enough to return to the field, should Devon Travis get a time-out, so that he can refocus on his fielding? His offence is not going to help us much if he boots away more runs than he produces.
After Liriano finished the sixth, with the one-run lead it was time for the old/old/young combo that has worked so well for the Jays in recent weeks. Joaquin Benoit took the seventh as usual, and breezed, striking out the pinch-hitter Tyler Naquin, in for Brandon Guyer, inducing a ground ball to second from Abraham Almonte, and striking out Roberto Perez, on only twelve pitches. Jason Grilli pitched the eighth, and for once didn’t strike anyone out. Instead, he scattered three fly balls while working around
a walk to Jason Kipnis, on 21 pitches.
Roberto Osuna came on for the save, and started out well by getting Carlos Santana to pop out to catcher Russell Martin. This brought 23-year-old Jose Ramirez to the plate. Ramirez has taken over third base from the released Juan Uribe and made it his own, and brought an average above .310 to the plate to face Osuna. He also brought a record of eight homers and 53 RBIs with him. Osuna and Martin started him off with two mid-nineties four-seamers, but on 0-2, they tried to finish him off with a changeup which ended up not in Martin’s mitt, but in the right-field stands, Ramirez’ ninth home run and 54th . . . well, you get the idea. The game was tied, and Osuna had his third blown save of the year.
The trouble with being in a tight game on the road is that it can end in an instant, sometimes a shocking instant. Having blown the save, Osuna and his defence needed to bear down and get the offence back to the plate for the tenth inning. It didn’t happen, and how it didn’t happen was both shocking and ugly.
Let’s reset the defence before considering what happened on Tyler Naquin’s game-winning at-bat. With Kevin Pillar and Jose Bautista still on the DL, the only original starting outfielder on the field was Michael Saunders, who has played left field for the entire season. He was in right. Melvin Upton, an experienced natural centre fielder, a most fortunate acquisition for the Jays considering Pillar’s subsequent loss, was in centre. Zeke Carrera, who had played so well in right during Bautista’s first stint on the DL, was in left. Simple question: why was Saunders in right and Carrera in left, instead of the opposite? I’m wondering when we will hear from Manager John Gibbons on that one.
Though I find it hard to imagine celebrating a walk-off sacrifice fly (would they mob a guy who knocked in the winning run with a grounder to the shortstop?) , that’s what the Indians did last night when Tyler Naquin plated Abraham Almonte from third to score the winning run in a 5-4 Cleveland win over the White Sox. So now he strode to the plate again, raising the question: is Tyler Naquin the magic charm, fated to be the hero once again? Or are the odds just too great that he would end the game two nights in a row, especially since there was nobody on base?
Once again Osuna jumped ahead of the hitter, getting foul balls on two four-seamers before throwing a third one for a ball. Once again, he changed his approach, and threw a slider. Another foul. A second slider, and the game was over, but not without some help from our reorganized (disorganized?) outfield. Naquin hit one high and deep to right. It looked like it would carry. Michael Saunders went back to the wall and tried to time the jump, but he missed it, and the ball banged off the fence and ran hard into short right centre, and ran, and ran, until finally Melvin Upton heaved into sight, picked up the ball, whirled around to throw, and slipped, his feet losing their grip in the turf. He had to throw short to Travis standing by, and by the time the ball was in to Russell Martin, Naquin, who had smelled the win at least from second base, was across the plate and the game was over.
My take? The ball was catchable. Zeke Carrera, who should have been in right, has made that catch several times this year. Saunders has as well, but not in right field, and not as often. Can we be sure that Carrera would have caught it? Of course not. But we do know that Saunders did not. Then, leaving aside his final slip, alarmingly reminiscent of the play on which Bautista was injured, why wasn’t Upton tracking the ball to back up Saunders? When the ball came off the wall, he was absolutely nowhere in sight. Did he think the ball was out and the game over anyway? Can you even make a call like that, if you’re a major-league outfielder? I leave the Jays themselves to answer these questions, but what I do know is that the play did not look good at all, and it was a shame that it decided the game.
In the last weeks we’ve had a great record in close games, thanks to the solid work of the trio of Benoit, Grilli, and Osuna. We had every reason to hope that it would work out again. It didn’t, and it hurt. The Orioles lost big to the Astros, the Red Sox beat the Tigers, and we’re still in the lead, a half game ahead of Boston and a game and a half ahead of Baltimore.
But, please, never again. We expected rose petals, and smelt carrion. Never again.
Once again, we go into game two of a series needing to win two to win the series. It’s in the capable hands of Aaron Sanchez tomorrow evening. And, we hope, in the gloves of a properly-deployed outfield and a re-focussed Devon Travis at second.
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