In the wake of the disturbing series loss to the Angels this week, I wrote yesterday that I was afraid that one terrible abyss that could open up for the Blue Jays on their erstwhile path to the playoffs would be occasional, or worse, more frequent breakdowns of their starting pitching while their hitters remain in the doldrums. The corollary to that scenario is that if the bats do wake up, then we can cut the starters a little slack, because they’ve been so good for so long this season.
Tonight’s raucous series opener with the woeful Minnesota Twins provided a powerful example of the antidote needed to overcome pitching problems. It didn’t matter that Francisco Liriano struggled with his control all night and turned in his least accomplished performance since joining the team, because someone lit a fire under the seats of the Jays’ bashers and from all corners, and up and down the lineup, they came to life with a vengeance. On a night like this, Liriano’s messy five innings and some sloppy innings contributed by the bullpen didn’t matter a whit, because the runs came by the dozen, with a few extra thrown in for good measure.
The Jays’ lineup was cobbled together at the last minute because of unforeseen complications which necessitated some unexpected changes, yet it was the lineup that broke out in a big way against admittedly mediocre Minnesota pitching. First of all, Devon Travis was held out of the lineup yet again because of his knuckle problem, with Darwin Barney continuing to do a good job in his absence. Second, the outfield corps was stripped bare for the night as Michael Saunders was kept out for a second game in a row to treat a sore left hamstring, and Kevin Pillar was a late scratch when he developed “flu-like symptoms”.
Though it had not been expected for some time, the circumstances pressed Jose Bautista into two-way service, and he got the start in right, with Zeke Carrera moved to left and Melvin Upton in centre. The loss of Bautista from the DH spot opened up room for Justin Smoak, and Manager John Gibbons chose to give Edwin Encarncacion a rest after a long stretch of two-way play, so Smoak was stationed at first, but buried down at eighth in the batting order, and Edwin became the DH for the night.
The surprising return of Smoak to the starting lineup was a tonic both for his own season-long batting funk and for the Jays’ overall offence. Not only did his second-inning three-run homer overcome an early Twins’ lead, it was the first and loudest of a whole series of declarations that the Toronto bashing machine had revived, at least for this one night. And Smoak did not rest on his laurels. He also hit two singles that each drove in a run, ending up three for five with five RBIs.
We’ve couched this whole description so far in terms of a great hitting parade overcoming a less than impressive pitching performance by the starter. But to be fair to Francisco Liriano, the Twins didn’t do too much damage to him, arguably not nearly as much as he did to himself. He gave up four runs in five innings, one unearned because he fumbled a bouncer toward first by Eddie Rosario that extended the inning by one batter and converted Trevor Plouffe’s deep drive to right from a third out into an RBI sacrifice fly. The other three runs scored on the only two hits he gave up in five innings, a solo homer to Plouffe in the first, and a Kurt Suzuki double to right in the fourth that plated two base-runners who had walked. That identifies the source of Liriano’s problem tonight: four bases on balls, three of which ended up scoring. If there was sin in Liriano’s performance, it was the sin of putting runners on base early in the inning without making them hit their way on.
To his credit, Liriano fanned Trevor Plouffe and Miguel Sano in the fifth in his shutdown final inning that qualified him for his first victory as a Jay, despite the fact that when he left with a 6-4 lead a Jays’ victory was far from assured.
The Twins started left-handed spot starter Pat Dean, who had put together a decent performance against the Jays in Minneapolis back in May. He did again tonight, though it only lasted an inning. After walking Jose Bautista leading off, he retired the side in order, and it looked for the moment like Trevor Plouffe’s two-out solo homer in the top of the first might actually play a significant role in the game. But after Liriano made short work of the Twins in the second on ten pitches, Dean’s mastery of the Blue Jays’ batting order came to a swift and unmerciful end. Troy Tulowitzki and Melvin Upton led off with back-to-back singles to left. For some reason, down 1-0 and facing a pitcher he wasn’t sure of, Manager John Gibbons eschewed the sacrifice bunt with Darwin Barney at the plate, the one guy with good enough bat control in the lineup that you can expect he will actually get it down properly.
I was not a happy camper when Barney fouled out to the third baseman instead of bunting, bringing up Smoak, and visions of a long and elegant swing and miss on strike three, which has become standard fare from Justin Smoak this year. And I don’t even want to mention that in the midst of a batting slump that has lasted the entire season, the Jays’ front office saw fit to give Smoaky a two-year contract extension. I like Justin Smoak in a lot of ways, and I’m the last person to be cranky about someone succeeding in life, but you had to look at his contract extension with a bit of a wry eye, didn’t you? Anyway, Justin, all is forgiven, and enjoy your big bucks on your new contract. After pounding a three-run homer to left off Dean, erasing the early lead and putting his team in the driver’s seat, he can do whatever he wants.
The Jays weren’t finished with Dean in the second. After Zeke Carrera made the second out, Bautista walked, and Josh Donaldson worked a one-two count to full, and homered to right centre to give Liriano a five-run lead to work with.
But it wasn’t as if the Twins were out of it already, or as if Liriano was home free. They got one back in the top of the third without a base hit, benefiting from two walks and Liriano’s error on a ground ball to get Kurt Suzuki to third with one out, whence he scored on Trevor Plouffe’s sacrifice fly. Reassuringly, the Jays struck back in their half of the inning and restored the four-run difference. Upton, Darwin Barney, and Smoak strung together two-out singles to score Upton, with Smoak getting his fourth RBI of the night.
Despite their record, though, these Twins are a feisty bunch, and they weren’t ready to lie down and play dead. And it didn’t help that Liriano walked two of the first three batters he faced in the fourth. This brought Kurt Suzuki to the plate, and he once again brought the Twins within range by hitting a double to centre to score two.
At six runs, eight hits, and 72 pitches in three innings, the kindly Minnesota manager Paul Molitor decided Dean had taken enough punishment. And speaking of punishment, if they weren’t playing us, I’d be first in line cheering for the Twins to brace up and start winning games, because I really feel badly that Molitor, one of the classiest guys ever to play the game, has to suffer through a season like this. He’s also a guy who will never hear a boo in Toronto; we Jays’ fans have long memories, and will never forget his contributions to our World Series wins.
Molitor called on Andrew Albers to try to stop the bleeding. Albers is a guy who also holds a special place in the hearts of Canadian ball fans. A native of North Battleford Saskatchewan, Albers had a cup of coffee with the Jays last year, but that’s not what he’s known for. A baseball vagabond, he has played all over the world, but most notably as a mainstay of Ernie Whitt’s pitching staff on the Canadian National Team. It was in this latter role that he was an important cog in the National team’s stirring gold-medal win over the United States in last summer’s Pan Am Games.
Albers threw a very decent fourth and fifth innings, retiring six in a row from the top of the order. Unfortunately, after the Twins cobbled together another run in the top of the sixth against Joe Biagini to make it a one-run game, Molitor sent Albers back out for the Jays’ sixth, an inning too far for the Canadian lefty. Leading off, Darwin Barney lined an 0-1 pitch over the fence in left to give the team a little breathing room.
This would only come into focus later, but it also gave Barney two stops toward a shot at hitting for the cycle, as he would double next time up, and had a shot at the triple in his last at bat, but didn’t pull it off. I have to say a few words about Darwin Barney. I can’t imagine the change wrought in his life by a phone call from Alex Anthopoulos to his home last September. After a good run as the Chicago Cubs’ second baseman from 2011 to 2013, he gradually lost playing time until he ended up last year in the Dodgers’ farm system, which explains why he was at home, the Triple A season over, when Anthopoulos called to tell him that the Jays had acquired him for a minor leaguer, and that he had to report to Toronto ASAP, since the Jays in the midst of their pennant run were very thin in the infield with Troy Tulowitzki on the disabled list and Devon Travis out for the year.
Barney served usefully to the end of the regular season, and then went home to watch his teammates’ playoff run on TV, no doubt a little wistfully. (Acquired after September first, he wasn’t eligible for the post-season roster.) After the season ended, the Jays granted his free agency in October, and then re-signed him six weeks later, presumably for depth insurance. What insurance he has provided! The various short- and medium-term infield injuries experienced by Toronto this year have kept him very busy. He’s filled in well defensively, at all three infield positions, left field, and even, famously, manfully, taking the loss on the mound in the Jays’ epic 19-inning Canada Day tussle with the Cleveland Indians. It seems that wherever you put him, whatever you ask him to do, he performs with class and panache, a thorough professional in every respect.
He’s also hit well, sometimes with power, like today. When he makes solid contact he makes things happen. He doesn’t produce very many roll-over grounders. His offence is far above average for a typical utility infielder, which I would suggest is an accurate description of how he is used by the Jays’ manager, but greatly under-rates his value to the team. He could play every day and not diminish the team’s winning capability. Are you listening, Gibby?
I like that some of the Toronto fans, who are quick to embrace effort and work ethic, have adopted Barney as their own. I saw my first Darwin Barney fan sign this week, a sure indication of acceptance, especially in a crowd that takes great pride in the quality and wit of its signs. (Remember that classic seen during the 1992 World Series against the Atlanta Braves, whose fans annoyingly, maddeningly, mind-numblingly continue after all these years to drone the racist and disrespectful tomahawk chop. It was beautiful in its simplicity: a drawing of a tomahawk, red line through it, with the legend: “No Cross-Border Chopping!”) The Barney sign was a doozy. Divided in half, one half for his first name, one half for his last, the “Darwin” side had a very respectable sketch portrait of Charles Darwin, and the legend, “Darwin, the mind of a genius”. The Barney side depicted that awful, boring children’s show favourite, the purple dinosaur Barney, and it said, “Barney, the strength of a dinosaur”. Gotta love it!
Back to the game, where Albers retired Smoak on a deep fly to left after Barney’s shot, and then saw Zeke Carrera reach on a throwing error by Twins’ shortstop Jorge Polanco. Molitor decided it was time for a change, and neither he nor Albers could know how lucky Albers was to get while the gettin’ was good. Pat Light didn’t come in carrying a gas can, he drove to the mound in a fuel truck. By the time he was done, the Jays had loaded the bases behind Carrera on two walks just so Russell Martin could unload them with a ringing double to left centre. Running out of options, Molitor left Light in long enough after the double to wild-pitch Martin to third and walk Tulo. Mike Tonkin then came in to secure the third out, with the Jays now firmly in command at 10-5.
After Joaquin Benoit pitched around a leadoff single to Robbie Grossman, Tonkin returned to the mound to face his own music. Barney, leading off the second inning in a row, greeted him with the double to left centre, and scored on Smoak’s third hit, completing his own three-hit collection. The Jays played take-a-turn for a while against Tonkin and Ryan O’Rourke, who brought the inning to a climax by allowing a two-run homer by Russell Martin, joining Smoak in the homer plus five RBIs club, to round out the scoring for Toronto at fifteen runs, with their second consecutive five-run inning. Other RBIs in the inning were claimed by Donaldson and Encarnacion, besides Smoak.
No doubt tired from all that swinging and base-running, the Jays went down tamely in the eighth to right-hander Alex Wimmers, who made a nice major league debut with a clean inning and strikeouts of Smoak and Carrera.
Manager Gibbons let Aaron Loup air it out in the eighth and ninth, and the pesky Twins put him through the ringer for three runs, two in the eighth and one in the ninth, earning perhaps a measure of respectability by bringing the final score up to
15-8, but Loup’s main job, of course, was to stay out there and keep the rest of the bullpen arms in the bullpen, and he did the job.
A plenitude of good things happened tonight. The batting slump lifted, for one night, anyway. Justin Smoak resoundingly broke out of his slump. Francisco Liriano won his first decision on less than his best stuff. Russell Martin continued his hot and productive hitting. Darwin Barney continued to contribute. Paul Molitor had to use way too many bullpen arms. Finally, Kansas City doubled up the Sox at Fenway, and the Yankees clobbered Baltimore in New York. We end the night a game up on Boston and two up on Baltimore.
Off the field, right at game time the Jays’ front office released strange but delightful news: the team had reacquired Dioner Navarro from Chicago in excange for a minor league pitcher. Isn’t it strange how things work out? Navarro didn’t want to re-sign with us last year because he wanted more playing time, but now I’m sure he’s thrilled to come back to a contender and a team he considers his home. Marco Estrada will be happy, the entire clubhouse will be happy, and the boys will be able to brush up on their rusty soccer skills now. I have no idea how this will work out, especially in regard to Josh Thole and R.A. Dickey, but Thole will be available to catch Dickey’s start on Monday. No doubt there’ll be a large and enthusiastic receiving line to greet Navarro when he arrives in the clubhouse at Camden Yards Monday afternoon.
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