You could have viewed today’s pitching matchup between Tampa’s Chris Archer and Toronto’s Jay Happ in two different ways.
Taking the long view, as in season-long, things looked pretty good for the Jays. Happ has had a surprisingly good, make that surprisingly superb, season for Toronto, while Chris Archer, already established as one of the premier starters in the American League prior to 2016, has had a shockingly bad season. But if you take the short view, as in the last month, or since the All-Star break, it would look quite a bit different. Happ has struggled in a number of starts since mid-season, perhaps reflecting the fact that he had logged a high number of innings in his excellent first half, and might now be facing the wall. Meanwhile, Chris Archer has recently looked like the Chris Archer of yore, or at least of 2015.
While Happ has gone 4-1 in his last seven games, and his ERA has risen by only about a quarter of a run, the telling figure is that he has averaged less than six innings a start in those last seven games, whereas in the first half of the season he was pretty well guaranteed to go seven, or even into the eighth inning. Meanwhile, though Archer has gone 3-3 in his last seven games, reflecting the fact that the Rays are sitting in last place, his ERA has been 3.00, he has averaged 6.1 innings a start, and most impressively he has struck out 56 in 45 innings while walking only ten. This is not the same Chris Archer that the Jays cuffed around earlier in the year.
Regardless of who would prevail, it looked pretty certain that neither team would score a bunch of runs early, and that this would be a day for the bullpens to step up, and a game that would likely be decided by a late-inning lightning strike. Luckily for our heroes after struggling through two losses under the Tampa ceiling, the summoner of lightning this day would be wearing road greys rather than powder blue.
So despite anticipating a tough go against Archer, the Jays once again managed to score in the first inning, but once again they didn’t start to rock and roll until two were out, limiting their chances to go big early on Archer. In fact, Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson had both fanned already when Edwin Encarnacion came to the plate and pounded one to centre field that even Kevin Kiermaier couldn’t run down. On second with a double, Edwin was in position to score when Dioner Navarro singled to right. Navarro, inserted into the lineup as DH and cleanup hitter, took the central place in the Jays’ batting order thanks to his good numbers in the past against Archer, and the move paid dividends immediately in the form of an RBI.
The inning ended with Navarro being tagged out off first by the pitcher, but if this appeared to be a TOOBLAN, it was a TOOBLAN with a purpose. (Sorry to repeat for regular readers, but for the benefit of first-time visitors, a TOOBLAN is Thrown Out On the Bases Like A Nincompoop). With the play in front of him, Navarro could see that Souza, who has a strong arm, had made an accurate throw to the plate. It’s fairly clear that he intentionally gave himself up to protect Edwin’s run. As you would expect, catcher Bobbie Wilson, seeing Navarro in no-man’s land, stepped out from behind the plate, took the throw on the fly from Souza, and fired to Archer covering, who put the tag on Navarro.
With a one-run lead and knowing that his mates had hit a couple of solid shots against Archer, Happ took the mound and immediately had the lead taken away by the very aggressive top of the Tampa batting order. That second baseman blank blank led off the game with a single to left on a 2-2 pitch. Kevin Kiermaier hit a hot grounder off Edwin’s glove at first that deflected to Devon Travis, but of course there was no getting Kiermaier by then. The veteran Evan Longoria drilled a booming double off the wall in right centre, scoring that guy and moving Kiermaier to third. The latter would score on a sacrifice fly to right by Matt Duffy after Happ had caught Brad Miller looking. Happ then struck out Stephen Souza, but Tampa, and more to the point Archer, were up 2-1.
The second inning cemented the trend for both starters. Buoyed by the quick Tampa response in the first inning, Archer came out and blew the visitors away, Russell Martin grounded out to first, Troy Tulowitzki popped out to second, and Michael Saunders struck out. Though he didn’t give up another run, Happ continued to struggle as his pitch count rose like the tally of lies in the Donald Trump campaign. After getting the first two outs, he walked Curt Casali, the number nine hitter, and then the no-name guy, before retiring the side on a line smash by Kiermaier hit right at Travis at second. Alarmingly, after two innings Happ’s pitch count was at 61, and the writing was on the wall for him.
It wasn’t all beer and skittles for Archer, though. Like Happ he quickly dispatched Kevin Pillar on a popup to the shortstop, and Travis, who fanned. But like Happ he lost concentration with two outs and got in trouble for himself. Jose Bautista hit a ground single up the middle, and then, goodness gracious, Archer issued a walk to Josh Donaldson. Just so you know how well Archer had pitched in August, the walk to Donaldson equalled his entire total of walks for the whole preceding month. Presumably shocked by this unforgiveable lapse, Archer uncorked a wild pitch, bringing Encarnacion back to the plate with two outs and ducks on the pond. This time the spindly youngster with the fluid motion and the retro Afro peaking out from under the back of his cap got the better of Edwin, who went down swinging. The good news from Archer was that he still had the lead; the bad news was that despite being an inning ahead, Archer’s pitch count was also climbing quickly, and had reached 59 already.
Happ gave us some faint hope by retiring yet again the first two batters in the third inning, but that was his last hurrah; this just wasn’t his day. Longoria flied out to right; Brad Miller flied out to centre, but Matt Duffy, Stephen Sousa, and Corey Dickinson strung together three straight singles for the Rays’ third run, and that was it for Jay Happ. Manager John Gibbons, now having an expanded pen available to him, wasn’t about to draw out the agony for Happ. He only gave up three runs, but on six hits and two walks, and had already thrown 85 pitches, enough for a quality start, which this wasn’t. Gibbie called in Danny Barnes, one of the September callups who had impressed in a short visit in August, to finish off the third, which he did by retiring Bobbie Wilson on a fly ball to centre.
Well, that could easily have been the ball game. Archer settled in, the Jays’ bullpen did some great work to keep the game close, and the only issue lurking on the horizon was Chris Archer’s ominously rising pitch count, which would signal an early end to his day and perhaps change the complexion of the game. No insult intended, but the Rays haven’t sunk to the bottom of the division on the strength of a knockout bullpen, now have they?
Pitching on the lead, Archer certainly showed he still has his best stuff. Since fanning Edwin to end the mild threat in the third, he retired eleven out of twelve batters, only giving up a sharp base hit to Travis in the fifth. He also fanned five of the eleven outs. But when he came out for the seventh with 99 pitches in the books, the leash was pretty short. After Russell Martin flied out deep to left on a three-one pitch, Tulo rifled the ball into right through the vacated infield. That was it for Archer, and, as it turned out, for the Tampa Bay Rays as well. Brad Boxberger came in to face Michael Saunders, and it took just three batters for the Blue Jays to erase Chris Archer’s shot at a hard-won W. Saunders singled to right despite the shift. Kevin Pillar walked to load the bases. On a 1-0 count Devon Travis pulled a ground ball hard past Evan Longoria into left, and both Tulo and Saunders scored to tie the game. It took a little more work for Boxberger to extricate himself without giving up the lead. Jose Bautista hit into a fielder’s choice to move Pillar to third, and Josh Donaldson walked to load the bases again, but Edwin popped out to first in foul territory to finally end the threat.
Just a word about the shift, which Kevin Cash employs as much as anybody in the league. The Jays had three base hits in the inning, with the shift in place on all three. Tulo just laughed at it and hit through the big hole on the right side. But Saunders and Travis both pulled the ball through the shift. You still have to make quality pitches when you’re in the shift, because line drives and hard grounders will always find holes. If hitters start pulling the ball through shifts, and alternately crossing it up, I think the amount of shifting is going to decline, because what’s the point?
With Archer out of the game and the score tied, my bets were on the Jays beating the Rays’ bullpen, but nothing’s carved in stone, right?
In the meantime, Danny Barnes had done yeoman’s work to hold the Rays for another two innings after bailing out Happ. He left with a line of 2.1 innings, no runs, one hit, one strikeout, and 29 pitches. This fellow throws strikes and pitches to contact, and he does it with efficiency. Could he be a candidate for the post-season roster? Does his previous time up with the Jays qualify him? Hope so.
Scott Feldman retired the side in order with a strikeout and a couple of groundouts in the sixth, on 17 pitches.
With the game tied going to the bottom of the seventh, Gibbie turned to his high-leverage relievers, and the BenGriNa team came through in fine order. Let’s lump them together as one; it’s more impressive that way. Joaquin Benoit gave up a single to some guy I don’t recognize, and then struck out the side in the seventh. Jason Grilli retired Matt Duffy on a ground shot that bounced off the pitcher and caromed right to Donaldson at third. Then he struck out the next two, and gifted us with another gleeful fist pump. Roberto Osuna struck out two in the ninth, giving up a deep fly to right centre in between, and turned to thank his god, while we thanked ours for the gift of BenGriNa.
The drive to right centre by Nick Franklin off Osuna produced a scary moment, in more ways than one. First, it looked like it was going to the wall, but then, as Kevin Pillar and Zeke Carrera raced toward each other tracking the ball, neither backed off, and Carrera ended up plucking it out of Pillar’s glove as they collided. For a moment it looked like Pillar had taken the brunt of the collision on the same hand that had been recently injured, but luckily he was okay.
I don’t now whether it’s more impressive as narration or as numbers, but here are the numbers for BenGriNa: 3 innings, ten batters faced, one base hit, seven strikeouts in nine outs, 45 pitches thrown, 35 for strikes. And all of this after Barnes and Feldman went three and a third scoreless, giving up only one hit. Bring on the playoffs, the bullpen is ready!
But a shut-down bullpen don’t butter no turnips if the guys with the sticks don’t do something: this game was not over. After the Benoit whitewash of the Rays in the seventh, Kevin Cash called on Kevin Jepsen to keep the Jays in check. Don’t ask him how that worked out. Jepsen has managed the Jays well before, including a clean inning on Friday night. But this time it was another story, with a better ending for our side.
It was as quick as it was decisive. Jepsen walked Dioner Navarro. Dalton Pompey made his first appearance off the bench for the year to run for him and immediately stole second. He would have stolen third, too, but he didn’t have to, because Russell Martin, freed by his manager to call his own shot on a 3-0 count, hit a no-doubt blast to left for the lead, and the winning runs. After Jepsen gave up a following single to Tulo, Cash had seen enough, and brought in Danny Farquhar, who struggled to keep the score close, and succeeded, despite giving up another single to Pillar, and throwing a wild pitch to advance the two runners into scoring position with only one out. With his back to the wall, Farquhar fanned Travis, and got Bautista on a short fly to right.
Osuna scored his thirtieth save in thirty-three attempts, though maybe some of them should be divided into thirds and shared with his elderly uncles in the combine.
Thus the disaster of a sweep was averted, and the Jays could depart for New York, following Hurricane Hermine with a lighter heart and a good win under their belts. The lesson from the second and third games in Tampa Bay is that the modern game is still nine innings, but even the best of starting pitchers can only manage seven most nights. When you’re stonewalled by a good performance, you’ve only got a small window to recover, but it is a window. The best teams are the ones that can find a way to squeeze through more times than not. And nail some plywood over their own window in the meantime.
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