In my report on Friday night’s game, I mentioned that early on, before the Red Sox lineup hit the jet stream, it felt like it was going to be another one of those 10-8 Toronto-Boston games. Well, this afternoon’s Boston win over the Blue Jays to take the series was “another of those 10-8 Toronto-Boston games”, leaving aside the final, meaningless Sox run in the seventh inning. Only problem is, Boston, not Toronto, was on the long end of the score. Where’s the sense in that?
You had to think that in his last visit to his favourite ballpark not named Fenway David Ortiz was going to do something dramatic. But nobody expected it to take until the sixth inning of the final game of the series to do it, and we didn’t want it to be that dramatic!
Something had to give in that sixth inning. The Jays were clinging to an 8-7 lead that everybody in the ball park, hell, everybody in Canada, knew was not going to be the final score of the game. Aaron Loup had done his lefty thing by fanning Jackie Bradley leading off. Then Manager John Gibbons called on Bo Schultz to face the two right-handed hitters at the top of the Red Sox order. Dustin Pedroia singled. Xander Bogaerts singled. So much for Schultz. Gibbons brought on Joaquin Benoit to face David Ortiz. Wait a minute. Benoit is a righty. Was Gibby mad? No. Brett Cecil had already been used to get Ortiz out in the fourth. What about Matt Dermody, the left-handed rookie call-up? Are you mad? So, Benoit it was.
Benoit had not yet yielded a run since arriving in Toronto over 19 appearances. After an uncharacteristically spotty first half of the season with Seattle, he’s blossomed here as the seventh-inning part of the BenGriNa troika. And Ortiz, well, like I said, everybody was waiting for his farewell gesture, and so far in the series he hadn’t really come close to getting all of it. The first pitch from Benoit was a changeup. Papi flailed at it. Encouraged, Benoit tried another one. Oops. Boston 10, Toronto 8. It was dramatic, all right.
“Fans” calling in after the game to “Yahoos ‘r Us” were all “Fire Gibbie! What the hell was he pitching to Ortiz for, instead of putting him on?” Well, oh ye of little brain, Sox Manager John Farrell might not be the most popular guy around Toronto after dumping us to take his “dream job” in Boston, but he ain’t otherwise stupid. And that’s why he moved Mookie Betts to the cleanup spot hitting behind Ortiz. Anybody in baseball in 2016 who would rather pitch to Betts with the bases loaded and only one out, having just moved Pedroia from second to third with the walk, rather than pitch to Ortiz with runners on first and second is just dumb. Ortiz can beat you two ways, sure, but the only one you worry about is the three-run dinger. If he knocks Pedroia in with a base hit, the game’s only tied, and he’s either out of the game for a runner, or left in to gum up the works on the bases for the Sox. And if you want to get all analytic-y about it, he’s a slightly more likely candidate to be fanned than Betts. Pitching to Ortiz rather than Betts in this situation is a no-brainer.
Now, besides clarifying why the right-handed Benoit was pitching to Ortiz, if you didn’t see the game, your other obvious question is “Wait a minute. Sixth inning. Benoit’s in. Cecil’s already pitched. Loup’s already pitched. Schultz was in and out in the sixth. Wasn’t this Aaron Sanchez’ start? What the hell happened here?”
You’re right. The dramatic contretemps between Benoit and Ortiz in the sixth needs context. A lot of context. And boy, have we got context!
First, an interesting and significant lineup change for Toronto today: Devon Travis remained in the leadoff spot, but as the designated hitter. Ryan Goins was slotted in to play second and bat ninth. This is an indication not only of how significant Gibbie feels this game is, but also that the alarms about Travis’ defence are now finally audible to the manager and his coaching staff.
The rotation matchup for the whole series was definitely an advantage for the Blue Jays. First, David Price had pitched against the Padres on Wednesday and was not scheduled for the weekend. (Wonder what that says about Farrell’s thinking—he needed Price more against San Diego than against us? Or is he just a boob?) Second, the Sox had in effect wasted Porcello’s fine effort in a blowout where it wasn’t needed, while Jays’ Manager John Gibbon’s had to a certain extent sloughed off (euchre term—means playing a throw-away card to save your good ones) by having Marco Estrada take the opening game, since his recent outings had been less consistent than Jay Happ’s or Sanchez’. Then you had Happ versus Eduardo Rodriguez, which worked out, and now Sanchez versus Buchholz, which looked very promising.
I made much yesterday of the significance of Happ retiring Pedroia to lead off the game. We had to be happy today when he went down swinging on a 2-2 pitch. Even happier when Xander Bogaerts lofted an easy fly ball to right for the second out, only seven pitches so far. Then things turned. Sanchez missed twice on a 2-2 count to Ortiz, and had to face Mookie Betts with Ortiz on first. He fell behind Betts 3-1, after walking Ortiz, and little alarm bells started to go off about his control. We had to turn to more pressing concerns because Betts jumped on the 3-1 and lined a shot to centre. Kevin Pillar may have started in before going back, and that may have kept him from making the catch, but in any case the ball was over his head and took a long carom away from Pillar off the wall, allowing Ortiz to chug all the way around to score. Hanley Ramirez obligingly went down swinging on three pitches to strand Betts at second, but oh, those Red Sox, they’d done it again.
Clay Buchholz mimicked Sanchez’ first, disposing of Devon Travis and Josh Donaldson on three pitches, but then Edwin Encarnation torched one to centre to tie the game. After walking Jose Bautista, Buchholz fanned Russell Martin to end the Jays’ mirror image bottom half of the first to the Sox’ top half. Strangely, even the first inning pitch count was the same, 22 each.
As Sanchez took the mound for the second inning, the question was whether the walk/double was just a small blip on the radar or something more. With the insertion of Ryan Goins already paying a dividend, Sanchez retired Travis Shaw who led off with a sharp bouncer between first and second that was headed for right field until Goins, racing over, slid on his knees to cut it off. His momentum carried him into a spin, and, while balanced precariously on his right knee, he made an accurate throw to Edwin for the out. As he threw he collapsed onto his rear and sat there to watch the out being recorded.
The play by Goins was Sanchez’ last hurrah, though we didn’t know it at the time. He walked Brock Holt on a 3-2 pitch, wild-pitched him to second, watched him steal third while walking Sandy Leon. This brought Jackie Bradley to the plate. I said a few days back that I wasn’t sure yet if Bradley is the real deal at the plate, but he’s certainly a real-enough deal for a number nine hitter. Real enough to go the wrong way on a 2-2 pitch and hit a three-run homer to left centre. Suddenly, shockingly, this crucial game had gone south for Toronto’s best starter. Pedroia lined out to Goins at second, and Bogaerts grounded out to Troy Tulowitzki, but after an inning and a half it was 4-1 Boston.
Cue the old cliché “ya gotta shut ’em down after a big inning by your guys.” Buchholz gave up a leadoff single to Tulo, but got Michael Saunders on a fly ball to centre and fanned Kevin Pillar and Goins. Sanchez continued to look shaky in the top of the third, giving up a drive to centre by Ortiz that took Pillar back to the fence for a fine catch, and walking Betts. He managed to finish the inning on a Ramirez fielder’s choice at second and a Shaw fly ball to left, but the worrisome part was his pitch count, 62 after three.
It was time for Buchholz to go into cruise control in the Jays’ third, but he couldn’t find the button on his dashboard. It only took one pitch for him to retire Travis on a foul popup to the first baseman, but then Buchholz started throwing . . . balls. He walked Donaldson. Edwin singled off Pedroia’s glove. He walked Bautista. He walked Russell Martin, to plate Donaldson. With the lead cut to two, the bases loaded and only one out, the crowd started to stir as Tulo, who had been slashing line drives all over the park all weekend, came to the plate. A hit now and we’d start all over again. Tulo didn’t hit a liner, though. He blasted one over the bullpen into the seats in left for a grand slam and suddenly the good guys had a 6-4 lead.
If you weren’t watching closely you might have thought that the lead gave Sanchez a new lease on life, as he retired the first two batters in the top of the fourth. But look again. Brock Holt hit a smash down the first base line that Edwin made a great play on, to dive, cut it off, and get to the bag. Sandy Leon hit one right on the screws to Pillar in centre for the second out. Then they started falling in, a Bradley single to centre, a Pedroia double to left, and a Bogaerts single to centre that scored two to tie the game, with Bogaerts going to second as Pillar missed the cutoff man. Bogaerts also drove Sanchez from the game, after only three and two thirds innings. Brett Cecil came in to face Ortiz, and got him to fly out to left to end the inning and leave Bogaerts at second.
John Farrell took a lesson from John Gibbons and didn’t bother sending Buchholz back out for the fourth inning. He called on Heath Hembree to take over and Hembree seemed to have caught the two-outs-and-relax bug. He struck out Ryan Goins, albeit on 12 pitches, and Travis, but then walked Josh Donaldson, bringing Edwin to the plate. Edwin hit a line drive over the fence that got out so fast Jerry Howarth didn’t even have enough time to shout “And there she goes”, restoring a two-run lead for the Jays, and reviving the general hilarity that had greeted Tulo’s grand slam. Little did the fans know that there wouldn’t be any more hilarity for them today . . .
Gibbons brought Joe Biagini in for the top of the fifth, in the faint hope (after all, this is Boston) of protecting the two-run lead until the seventh, when it would be time for BenGriNa. Well, that didn’t turn out very well. After getting Betts to fly out to left leading off, Biagini gave up a bomb to centre by Hanley Ramirez, to cut the lead to one. After giving up his first homer of the year on September third, he’d now given up his second, but after that the inning descended into serious wierdness. He struck out Travis Shaw, then walked Brock Holt. On a casual check-in throw over to first, Biagini threw the ball away and Holt moved to third. Then he hit Sandy Leon, and Gibbie had seen enough, calling in Aaron Loup to pitch to the lefty Jackie Bradley. After throwing one strike to Bradley, while Loup was coming set for his second pitch, Holt broke for the plate in a straight steal attempt of home. Loup calmly stepped off, made a good throw to Martin, who put the tag on Holt for the third out. Loup had closed out the inning by throwing one pitch and then picking up an assist.
But the score was 8-7 for the Jays, setting the stage for the Ortiz home run in the top of the sixth that settled the game for good. Though Benoit gave up the dinger to Ortiz, it was Bo Schultz who took the loss, as he had been responsible for the two runners knocked in ahead of Ortiz.
The Sox picked up an insurance run off Danny Barnes in the seventh, but it was hardly necessary, as the Jays were able to mount little challenge over the last four innings against Robbie Ross, Brad Ziegler, Fernando Abad, Koji Uehara, and Craig Kimbrel. (Can you tell the rosters are expanded for September?)
So David Ortiz takes his leave of Toronto, and is probably not nearly as happy as the Toronto fans are to take their leave of him. He is really only a one-dimensional player, but what a dimension it is!
Baltimore won, the Yankees lost, and the upshot is that the tightest division in baseball just got tighter: we are tied with the Orioles, two games behind Boston, and the Yankees are two games farther back.
Next up is Tampa Bay coming in. Oh, boy.
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