Artwork courtesy of storyboard artist Ed Chee.
View more of his work at: http://www.edwardchee.com
Yesterday afternoon we were mesmerized by Marco Estrada’s brilliance. So were the Texas Rangers, and we know how that turned out.
Today Jay Happ, Toronto’s rock (apologies to Toronto’s lacrosse team) mesmerized exactly no one. But at the end of five innings, the Rangers had only one run to their credit, on nine hits (one short of two per inning pitched) and by the end of the game Happ was in position to earn a gutsy playoff “W” for dipsy-doodling out of trouble in each of his first four innings.
Meanwhile, the imposing Yu Darvish, facing Toronto for the first time this season, also exited after five innings, having given up five runs on only five hits.
Fortunately for Happ the Rangers’ nine hits were all of the low and short variety, and none came with runners in scoring position. On the other hand, four of the five hits Darvish gave up were very long, hit very hard, and didn’t come back.
The upshot of Toronto’s four-homer outburst against Yu Darvish, which gave some breathing space to Happ while he extricated himself from jam after jam put up by the Rangers against him is that Toronto returns from the first two games of the division series with an imposing two-nothing record against Texas. The next two games are at the TV Dome Sunday evening at 7:30 and Monday afternoon at 1:00, a perfect time to watch a playoff game while the Big Bird roasts in the oven. (No kiddies, don’t worry, not that Big Bird!)
One week ago today, as we woke with a Blue Jay hangover after David Ortiz had engineered a comeback 5-3 win over Toronto, the way forward was murky and perilous indeed. We could barely hope that the stars would align in such a miraculous way as to salvage our strange and troubling season.
What a Diff’rence a Day Makes was the signature song of the brilliant but little remembered American jazz/rhythm and blues great Dinah Washington. I can hear the plaintive melody of that song as I consider what a difference a week can make in the life of a major-league baseball team, in the lives of its players, and in the lives of its fans.
As an aside, of some interest to sports fans, particularly those with connections to Detroit, like myself, is the fact that Dinah Washington, who, like many blues singers, lived a rather troubled life, was married six times; her last husband, who found her dead in bed in their home in Detroit in December of 1963 with a prescription pill bottle by her side, was Dick “Night Train” Lane, the NFL Hall of Fame defensive back who played for the Los Angeles Rams, the Chicago Cardinals, and the Detroit Lions. Lane was arguably the prototype of the modern defensive back, fast, hard-hitting, and a great open field runner. Lane had begun to serve as her business manager after their marriage earlier in 1963, and the songs of Dinah Washington became the soundtrack of the Lions’ locker room in the five years that Lane played for them.
Last Saturday Jay Happ got a better grip than Eduardo Rodriguez on a wet baseball, keeping the Jays in contention in a game that Boston tied in the bottom of the eighth when Roberto Osuna balked in the tying run, and the Jays won in the top of the ninth by scoring a run without getting a hit.
Last Sunday Aaron Sanchez out-dueled David Price—irony of ironies—and took a no-hitter into the seventh inning and the bullpen managed to cling to a one-run lead as the Jays secured a wild card spot, albeit with a little help from the Atlanta Braves.
After a day of rest, a day when, if the Jays’ players are anything like their fans, no one rested a bit, Toronto scored a thrilling 5-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Wild Card Game, riding Edwin Encarnacion’s three-run game-winning blast in the eleventh inning into a long-awaited rematch with the Texas Rangers, holders of the best record in the American League this year.
Yesterday a five-run outburst in the third inning provided all the runs a brilliant Marco Estrada needed to nail down the first game of the Toronto-Texas ALDS series as the Jays jump-started their title hopes with an easy opening-game win over the Rangers.
Today a quartet of long balls shored up Jay Happ’s gritty, laboured effort to send the Jays off to Toronto with a stranglehold (I should choke—sorry—on that word) on the ALDS, ready to punch their tickets to a meetup with, possibly, the Cleveland Indians, who are likewise leading Boston 2-0 in their series, but heading to Fenway.
How far we’ve come in a week.
Texas and Toronto finished their season series this year way back in May, with the fabled brawl game, the one that included The Punch from Roughned Odor, inflicted on our very own Joey Bats. Yu Darvish made his first start of the season, after missing all of last year and the beginning of this one due to Tommy John surgery, on May 28th, so memories of Yu for most of the of the Blue Jays would date back to 2014. And it was equally uncharted territory for Darvish facing the Blue Jays.
Just for fun I looked up the last time Darvish faced the Jays. It was in Toronto on July 28, 2014. Here was the Toronto lineup that day:
ss Jose Reyes
lf Melky Cabrera
rf Jose Bautista
dh Dioner Navarro
1b Dan Johnson
cf Colby Rasmus
3b Juan Francisco
c Josh Thole (catching for R.A. Dickey)
2b Muni Kawasaki
Well, that was a different world, wasn’t it? Only three players are still with the organization, and only two of them are on the current playoff roster.
That was fun, but let’s get back to the matter at hand. Darvish briskly dispatched the Jays in the top of the first, Zeke Carrera and Josh Donaldson on easy fly balls to centre, and Edwin on an equally easy ground out to short. Darvish took all of eight pitches to do this, great work, but where were the strikeouts? He was facing three hitters who strike out a lot, and he didn’t fan any of them. By the way, in that game of July 2014, Darvish fanned twelve Jays’ hitters in six and two thirds innings.
Then Jay Happ took the mound against the Rangers, and established the pattern he would follow for the subsequent three innings. Two quick outs, Carlos Gomez on a popup and Ian Desmond struck out, but then Carlos Beltran had an infield single to Donaldson and Adrian Beltre walked (semi-intentional, and not a bad idea, once he
fell behind). Roughned Odor ended the inning by grounding out to Travis at second. One inning and 20 pitches.
In 100 innings this year, Darvish had walked only 31, and given up 12 homers, while striking out 132. In the top of the second he collected one of each, and suddenly the Jays had jumped into a 2-0 lead in this second game of the ALDS. Darvish walked Jose Bautista, then struck out Russell Martin on a 2-2 pitch. Then he went 2 and 0 on Troy Tulowitzki, and Tulo turned on a low four-seamer on the inside corner and rifled it out of the yard to left centre, a lightning first blow for Toronto. Darvish managed to get under the bats of both Michael Saunders and Kevin Pillar, resulting in a popup and an easy fly to end the inning.
The Happ roller-skating show continued in the second. Jonathan Lucroy’s bid for a hit to right was snuffed by a nice sliding catch by Bautista, but then Ryan Rua and Elvis Andrus singled, and the big left-hander had to bear down to strike out Nomar Mazara and Carlos Gomez, both looking, on 93 mph fastballs down and in, which had the Texas bench howling at plate umpire Lance Barksdale.
Darvish got his strikeout pitches working in the third and fourth, punching out two in the third to strand Darwin Barney, whom he had hit with a pitch leading off. In the fourth he gave up a single to Tulo’s suddenly very hot bat, but there were already two away and he fanned Michael Saunders to finish the inning.
For Happ it was déjà vu all over again, as he gave up two singles and no runs in the third, but in the fourth, after getting the first two outs (you know the drill) he gave up the usual two hits to Mazara and Gomez, but this time Ian Desmond followed with a third single, and the Rangers were on the board, the Jays’ slim lead now down to 2-1, with a lot of game yet to play.
Now Darvish was supposed to come in with a shutdown inning, to convince his mates that their target would stay in their sights, and not move on them. But thanks to Kevin Pillar’s quirky approach at the plate, the run they had just scored was neutralized. Pillar swung at a 2-1 pitch so up and so in that if he hadn’t hit it, it might’ve busted his nose. But he swung to protect his nose, and the ball streaked down the line and over the fence in left for a solo homer.
If you surveyed a thousand Blue Jays fans and asked them to name a combination of three players who might plausibly hit solo home runs in the same inning in a playoff game, I’m willing to bet that not one of them would name Pillar. Zeke Carrera, and Edwin Encarnacion, but that’s what happened in the fifth inning of game two of this 2016 ALCS. The funny thing is, none of them were back-to-back. Pillar homered, Darwin Barney popped out to short, Carrera homered, what may have been the most impressive shot of the three, to the power alley in right centre, Josh Donaldson popped out to third, and then Edwin Encarnacion drilled a liner to left that reached the seats might fast. Boring old Jose Bautista grounded out to shortstop, and the assault on Yu Darvish’s fast ball was over.
Needless to say, also over was the first playoff start of Yu Darvish, at 5 innings, 5 runs on only five hits, one walk, five strikeouts, and 84 pitches. Here’s how the Blue Jays started this 2016 ALCS against Texas: they faced the two best pitchers on the Rangers’ staff, Cole Hamels and Yu Darvish. This was their combined line: 8.2 innings, 11 runs, 11 hits, 4 walks, 6 strikeouts, 166 pitches, and 5 home runs. I’m tempted to say “what hitting slump?” but that would be tempting fate . . .
Just to rub it in a little, Jay Happ pitched his only clean inning in the bottom of the fifth, fanning Beltre, Odor driving Pillar to the wall in centre, and Lucroy hitting a lazy fly to right. At 83 pitches, it looked like manager John Gibbons could ask Happ to give him another inning, especially if he could replicate the fifth, but it didn’t work out for them. Ryan Rua rifled a base hit to centre on the first pitch of the inning, and Gibbie came out with the hook.
Happ’s early departure, while it might have been easily foreseen, posed a big problem for Gibbie, since there was no way pf knowing the condition of Roberto Osuna, whether he could pitch at all, and if so for how long. When you’re working your bullpen, you have to work backwards from your closer, and it’s a much bigger puzzle if you’re unsure about the linchpin. And, unlike yesterday, a 5-1 lead is a far cry from the 7-0 lead that Marco Estrada carried all the way to the ninth.
With both starters finished after five, the two bullpens had to cover four innings each. Of course, their goals were the same: Texas needed to keep the Jays off the board so that the game might still be in reach for their hitters, and the Toronto bullpen needed to preserve the lead and close out the game.
The Jays never threatened against Tony Barnette, who pitched the sixth and seventh innings, Matt Bush, who pitched the eighth, and Sam Dyson, the Rangers’ current closer, who pitched the ninth. Barnette gave up one hit in his two innings, Bush yielded one base on balls, and Dyson retired the side in the ninth. If the Jays were going to win this game, their relievers would have to shut the Rangers down.
When Happ was pulled with a runner on first and nobody out, you knew that it would be Joe Biagini first up, as he has consistently had that role in the latter half of the season. In any close game, if a reliever is needed before the seventh, it will be Biagini. Ryan Rua was started by Jeff Bannister, and moved up to second as Elvis Andrus grounded out to second. Mazara popped out to Darwin Barney for the second out, and Gomez grounded out to short for the third out.
Biagini came back out for the seventh, which again is part of the pattern, and given his consistent record, why wouldn’t it be? But Ian Desmond led off with a double, and now he was in trouble: Carlos Beltran moved Desmond to third with a grounder to second, and the Rangers had a runner in scoring position for their best and most reliable hitter, Adrian Beltre. The infield was playing about half-way. If the Rangers made a base-running gaffe, they’d try for Desmond, otherwise they’d trade the run for an out, cutting their lead to three.
Biagini then received a double gift, a slight baserunning hitch by Desmond, and a great instinctive play by Josh Donaldson. Beltre bounced one sharply to Donaldson, who checked Desmond, turned to throw to first, and caught Desmond out of the corner of his eye hesitating before breaking for the plate. That was all the encouragement Donaldson needed. He threw, a little high, to the plate, Martin made a sweep tag, Desmond was called out, and, finally, confirmed out by the appeal process. The lead remained at four, and the Jays’ manager called for Brett Cecil to pitch to Roughned Odor. As when he faced Chris Davis on Tuesday in the Wild Card Game, though, Cecil walked Odor on four pitches, which meant that Gibbie had to bring in Jason Grilli to face Jonathan Lucroy, who popped out to Edwin Encarnacion in foul territory for the third out.
The problem for Gibbie now was that he used Grilli earlier than he had wanted to, and there still were six outs to go. This was the situation for which Francisco Liriano had been sent to the bullpen, and which he handled so well in claiming the win in the Wild Card Game. After Liriano there would only be Osuna, the unknown quantity. After Osuna would be the abyss.
Unlike Tuesday, though, Liriano started out in the hole: Mitch Moreland ripped one just out of Encarnacion’s reach and ended up with a double. Kevin Pillar came up big with a sliding catch of Andrus’ liner to centre, with Moreland holding at second. Liriano walked Robinson Chirinos who was hitting for Mazara, bringing Carlos Gomez to the plate, and bringing us to the crucial point of the game.
Gomez ripped a line drive back up the middle, and for one long moment the question of who would win the game receded into the background. Acting on pure instinct, Liriano turned his back to the ball, and it glanced so hard off the base of his skull or his neck that it next landed safely in centre field. Moreland scored, but all attention was on Liriano, who was visited by the Jays’ manager and trainer. Liriano stayed on his feet, walked off under his own power, and disappeared into the clubhouse. We learned later that Liriano had at least been cleared to travel to back to Toronto, so beyond that we have to wait until there is further medical information released.
This was the moment that Gibbie had hoped to avoid. Osuna had assured him that he was good to go, but the last thing that Gibbie wanted to do was bring him in before the ninth. T.J. Hoying, running for Chirinos, had gone to third on Moreland’s hit. Bannister started Gomez from first, so when Desmond hit a perfect double play ball to Tulo right at the bag at second, Gomez was already there. There was no inning-ending double play, and the third Texas run scored. But in the single most compelling at bat of the game, Osuna faced down the veteran Carlos Beltran. After Osuna missed with his first pitch, Beltran fouled off four in a row, took another ball, and then struck out on a wicked slider right down the middle that dove under his swing out of the bottom of the zone.
It would be nice to be able to say that Osuna had an easy ninth to finish off the save, but no such luck. The Jays made one of their usual save-situation defensive changes, removing Jose Bautista from the game, shifting Zeke Carrera from left to right, and inserting Melvin Upton in left. It must have been karma, then, that caused Osuna to leave a 1-2 slider up in the zone where Adrian Beltre could square it up and drive it to left. The ball was going to carry to the wall over Upton’s head, but he had a good jump on it and seemed like he had a chance to run it down. But strangely, and much like Ian Desmond in centre the night before, Upton pulled up, the ball hit the wall, and caromed back between his legs. Luckily, with Beltre running, it stayed a double, but the collective “here we go again” from Blue Jays’ fans was as heartfelt as it was loud.
Remarkably, though, almost miraculously, Beltre never advanced from second as Osuna showed what stuff he’s made of, as if we didn’t know. He blew a fast ball by Odor—oh irony—on a 3-2 pitch. Jonathan Lucroy popped up to Barney at second, and Mitch Moreland hit a lazy little short fly to centre that Kevin Pillar exuberantly camped under for the third out.
Let’s hand out the honours here—god knows there’s enough to go around! To whatever scout figured out that Darvish is relying too heavily on his heater these days. To the four bashers for being able to put theory into practice. To Jay Happ for dancing on razor blades without getting a scratch. To Joe Biagini and Jason Grilli for short-term rescue work out of the bullpen. For a courageous stand by Roberto Osuna when a lesser man would have held himself out today. For Kevin Pillar, for diving, and sliding, and squaring up a ball up in his eyes. And yes, finally, to John Gibbons, for pulling the right strings at the right times when the team was in a really tight spot.
Last year Texas came to Toronto and won the first two games of the LCS on the road, but never won another. Is that an omen for us, or just an instructive tale to be pored over for its lessons?
Maybe being up 2-0 coming home is bad luck, but I’ll take sending out Aaron Sanchez to try to win the series in game three at home any day. And I’m sure Texas would, too.
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