Whoosh. Down went Devon Travis.
Whoosh. Down went Josh Donaldson.
Whoosh. Down went Jose Bautista.
It was a Frank the Plumber moment. Frank did our plumbing for years, though unfortunately he’s now retired. A wiry little guy, he was great. Skilled, creative at solving problems, reasonably priced.
But Frank came with one caveat: he was a bit dramatic. Like any older house, our house has a lot of quirks, not least in the area of plumbing. No matter what the job, no matter how straightforward it seemed to us, there would always be a moment soon after he started when we would hear the dreaded, high-pitched lament: “Oh, no-o-o-o!” Then we knew we were in for it.
When Dylan Bundy looked positively dominant fanning the top of the Jays’ order in the first inning last night, Frank the Plumber’s “Oh, no-o-o!” was ringing in my ears. After Monday night’s low-scoring, well-pitched opener, in which the Jays’ fell to Mark Trumbo’s walkoff homer in the eleventh having wasted numerous opportunities to break the game open, what we needed most was to break out the lumber and score some runs.
Toronto had only faced Bundy for about three innings in relief last year, so there was going to be a bit of a learning curve tonight one way or the other. Either the Jays’ lineup would give him a rude introduction to starting in the American League East, or they would have to figure him out. From his overpowering start, it was clear the learning was all on the Jays.
Jay Happ, coming off a strong spring and a great 2016, did his thing in the bottom of the first, getting the Orioles to elevate for all three outs, interrupted by Mannie Machado reaching with two down when Justin Smoak failed to scoop Josh Donaldson’s low throw from third. The error went to Donaldson on a play that I’m sure Smoak thinks he should have made.
In any case, it was clear that a night of great pitching was in the offing, and when you’re in Baltimore that’s never a great thing, with the Orioles long-standing history of playing for the long bomb at home, going back to the late, legendary, Earl Weaver, who summed it up like this: “The key to winning baseball games is pitching, fundamentals, and three run homers.” Against the O’s in Baltimore, few mistakes go unpunished, so it’s best to put some numbers on the board early.
Bundy and Happ traded styles in the second inning, as all three Jays made contact while going three up, three down. There was an article the other day (sorry I didn’t bookmark it) that showed how Kendrys Morales was going to be a good fit in the AL East. Seems that in the whole league, Morales’ fly-ball outs averaged the greatest distance. Moving him from L.A., Seattle, and Kansas City to the bandboxes of our own division turns a lot of those 385-foot outs into home runs. So it was fitting that as the first hitter to hit one of Bundy’s pitches fair, he hit one almost to the wall in left, an easy play for Joey Rickard.
As for Happ, he caught Chris Davis looking, gave up a fly to centre to Trey Mancini, and then caught Wellington Castillo looking. It looked like Bundy and Happ were on for a classic pitchers’ duel.
But then a funny thing happened in the Jays’ third. In fact, a miraculous thing happened. Instead of flailing away ever harder in frustration at Bundy’s offerings, the bottom of the order suddenly changed the approach and concentrated on contact, with cut-down swings. After Steve Pearce popped out to second, Justin Smoak, hitting left against Bundy, held back and stroked one to left centre for a single. Kevin Pillar muscled one up the middle off his hands for a hit, Smoak stopping at second. Devon Travis held back and laid one nicely into right centre to score Smoak, Pillar going to third.
Wow. Three guys not trying to make Dylan Bundy look bad, and we’ve got a run and something still going. Unfortunately, home plate umpire Eric Cooper rung up an indignant Josh , on a four-seamer that Josh thought was both low and inside, and then Jose Bautista hit one absolutely on the screws toward right, but it was snagged by Chris Davis at first to end the threat. It was a disappointing outcome, to be sure, but still, things were starting to look up.
. . . Until the very next inning, the bottom of the third, when Happ missed his spot with two–three, actually—pitches, and the game was for all practical purposes decided. He left a fast ball up to Johnathan Schoop leading off, and Schoop rifled it into left for a base hit. Eric Cooper rung up J.J. Hardy on a pitch that left Hardy just as riled as Donaldson had been (payback?) Joey Rickard hit the ball right on the nose, but right at Steve Pearce in left. Then came mistake number two from the Jays’ lefty, a fast ball up and in that Adam Jones jumped all over, sending it a few rows deep into the short left field seats. 2-1 Baltimore. Finally, Happ didn’t quite get a two-seamer low enough on Mannie Machado, and he powered it on a trajectory right over Kevin Pillar’s head in centre. This was the cue for the first appearance of the season of Superman Pillar, who raced back, snatched it out of the air above the fence, and crashed face-on into the poorly padded wall. You had to cringe when you saw the padding absorb his impact briefly, followed by the concrete wall underneath knocking him straight back.
To everyone’s relief, after a brief respite on the warning track, Pillar was able to get up gingerly and carefully jog it off to the dugout. Whatever bruises he sustained, he was out there again next inning, and able to finish the game. Thanks to him, Happ and the Jays were only down a run.
And that was it, dear readers. It hardly mattered that Chris Davis roped one opposite field off Happ in the fourth to make it 3-1, which made it just that much harder for the Jays to forge a comeback against Bundy and the intimidating Baltimore bullpen.
Oh, Toronto made it interesting in the eighth and ninth, and we’ll give them their due in a minute, but this was a pitchers’ game all the way. Happ only gave up two more hits, a single that Wellington Castillo tried to stretch into a double, challenging the arm of the banged-up Pillar, but Pillar nailed him at second. And Mannie Machado singled off him in the sixth, after Happ had fanned Jones, and before he fanned Trumbo and caught Davis looking.
Happ went out after seven full innings, hung with a loss despite giving up three runs on five hits, with no walks and nine strikeouts on 89 pitches. Ryan Tepera mopped up for the Jays in the eighth, and only took eight pitches to get three ground balls to out machine Troy Tulowitzki at shortstop.
Bundy also went seven full, and after the brief breakthrough in the third, he was full value for the win: one run, four hits, no walks, seven strikeouts, and 98 pitches.
He was lucky to get the win, though, because Toronto didn’t show a lot of respect for the vaunted Oriole bullpen duo of Brad Brach and Zach Britton. For the second time in the game against a tough righty, Justin Smoak, batting from the port side, stroked one hard into the left-field corner for a leadoff ground-rule double. Unfortunately, Zeke Carrera, who ran for him and advanced to third on a wild pitch, died there when Donaldson struck out.
After Tepera made quick work of the O’s in the bottom of the eighth, it was Zach Britton time, and for the second time in two games, Toronto faced him down in every way possible except to tie the score.
Bautista singled to left. Morales singled to left. John Gibbons sent Ryan Goins in to run for Morales. Plate umpire Cooper intervened in events again by ringing up Tulowitzki on a checked swing without asking for help from the first base umpire. (What we have here is a basic lack of courtesy.) Russell Martin walked on a full count. This brought up Pearce and created a moment of delicious anticipation, as Pearce faced his former teammate and, apparently, good friend, Britton, with the sacks loaded and the game on the line. He saw seven pitches. Seven fast balls. Nothing but smoke. The slowest was a 95.5 mph two-seamer. He took two balls and fouled off both of them. He looked for all the world like he had Britton lined up, and would eventually do him in when he got his pitch.
But Britton won the battle with a two-seamer on the outside part of the plate at the bottom of the zone, and Pearce topped it, hitting a high bouncer to J.J. Hardy at short who turned it into a game-ending double play.
So Baltimore sweeps the two-gamer, taking advantage of a serious lack of production from the Jays’ lineup, and as if to answer his critics from the Wild Card game Buck Showalter gives Zach Britton three innings in two games. But is it the Zach Britton of 2016, or not? Consider his results over those three innings against a Jays’ lineup that wasn’t hitting much: 3 innings pitched, five hits, two walks, three strikeouts and 48 pitches. Trouble in the land of the steamed clam?
And what do we make of our Jays’ first two games?
Now, I try not to over-react to things. Of course it’s only two games, and of course it’s not statistically out of the question that a team can run into two fine pitching performances in a row. After all, look at what Marco Estrada and Jay Happ threw at the Orioles in the same games.
But.
But. Weren’t we here last year, same time, same refrain, almost?
Didn’t we start hearing Manager John Gibbons insist he wasn’t worried about the hitting pretty darn early in the season last year?
After the disappointment of these first two games in Baltimore, it’s definitely time for the Jays to storm into that perennial hell-hole in Tampa, knock some balls over the wall, and put up some seriously crooked numbers.
The resurgent Marcus Stroman will be first man up in Tampa tomorrow night. On with the show!
Leave a Reply