So here’s what I imagine happened before today’s game. All the Toronto pitchers got together for a meeting to air out their concerns and to try to find a way forward out of this terrible start.
While most of them realized that they couldn’t really be faulted as a group for the team’s 2-11 record, they did have to acknowledge that last night’s 8-7 loss to Boston fell squarely on their shoulders. After all, for once the hitters had pulled their weight, scoring seven runs on twelve hits, with three home runs, no less. But from starter Marcus Stroman on down, the pitchers hadn’t been able to hold the Bosox in check, and the long-awaited seven-run outburst just made the final score close.
After much discussion, the only possible conclusion I can imagine they reached was that if the team was ever going to win its third game, let alone start producing like the contenders they think they should be, the pitching would just have to kick-start the process by keeping Boston off the board. Completely.
And that’s exactly what they did. Francisco Liriano went five and a third shutout innings, gave up four hits and one walk with six strikeouts and 91 pitches. He gave up an excuse-me wrong-way single to Zander Bogaerts in the second, but then fanned Chris Young to strand Bogaerts. In the fourth he broke up Mookie Betts’ amazing streak of 128 at-bats without a strikeout, shocking all the participants so much that Troy Tulowitzki made a rare error on a grounder by Hanley Ramirez, extending Liriano’s inning so that he could fan Mitch Moreland with a nasty slider.
In the fifth inning he allowed two baserunners for the first time by walking Bogaerts and later giving up a base hit to Sandoval, before he got Sandy Leon to bounce into an easy double play, what with himself and Sandoval as the runners.
So through five innings he’d allowed only four baserunners, but in the sixth after retiring Dustin Pedroia on a groundout to third he gave up back-to-back singles to Andrew Benintedi and Betts. Perhaps antsy because of the team’s record, Manager Gibbons’s came out with the hook for Liriano, and brought in Joe Biagini, who took only two pitches to get Hanley Ramirez to ground into a double play.
Biagini pitched a clean seventh to go one and two thirds on only twelve pitches, and handed it over to Jason Grilli for a somewhat adventurous eighth in which he threw 20 pitches and gave up a single and a walk but kept the Sox off the board.
Likewise for Roberto Osuna who gave up a single to Mitch Moreland but left him there when he struck out Bogaerts and got Chris Young to ground into a force to end the game and finally secure his first save of the year.
So the pitchers delivered their shutout, but what were the chances that their mates would come up with a marker or two to take advantage of all the Boston goose eggs?
As it turns out, pretty good, with some significant help from a usually sure-handed Boston defence.
It wasn’t like they were going to blow the Sox away, with Rick Porcello going for Boston. His first inning might have given Toronto pause, as he induced four ground balls, one an infield hit by leadoff hitter Kevin Pillar, and the other three easy outs, on only seven pitches.
But in the second the Boston infield let Porcello down big time. Troy Tulowitzki, the first hitter for the Jays, hit a ground ball to Pablo Sandoval,a routine chance, but Sandoval threw it over Mitch Moreland’s head and Tulo was on. Russell Martin then hit a bouncer to first that might even have been turned into a double play, given the two runners involved. But Mitch Moreland, signed to be the Sox’ full-time, competent two-way first basemen, just missed it, and it trundled down the line far enough that Tulo got to third and Martin to second on the error.
Porcello fanned Justin Smoak for the second out, but Darwin Barney dug deep and refused to forgive Porcello offering him a 3-1 fast ball right down the middle. The ball bounced back up the middle and into centre field for a two-run single. Suddenly, Porcello was two runs down, through no fault of his own, both runs being unearned.
But the damage wasn’t done yet. After Devon Travis lined out to right, Pillar picked up his second hit, a single to left, bringing up Zeke Carrera with two outs and runners on first and second. When he worked the count to 3-2, Barney and Pillar were off with the pitch, and Carrera’s single to right scored Barney with a third unearned run, with Pillar coming around to third. Jose Bautista ended the uprising with a short fly to left for the third out.
So after two it was Toronto with three unearned runs and Boston with no runs of any kind.
And there the score stayed for the rest of the game. Porcello went seven full innings, and was in trouble only in his last inning, the trouble being the sole responsibility of Mr. Pillar, who, with one out, singled to centre, stole second, did not advance to third on Carrera’s fly ball to right, then stole the base anyway, only to die there when Bautista fanned to end the inning.
The line for Porcello, who obviously deserved better, was seven innings, 3 unearned runs, 6 hits, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts, and 110 pitches. Eduardo Rodriguez, freshly returned from the paternity leave that kept him from the start yesterday, was asked to finish up for Boston, and he retired the Jays in order in the bottom of the eighth with two strikeouts and a ground-ball out, on only pitches.
So that’s not a bad formula for a team to win ball games: hang a horse collar on the other team, and take advantage of the errors they might make.
Let’s try that one again.
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