It might have been a little close for comfort, and they still won with the long ball, but Toronto played a much more complete ball game tonight to hold off the Tampa Bay Rays and earn a split in their abbreviated two-game series in Toronto.
For starters, so to speak, Francisco Liriano turned in his best performance since his return from the disabled list, if not the entire season. Let’s get the numbers out of the way first: seven innings, two earned runs, five hits, two walks, nine strikeouts, on 100 pitches. More importantly, his stuff was electric, as it is at his best, and he managed to stay in, or at least close to, the strike zone.
He started out with a rush, with two strikeouts and a foul popup, on only ten pitches. Second inning, he gave up a one-out double to Steven Souza but got Mallex Smith to pop up a bunt attempt, stranded Souza, and racked up another strikeout, with his pitch count only 21 pitches for the first two innings.
But with one out in the third he ran into trouble, which arose from a surprising source. Taylor Featherston hit a grounder up the middle that Ryan Goins got to in plenty of time on his backhand; but he double-clutched getting the ball out of his glove for an error. The Rays’ leadoff hitter tonight, Peter Bourjos, tried to bunt his way on, and fouled off the first pitch from Liriano. Then he took one way outside and one in the dirt. Liriano’s fourth pitch was in the zone, Bourjos swung at it, and mis-hit it so badly that it rolled down the third-base line toward Josh Donaldson, without ever showing any spin that would take it foul. There was nothing for it but to concede first to Bourjos, with Featherston moving up to second.
Leads are often built on a single pitch, and when the hitter is Corey Dickerson, so hot that you have to think Justin Smoak, but forty points higher in batting average, it hardly matters what pitch it is. Liriano’s first pitch to Dickerson wasn’t worth consideration, down and in, except that it was Dickerson up there. He drove the ball into the gap in right-centre where it one-hopped the wall, driving in Featherston and Bourjos, while Dickerson made it to third for a triple and a 2-0 Tampa lead, with only the Bourjos run earned.
Liriano escaped further damage when the Rays put on the contact play and Evan Longoria bounced it to Donaldson who charged hard and easily threw out Dickerson at the plate for the second out. Longoria was stranded when Liriano fanned Logan Morrison for the third out, but thanks to the triple by Dickerson following the Goins error, Liriano found himself in the hole to Tampa Bay.
In the meantime, batter by batter, pitch by pitch, it should have been Tampa starter Jake Odorizzi behind the eight-ball. In the first inning he walked Josh Donaldson and gave up an opposite-field base hit to Kendrys Morales, but was also constantly behind in the count, and was lucky to escape with his skin when Jose Bautista just got under a ripe 3-1 pitch and flew out to centre with Donaldson on first. It took him 26 pitches to get out of the inning. In the second, he continued to fall behind, though he only gave up a two-out ground single up the middle to Dwight Smith, the rookie callup from Buffalo starting in left tonight in the wake of the injury to Zeke Carrera. After two innings he was sitting at 44 pitches.
Once on the lead, the Rays conspired to give half of it back to Toronto as the Jays notched a run without benefit of a base hit, thanks to the continued wildness of Odorizzi, who walked the leadoff hitter Kevin Pillar on a 3-2 pitch over his head, thanks to Pillar’s legs (good) and thanks to Derek Norris’ arm (bad). Pillar stole second while Donaldson was striking out on a 3-2 pitch, and ended up on third when Norris bounced his throw to second. Bautista walked, setting up the double play for Kendrys Morales, who obligingly hit a ground ball, but softly, to second, “raced” down the line and beat the relay cleanly at first while Pillar scored. Smoak popped up to end the inning on Odorizzi’s sixty-sixth pitch.
But the Rays got that one back in the top of the fourth off Liriano, who was starting to look like the hard-luck kid though it could have been a lot worse. Tampa Bay loaded the bases with nobody out and without hitting a ball more than fifteen feet from the plate. Souza walked. Mallex Smith dragged a bunt with him toward first and beat the throw. Daniel Robertson walked on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases. Norris, the catcher, grounded into a force-out at the plate with Donaldson picking up his second assist in as many innings on a play at the plate.
In fact, Mallex Smith made a running mistake and was late off second on the grounder, despite the bases being loaded. Donaldson made it back to third in time to double up Smith, but in looking for another out Russell Martin surveyed the field from right to left, and by the time he got around to third it was too late. Featherston flied out deep to centre to score Smith and move Robertson to third, but Liriano fanned Bourjos to bring the Chinese water torture to an end with the Tampa lead restored to 3-1.
Odorizzi, still walking his own tightrope, gave up line shots to Troy Tulowitzki, to right, and Martin, to the shortstop, then fanned Smith to get out of the fourth on ten pitches.
In the fifth, after Liriano finally had an easier inning, retiring the side in order and by then up to six outs in a row (since he had actually retired the side in order after loading the bases with nobody out in the fourth) the bottom of the Jays’ order started things off so that one of the big boys, Morales, could finish off the wild and wobbly Odorizzi.
Leading off, Ryan Goins was ahead of the Tampa righty 2-1 when he whistled a thigh-high fast ball into centre for a base hit. Jays’ manager John Gibbons woke from his slumber long enough to start Goins on a full count to Pillar, which resulted in Featherston at second failing to come up with the latter’s otherwise easy double-play ball. He took an error on the play while Goins scooted around to third. An over-anxious Donaldson struck out on a very high 3-2 fast ball that was Odorizzi’s last out, and the Jays’ first of the inning, but Bautista calmly stroked a ground ball single up the middle that scored Goins, narrowed the Tampa lead to 3-2, and brought Morales to the plate. Odorizzi quickly fell behing Morales 3-1, and then, on his ninety-ninth pitch in only four and a third inning, threw a splitter, actually a pretty good pitch on the black down and in, that Morales just blasted to the second deck in right, and Liriano and the Jays finally had the lead they’d been flirting with all night.
Odorizzi’s night was done, and Chase Whitley came in to retire the side, but after five innings Toronto was on top to stay, though I hope nobody in the park cashed it in and left early to beat the crowd to the parking lot, because there was lots more excitement to be had.
There’ nothing like a three-run homer to sharpen your focus. Liriano came out for the sixth inning at 76 pitches, threw twelve more, and struck out the side, fanning Souza, Mallex Smith, and Robertson. Back to the plate, the Jays capitalized on their own bit of luck, as Whitley experienced some of what Liriano had faced earlier. Russell Martin, who’s been hitting the ball more sharply each time out (remember this) led off with a line single into left centre, a shot that gave him thoughts of going for two, but he demurred.
Dwight Smith followed with a really high popup that no one on the left side of the diamond actually saw. Apparently, there’s a certain kind of sky you get at a certain time of night at a certain time of year, that . . . well, it all seems kind of spooky, but the fact is no one, incluing even Russell Martin, had a clue where the ball was. The only gesture to be seen was a very early shoulder shrug from the shortstop Robertson, who, as it turned out, was nowhere near the ball any way. Everybody peered into the sky, and nobody moved, and finally the errant pill returned to earth, harmlessly falling to turf in short left-centre field. Luckly for the Jays, Russell Martin made it into second safely after the ball dropped.
Then, with a two-run lead in the sixth, John Gibbons (and/or Ryan Goins) dropped down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up. Now, why do you move the runners to second and third, besides avoiding the double play? Well, mainly because the next batters, Pillar, who struck out, and Donaldson, who grounded out to end the inning, didn’t deliver the base hit needed to score Martin from second, if he was still at second. But from third he was able to score on the wild pitch that struck out Pillar and also moved Smith to third. So, kudos to the sac bunt and a three-run lead!
One of the nicest sights of the year was seeing Francisco Liriano take to the mound to start the top of the seventh, with a pitch count of only 88. It was even nicer to see him take exactly a dozen more pitches to navigate the seventh, despite giving up a one-out single to Featherston, and in particular to have him finish off the night on his one hundredth pitch, fanning Corey Dickerson, who had knocked in the two runs against him in the third, with a wicked slider up in the zone that darted to the outside black at the last minute. Ka-ching!
In the Jays’ seventh, with Whitley still pitching (interesting that Tampa manager Kevin Cash has used one reliever to go long in both of these games: circumstance, or philosophy?), Bautista led off by hitting a Texas Leaguer to centre. Mallex Smith charged it, backed off at the last minute, and had it deflect off him and away, so Bautista ended up at second with a leadoff double. So what did Toronto do, man on second nobody out? Did they get the ground ball(s) they needed to score the run? Well, they got ground balls, just not the right ones.
They did get the first one they needed, as Kendrys Morales grounded out to second, and Bautista moved to third. Now they needed a ground ball up the middle. Justin Smoak hit it on the ground, hard, but right at the first baseman, and Bautista had to hold his ground. With two outs, of course, they needed a base hit, but got the ground out to short from Troy Tulowitzki that would have scored Bautista, but didn’t because it was the third out.
Sure would have liked to have had that extra run. Joe Smith too. With a three-run lead, of course, it was Joe Smith time, but this time it didn’t go well. To be fair, he’s been great for most of the season, and also to be fair he had to face the meat of a Tampa Bay batting order that is second only to the Yankees in home runs in all of Major League Baseball this season. Even worse, the Rays had to be itching mighty bad after seven innings of Francisco Liriano.
So the veteran Evan Longoria was all over the first-pitch strike from Smith and singled to right. This brought up Logan Morrison, who had struck out twice and popped up head to head against Liriano, and looked pretty bad doing it. This time not so much. He took a called strike, down and away, and then decided it looked pretty good after all. Because the next one, in almost exactly the same place, was last seen sailing over the fence in left centre, and rapping off the back wall of the bullpen. The lead was down to one, there were no outs, and Gibby was going with Joe Smith, come hell or high water.
And high water it was, just enough for the Rays to put together their third run of the inning and actually tie the game, rendering Liriano’s fine work for naught, at least in the win column.
Steven Souza walked. Mallex Smith was caught looking for the first out. The Rays started Souza from first and our favourite Ray, Rasmus, singled to right, sending him to third. Derek Norris, who’d not had a great two games at the plate, hiy a sacrifice fly to centre that scored Souza and tied the game at six. Taylor Featherston hit a comebacker to Smith to end the inning, but the damn Rays had done it again.
But nobody contended with the fact that Russell Martin had been hitting the ball progressively harder in every at bat. Curiously, Kevin Cash brought in Jose Alvarado, a lefty, to try to hold the tie in the bottom of the eighth, despite the fact that the first two batters he would face would be right-handed, with Tulowitzki following Martin. Turns out that only Martin was relevant; Alvarado blew one past Martin down and in at 97, and then he cranked it up to 98 and tried to throw it right by him below the waist and right down the middle. Martin finally got some elevation to go with his hard contact, and the ball soared ten rows deep into the second deck in left centre, to the delight of the delirious fans and Martin’s even more delirious team-mates. Toronto seven, Tampa six, with three outs to go.
The bottom of the order took another shot at an add-on run, as Dwight Smith hit an infield single to second, and with nobody out Goins sacrificed Smith to second, for what must be an all-time Toronto record of two sac bunts by one player in a single game. But Alvarado struck out Kevin Pillar, elected to put on Josh Donaldson as Smith stole third, and then fanned Jose Bautista with high heat.
Thus it was time for Roberto Osuna to close things out, in the best of all pressure cookers, protecting a one-run lead with some big sticks coming up. It was the top of the order, with Peter Bourjos up first. It took six pitches, only one of them called a ball, to have Bourjos called out on strikes on a high pitch that might have had a passing acquaintance with a little piece of the outside corner.
Next up was the ever dangerous Corey Dickerson. The Dickerson-Osuna battle was epic, nine pitches, starting with a high fast ball that Dickerson went after. He laid off pitch two, a called strike low in the zone. With the count 0-2, Osuna tried three times to get him to swing through high outside pitches. At 3-2, it was Dickerson’s turn to fend off tough pitches, inside, outside, almost in the dirt, three fouls. Finally, Dickerson made just enough contact on a low outside slider to bounce it back to Osuna for an easy out.
After that, it was almost an anticlimax that Evan Longoria popped out to second on the sixth pitch of a 1-2 count, to end the possibility of Tampa coming back yet again. Three up, three down, but 21 pitches and all the drama you could ask for.
It took a great start, two clutch homers, a clutch single, some hard running by Kendrys Morales of all people, and a couple of sacrifice bunts, one of which led to a run, for Toronto to gain a split with Tampa Bay in this two-gamer. There’s never an easy game with Tampa, it seems. I’m sure we’re all glad to see them go.
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