So after a bit of a scramble to take the rubber game in New York against a slumping Yankee team, Toronto returned home to face the Houston Astros tonight, starting a four-game series, the last set before the All-Star break.
Let’s see, the Astros. 58-27, 31 games over five hundred. With Dallas Keuchel on the disabled list for most of the year. With their top three hitters, and four of the top five, hitting over .300. With Yuli Gurriel, famous here as the older brother of Jays’ prospect Lourdes Gurriel, hitting down in the number seven spot, even though he’s hitting .295 and came into the game with ten homers. And with Josh Reddick, hitting .319 over 262 at bats, “resting” tonight.
Gulp.
The same Astros who were starting a slow-throwing, curve-ball specialist named Lance McCullers (Jr.), who was sporting a record of 7 wins and a loss, and an ERA of 2.69, just the kind of guy our fast-ball loving sluggers want to see . . . pitching against any team but theirs!
Double gulp.
And who and what did our heroes have going for them tonight? For starters, er, the starter, they had Francisco Liriano taking the hill. He of the inconsistent season, sharp as a tack one time, wild as a March hare next time. He’d fall in the middle tonight, not brilliant but not nearly as bad as he’s been on occasion this year: six innings, 106 pitches, three earned runs on nine hits and a walk, but only four strikeouts.
As for the attack, Toronto has consistently only been competitive this season when the sluggers have hit jacks, more than one if you please, so what do you think would be the result if the Jays were facing said curve-baller, their starter gave up three runs, and they only hit one out of the yard, Russell Martin’s solo shot in the sixth? A 3-1 loss, or, if they were really sharp, a 3-2 loss, right?
Well, you’d be wrong. After Liriano left the game, the bullpen gave up another run, a Carlos Beltran home run off Ryan Tepera in the eighth, but even that wasn’t enough for Houston, because, mirabile dictu, the Blue Jays had six runs on the board off McCullers, one in the fourth and five in the fifth, without hitting a single home run.
So this was a different kind of ball game for the Blue Jays, against a very good baseball team. Hell, let’s face it, the best in the American League so far this year.
Despite giving up a single to Carlos Correa, Liriano had an efficient first inning, striking out George Springer and Carlos Beltran, and retiring the crazy-good Houston second baseman Jose Altuve on a little comebacker to the mound. Then the Jays came up to hit against McCullers and did what they do best, or at least most frequently, squandering an opportunity. They put a couple of base runners on with one out on a walk to Josh Donaldson and a base hit by Justin Smoak, before stranding them as Kendrys Morales and Troy Tulowitzki struck out.
Good luck to any pitcher who hopes to shut out the Houston lineup. After a reasonably good first inning, Liriano was dinged for a leadoff home run to left in the second by super-utility guy Marwin Gonzalez, playing left field tonight. Then with two outs he gave up a base hit to Alex Bregman, who promptly stole second, but died there when Martin made a fine play to jump on a dribbler in front of the plate and throw out the very fast Jake Marisnick.
Liriano kept Houston off the board in the third and fourth innings with some help from his defence. In the third, after fanning Springer for the second time, Altuve reached on an infield single behind second, but was thrown out by Martin trying to steal second, rendering Correa’s two-out walk that followed irrelevant. In the fourth he retired the side on three ground balls, but if it weren’t for Donaldson’s brilliant dive into foul territory and strong throw from his knees, the first grounder, a scorcher off the bat of Gonzalez, would have been an easy double.
In the meantime, McCullers was chewing through the Jays in only twenty-one pitches in the second and third, despite giving up a one-out base hit to Martin in the third, who was erased when Donaldson immediately grounded into a double play.
The Jays finally broke through against McCullers in the bottom of the fourth, thanks to, of all things, a two-out base hit with a runner in scoring position. But courtesy also of some shaky defence on the part of Houston. With one out, Morales hit one opposite the shift that should have been a fairly routine grounder to shortstop, but Bregman, the third baseman, let it go under his glove and Morales was on first with the error. Then McCullers wild-pitched him to second, and he advanced to third on a ground-out by Tulowitzki. That brought up Steve Pearce, who brought Morales home with the tying run on a single to centre.
Toronto had a shot at another run in the inning, but was burned by the ground-rule double again. With Pearce on first and off with the hit, Kevin Pillar hit a double to right, but it bounced out and Pearce had to stop at third. Both runners died in place when Ryan Goins grounded out to end the inning. Still, Liriano went into the fifth all even with the Astros.
But not for long. The Astros led off the fifth with Bregman’s bloop double down the left field line. After Marisnick flied out, Springer hit a Texas Leaguer to centre, but Bregman only advanced to third because Pillar took a diving shot at the ball, and he had to hold up to see if Pillar was going to catch it. Then the redoubtable Altuve delivered an opposite-field base hit that scored Bregman and put the Astros back in the lead. Liriano shut them down after that, and the Jays went back to work at the plate with another one-run deficit to work on.
They didn’t take long to turn the game around, rattling off three base hits around a crucial passed ball by the veteran catcher Brian McCann to take the lead for the first time in the game. Bautista lined one to left for a hit. Martin bounced one through the left side for a hit. Both moved up on the passed ball, and were in position to score when Donaldson took a low and away 3-0 pitch in the zone the other way for a base hit to right. After McCullers struck out Smoak for the second out, Morales doubled to the wall in right and Donaldson came all the way around to score the fourth run for Toronto. When Troy Tulowitzki hit a hard liner into left centre for a base hit, Morales came in with the fifth run, and that was it for McCullers, who in the end couldn’t keep the Jays at bay with his curve balls and slow stuff.
Michael Feliz came in and proceeded to make things worse, though the Jays did help him end the bleeding with some questionable base running. He couldn’t find the plate on Steve Pearce and walked him on a 3-1 pitch. Then he compounded his problem with a mental error that turned into a physical one. Pillar grounded one back to him, a possible double play ball, but he hadn’t resolved the coverage at second with Altuve and Correa, and so threw the ball over the bag, where there was no fielder yet, and Pearce was safe at second.
Ryan Goins, who starts to salivate and hyperventilate when he comes up with the bases loaded, hit a drive to centre that went for a double against an outfield that was playing too short. When will they learn? Tulowitzki scored, but Pearce was slow off second for some reason and Pillar very fast off first, and as Pearce rounded third Pillar was pounding at his heels. Coach Luis Rivera had no choice but to send Pearce, and he was DOA at the plate to end the inning. It was a deflating ending to a great inning of hitting with runners in scoring position (three, Donaldson, Tulo, and Goins), but Toronto took the field up 6-2, a lead they’d never relinquish.
The sixth inning was marked by an ejection of Marwin Gonzalez after plate umpire John Libka called strikes on two pitches that appeared to be on the black, and he swung at and missed a pitch below the zone to strike out, no doubt frustrated by it all. It was also marked by the afore-mentioned only home run hit by Toronto, a leadoff shot by the rapidly rebounding Russell Martin off reliever Dayan Diaz, who had replaced Feliz on the mound.
With seven runs on the board, the Jays’ offence was shut down the rest of the way by the Houston bullpen. After the Martin shot, Diaz retired six out of seven, giving up only a two-out single by Pillar in the seventh, while striking out three. Similarly, Luke Gregerson gave up a lone single to Donaldson with two outs, also striking out a couple of batters in the eighth.
Meanwhile, manager John Gibbons tried to sneak Liriano through an extra inning, the seventh, and as is often the case the experiment didn’t last long. Two pitches, to be precise. The first, to Alex Bregman, was high and outside. The second was a strike, down and in, until Bregman belted it to left centre where it hopped the wall, putting Bregman on second with his second double in a three for three night. It is just me, or is Bregman as tough an out for Toronto as the Correas and so on?
Anyway, Liriano was out and Ryan Tepera, now clearly settled in with Danny Barnes as the two holders/setup men to Roberto Osuna, came in to replace Liriano, inheriting Bregman at second. Tepera almost managed to strand the Houston third baseman. He fanned Marisnick. Then he fanned Springer. Ah, but this brought Altuve to the plate.
I’m going to need to stockpile adjectives for Altuve. I’ve used “redoubtable”. Now maybe it should be indomitable. Must make a list for future reference, see how far I can go before repeating myself. Tepra started him off with an unhittable pitch, a 94 MPH “sinker” that was more of a riser, and was up and in. So Altuve swing at it anyway, it completely sawed him off, broke his bat, and he hit a single through the open right side of the infield to knock in Bregman and finish Liriano’s ledger with the three earned runs. Then Tepera retired Correa on a squibber back to him, stranding Altuve at second, which he had stolen. Did I mention that Altuve is also annoying?
Houston crept within three with a home run by Carlos Beltran off Tepera leading off the eighth inning, and it took Tepera, Dominic Leone, and Jeff Beliveau to get out of the inning, each of them picking up one out, with Tepera leaving after hitting Brian McCann, Leone leaving after walking Bregman, and Beliveau retiring the only batter he faced, Josh Reddick hitting for Marisnick, who flew out to left.
With the lead now at three, Gibbie had little choice but to call on Osuna for the third day in a row. Showing little effect from the amount of work he’s been getting, Osuna gave up a hard drive to Springer that Pillar tracked down in centre for a nice running catch, and then dispatched Altuve (yes, it is possible, at times) and Correa on ground balls, the latter’s a sharp comebacker that Osuna stabbed nicely. Nine pitches, and Osuna had his twenty-first save in twenty-four opportunities, and his twentieth in a row.
Against a hot team and a tough pitcher, Liriano kept the lid on and the boys in blue/white/red/whatever gritted out the hits they needed to get ahead and stay ahead, and suddenly we’re sitting on a modest little three-game winning streak.
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