It looked awfully good going to the bottom of the ninth today for Toronto to accomplish a surprising series win over the American-League-leading Houston Astros.
Didn’t we have a three-run lead? Wasn’t Roberto Osuna ready to go, after having blown the Astros away in the ninth inning last night, two strikeouts and a fly ball, on eleven pitches? Wasn’t the post-game spread going to be so-o-o good, and the flight back to Toronto such fun, after a 4-2 road trip that could have been 5-1?
But, it wasn’t to be. Osuna wasn’t wild, oh, no. That would have been somehow understandable, given that nearly every one of the great closers has had the occasional bout of crazy wildness. (Aroldis Chapman, anyone?) No, the problem was that he was eminently hittable, and the Astros simply undressed him in public, right there on the mound, without even hitting a home run. Four runs on five hits in two thirds of an inning, and the Astros had a walkoff win in the series clincher.
Cue the watercress sandwiches, the tight seats in economy on the plane home, and the questions and doubts, which are all we are left with.
And it had all been going so well. Marcus Stroman tiptoed through the minefield of the incredibly dangerous Houston lineup for six and two thirds innings, giving up three runs, only two of them earned, on eleven hits, a couple of walks, and six strikeouts. He pitched his heart out, throwing 118 pitches, and left with a 6-3 lead, thanks to an early two-run homer by Jose Bautista in the third, a shocking two-run homer by the newest Jay Nori Aoki and a two-run double by Old Reliable Justin Smoak, all four runs in the seventh inning, that looked to have decided the game.
Meanwhile, all the Astros had been able to muster was three runs in the fifth, which they accomplished via two solid base hits, a double by Josh Reddick and a single by Jose Altuve, two infield hits, by Derek Fisher and Carlos Beltran, the latter not figuring in the scoring, and a shocking error on a ground ball that went through the legs of Ryan Goins off the bat of Yuli Gurriel that did figure in the scoring.
As we’ve come to expect from Stroman, his achievement today was hard-earned. Starting with a ground-rule double by Josh Reddick in the first, he had base-runners on in every inning but the second, and in his best inning, the sixth, when he struck out the side, it was still and all after a leadoff base hit by the Houston catcher Juan Centeno.
In the third he walked Centeno and gave out a two-out single to Jose Altuve, and needed a fine running catch in the alley in right centre by Bautista of a another gap-seeking drive by Reddick to retire the side. In the fourth he needed a double-play ball off the bat of the ubiquitous Centeno to escape a bases-loaded one-out jam created by base hits by Gurriel and Carlos Beltran and a walk to Alex Bregman. After striking out the side in the sixth (after the—remember?—Centeno hit), he gave up a hard two-out single off the wall in right in the seventh by Marwin Gonzalez, followed by another Beltran base hit that ended his night. Dominic Leone came in and stranded the two Astros by getting Alex Bregman to fly out to right.
Only in the fifth inning did he allow too many runners, and only in the fifth inning did the mighty Astros’ offence contribute anything like a coherent attack, though there was that big “E” hung on Ryan Goins in the middle of it that helped things along.
Stroman had cruised, if that’s the word for what he does, into the fifth inning on the strength of Bautista’s two-run homer in the third, his seventeenth, that chased Darwin Barney, who had reached on a throwing error by Marwin Gonzalel, playing short tonight.
Like the two previous innings, Stroman let the leadoff batter get aboard, but this time he started out in a little deeper, because it was a double down the left-field line by former Toronto draftee Jake Marisnick. Derek Fisher followed with an infield single to second that moved Marisnick up to third.
MLB should have a free-pass base hit for Jose Altuve, like the no-pitch intentional walk, for when the diminutive second baseman comes up with nobody out and runners on first and third. You just know he’s going to get a base knock and score the runner from third, so if you’re worried about the pace of play you could just wave him on to first and bring the run in. Which is a roundabout way of saying that Altuve as expected scored Marisnick with a single to centre.
With nobody out and runners at first and second Josh Reddick’s little squibber back to Stroman served the same purpose as a sacrifice bunt, and Fisher and Altuve moved up to second and third. At this point, I’m not sure how it happened, whether he was thinking too much of his possible options, but Ryan Goins let Yuli Gurriel’s sharp but easy hopper through his legs for an error that allowed Fisher to score the second run and Altuve to move up to third. Still only one out, Gonzalez’ deep fly to Steve Pearce in left was easily enought to bring in Altuve with the third run, giving Houston the lead.
Carlos Beltran kept the inning alive with an infield hit to second, but then Bregman grounded out to Goins, who did not make a mistake this time at shortstop for the third out, leaving Stroman in the hole and on the hook for the loss.
Mike Fiers had the start today for the Astros, the second start he’s had against Toronto this season. He’d had a decent outing in Toronto on July eighth, a quality start, in fact, in a 7-2 loss to Toronto that from Fiers’ perspective wasn’t nearly that bad. He’d gone out after six innings down 3-2, having given up three runs on only five hits but three walks, with six strikeouts. On that occasion he’d have to sit helplessly on the bench, his game finished, while the usually formidable Chris Devensky coughed up four more add-on runs for the Jays in the seventh.
His start today was similar in the sense that it was just short, by a fourth earned run, of another quality start over six innings. Like the first time against Toronto his hit total was notably low, only four hits, but he walked three again and, oddly, struck out six again.
Fiers had only given up one walk in the first two innings, and struck out Nori Aoki, making his first start for Toronto in left field, who led off the third. Then Marwyn Gonzalez let him down by making a bad throw to first on a routine ground ball by Darwin Barney. Jose Bautista, who had watched Fiers go to his trademark curve ball throughout the first two innings, was waiting for one, timed it up, and hit it out to left field for a two-run lead on the first hit given up by Fiers, the Barney run unearned, of course.
Fiers kept the Jays off the board for the next three innings, stranding a walk in the fourth, a walk in the fifth, and in the sixth yielding a single to Justin Smoak, only the second base hit he had given up, but the perfect positioning of his infield turned a hard shot by Ryan Goins into a fast shortstop-unassisted to first double play.
With a 3-2 lead after the Houston outburst in the fifth, and going on only 84 pitches after six innings, there was no doubt that Fiers would come out for the seventh. Too bad that he did, as he gave up his third and fourth hits to the first two batters, an opposite-field ground ball single by Kevin Pillar and a stunning line-drive home run to right by Nori Aoki, playing in front of what had been until this week his home-town crowd. Suddenly Mike Fiers was down 4-3, and when he hit the next batter, Darwin Barney, A.J. Hinch decided to come and rescue his starter, signalling in the lanky veteran right-hander, Luke Gregerson.
The Jays weren’t finished, though. Bautista fouled out to the third baseman, but manager John Gibbons started Barney from first and saw Russell Martin pull off a perfect hit-and-run, Barney scooting to third. After that baserunning success, the Jays pulled a rock by trying the contact play from third (have I said that I hate the contact play?) on what turned out to be the wrong pitch, with Josh Donaldson hitting a weak grounder back to the pitcher, who easily got the ball to the catcher Centeno for the tag play and the second out. However, the Big Smoaker hit a towering drive to centre that was misplayed off the wall by Jake Marisnick. It went for a double and chased both Martin and Donaldson home, giving the Jays a 6-3 lead with two innings to go.
The Jays had a golden opportunity to expand their lead in the eighth, after Goins and Pillar led off the inning with singles to left off the left-handed reliever Reymin Goduan, in Goins case another base hit against a lefty. Aoki hung in for eight pitches, fouling off one bunt attempt, going to a 3-2 count, then fouling off three more pitches before Goduan finally punched him out. This was Goduan’s last batter, and manager Hinch brought in his prized young bull, Francis Martes, who is certainly worth all the fuss, judging from what he brought to the game today. He fanned Barney and Bautista to end the inning and leave Goduan’s two runners in place at first and second.
Leone stayed on after finishing the seventh for Stroman, and pitched a quick and powerful eighth, adding another jewel to the crown of his 2017 record with the Jays; Centeno grounded out to Smoak unassisted at first, Marisnick fanned, and Fisher fanned. The total for Leone was one and a third innings pitched, two strikeouts, and twenty-one pitches. Can we clone Leone?
Martes stayed on for the Jays ninth and continued his impressive performance. He might not always be on the plate, but he’s still impressive. He walked Martin leading off, saw him advance to second on a past ball, retired Donaldson on a popup and Smoak on a short fly to left, put Kendrys Morales on with an intentional pass, and got Goins on a hard grounder to first for the third out.
So, as I said at the beginning, it was looking pretty good for a series win in Houston as the Jays went to the bottom of the ninth up three and relying on Roberto Osuna to bring them home safely.
But whoever it was who came out of the bullpen for Toronto in the bottom of the ninth, it wasn’t the Roberto Osuna we’ve come to know and love. First the sorry details, and then some analysis. Jose Altuve knocked the second pitch from Osuna into centre for a single. It was a 92.5 mph four-seam fast ball. Hold that thought, but Altuve, it’s what he does. Josh Reddick took a called third strike that he disputed so vociferously that he was tossed by plate umpire Rob Drake. According to the pitching chart, Drake was right. Yuli Gurriel singled to left, Altuve to second. Marwin Gonzalez singled hard to right. The Astros chose not to challenge Bautista’s arm, and the bases were loaded.
Carlos Beltran grounded into a fielder’s choice, Smoak to Goins, with no chance to turn the game-ending double play. Altuve scored, Gurriel to third. Alex Bregman tripled on the first pitch from Osuna into the left-centre gap, scoring Gurriel and Beltran to tie the game. Omar Centeno finished off his very active game with a line single over Darwin Barney’s head, and Bregman trotted home with the winning run.
So, what happened? The real question is what happened to Osuna’s fast ball? Remember that Altuve’s hit came on a four-seamer under 93? So, in five pitches to Reddick, he threw one fast ball, a two-seamer at 92.3. He got a two-seamer up to 93.8 on the only pitch he threw to Gurriel, which went for a base hit. He threw a 94.3 mph fast ball to Gonzalez, the only fast ball he threw to him, and it went for a single. He threw only sliders to Beltran and Bregman. The only fast ball he threw to Centeno was a four-seamer at 94, and it was hit for the game-winner.
What happened is fairly obvious. On this night Roberto Osuna didn’t have his good fast ball, and his mediocre fast ball was tasty to the Houston hitters. As to why his fast ball was down in velocity, who knows? Temporary blip, or sign of over-use?
If a temporary blip, so be it. It cost us a series win in Houston, but who could criticize Osuna for a blown save, even if it was the third one in two weeks, after all he’s achieved in Toronto?
But he’s still only 22 years old, and has already achieved a lot, 85 career saves, and 191 game appearances. Maybe it’s time to start being concerned about his arm, which already underwent Tommy John surgery early in his minor league career, in 2013 when he was with low-A Lansing and only 18 years old.
So Toronto comes home three and three from a road trip that could have been, even should have been, five and one. The final death knell to a season of lost opportunities? It’s getting harder to deny it.
Leave a Reply