Aaron Sanchez’ first two starts this year confirmed that his 2017 blister problem was well behind him. What they did not confirm was how close he might be to returning to the brilliant form he displayed in 2016 as the league’s ERA champion.
Well let me tell you, friends and neighbours, based on last night’s 8-inning gem on a cold night in Baltimore, Sanchie, the Sanchie of old, is well and truly back.
Okay, so he wasn’t exactly the same guy. He walked 5, hit a batter, and only struck out 4. And he hardly ever got a tick over 93 mph. Well, twice.
But you know what? Maybe all that was a good thing, because he didn’t give up a base hit until the top of the eighth inning. And he finished the eighth inning in a tie ball game at 1-1, having given up 1 run on only the three hits in the eighth, one of which was a tainted scorer’s decision.
Finishing the eighth inning ended up being the best thing Aaron Sanchez did last night, because it left him in place as the pitcher of record when veteran Curtis Granderson stepped into the box with two out in the top of the ninth and parked a 1-2 pitch from Darren O’Day in the right field seats for a very significant first career home run in a Blue Jays’ uniform.
To cap off a night of true delights, Roberto Osuna took the ball for the bottom of the ninth to protect the 2-1 Toronto lead and proceeded to retire the side on 15 pitches to notch his one hundredth career save.
With his work last night, Osuna became the youngest pitcher in major league history to reach 100 career saves, beating the record of Francisco Rodriguez, who was a year and a half older in 2006 when he achieved that mark while pitching for the Los Angeles Angels.
But make no mistake, as the score indicates, this game was no walk in the park for anyone. While Andrew Cashner didn’t flirt with a no hitter, giving up 4 scattered hits, he did throw 7 innings of shutout ball with 3 walks and 6 strikeouts, and left the game in a scoreless tie with Toronto.
It was only after Cashner left, in the top of the eighth, with former Jays’ prospect Miguel Castro taking over, that Toronto scratched out a run, benefitting from Castro’s wildness and a bad throw from right field by Anthony Santander. This was the run that Baltimore matched in the bottom of the eighth when they finally reached Sanchez, setting both teams up for the dramatic ninth that would follow.
It was a different Aaron Sanchez we saw tonight. As I mentioned at the outset he was not throwing the 96-plus fast balls that have always been a big part of his repertoire. He was also throwing significantly more of the changeups that he had worked to develop this spring.
You can’t deny the results of the changes. He certainly had a little trouble finding the plate, but never got into trouble over it, his 5 walks and one hit batsman being distributed over 6 different innings, whereas he only retired the side in order in the second and third innings.
The other notable thing about his outing was that he was remarkably efficient, despite the wildness, going into the eighth inning having thrown only 82 pitches. So the other side of the coin of his wildness was he got a lot of first-pitch and low-count outs, rather than pitching consistently deep into counts as he had done in his earlier starts.
Nor was Cashner ever in much trouble. He allowed 2 baserunners in the second inning, and two in the fifth, and never let anyone touch third base, although Curtis Granderson almost did in the first, which is a strange story in itself.
Granderson had walked on a 3-2 pitch to lead off the game. After Josh Donaldson flied out to left, Justin Smoak got into a long battle with Cashner, going to 9 pitches on a 3-2 count. John Gibbons had started Granderson from first on the sixth pitch, as soon as it reached 3-2. Smoak fouled off three in a row, Granderson going each time. Finally Smoak struck out on the ninth pitch, and catcher Chance Sisco threw the ball away trying to get the runner at second. The ball skipped into the outfield, and Granderson took off for third. But the Orioles got the ball back in quickly to the middle of the diamond, where Cashner picked it off, joined the merry chase, and tagged Grandy out in a tangle at third.
Having said all that, the entire fun play was declared null and void because plate umpire Marvin Hudson ruled that Smoak was actually out not on strikes but because he had interfered with Sisco’s throw to second. In the case of batter’s interference with a catcher, the play is immediately called dead, and no runner may advance, so Granderson lost his stolen base and had to return to first. Anticlimactically, Yangervis Solarte struck out to end the inning.
And that was the story of the top of the first. After that it was a breeze for Cashner, as Toronto had only three at-bats with a runner at second, and went 0 for 3 in those opportunities.
Fast forward to the Jays’ eighth, with Cashner finished and Castro on the hill. Weirdness abounded here as well. Donaldson struck out on a checked swing, but Castro walked Smoak. Smoak moved up as Castro skipped a wild one to the backstop. Solarte whacked a single into right. Anthony Santander charged the ball briskly and cut loose with a strong throw, causing Smoak to be stopped at third, until Santander’s throw skipped off Sisco, squirted past Castro who was correctly backing up the play, and dribbled into the Toronto dugout, allowing Smoak to score because the ball went out of play.
With Solarte at second, Steve Pearce hit a grounder to third that was booted by Tim Beckham. Randal Grichuk ran for Pearce at first. Castro worked his way out of the jam by retiring Russ Martin on the infield fly rule, and Kevin Pillar, who lined out to left.
So the tension was ratcheted up going to the bottom of the eighth, with the Jays holding a one-run lead and Sanchez still not having given up a hit.
Well, that changed in a hurry, and not without controversy. Tim Beckham, whose error had just let Pearce reach base (a reversal of the “great play/lead off next inning” phenomenon) stepped to the plate and ripped the first pitch sharply to third, where it went right through the wickets, a hard one-hopper that Donaldson failed to get his glove on as it shot between his legs and into the left-field corner, while Beckham reached second.
A very strange scorer’s decision gave Beckham a double for Baltimore’s first hit, breaking off Sanchez’ no-hit bid. If the game had ended in that situation, the consequences would have been terrible. Scorers often change their decisions after reviewing video, even after the game. If the scorer had stood by his decision, he would have been roasted for wrecking Sanchez’ dream. If he’d changed it, he’d have been roasted for caving to the public outrage.
Luckily for him (her? There are women official scorers, but we don’t know who the scorer was for this game.) Santander made up for his error by grounding a clean single to right, with Beckham stopping at third. So, the end of a controversy. The no-no would have been gone-gone anyway.
But then the catcher Sisco came to the plate and doubled to right, plating Beckham and sending Santander to third.
Now it became very interesting. Sanchez’ no-hitter was gone. The lead was gone. And Baltimore had runners on second and third with nobody out. The game was teetering on the line. The big question was whether Gibbie would leave Sanchez in to try to get out of his own jam, or congratulate him on a great game and call in a reliever.
When Pete Walker came out for a mound visit, it became clear that Gibbie was going all in on Sanchez, and his gamble on the big young right-hander paid off, as Sanchez reached down and pulled out enough extra to extricate himself from the jam.
Trey Mancini, who’d hit the ball right on the screws 3 times in a row with nothing to show for it, didn’t square it up this time, and lofted a short fly to centre for the first out. Craig Gentry, who was running for Santander at third, was wisely held up. With first base open, nobody would have let Manny Machado swing the bat, so he was waved to first on the intentional past.
This brought Jonathan Schoop, mired in an early season slump, to the plate. He took a called strike on a fast ball on—or just off—the outside corner, and then couldn’t hold off on another fast ball, neither over 93 mph, that was high and outside. He topped it off the end of his bat to Devon Travis, who started a 4-6-3 double play.
So Aaron Sanchez, his no-hitter and lead gone, had still earned the right for one shot at gaining the win, thanks to John Gibbons’ faith in him. But it had to be in the top of the ninth, because after that he would no longer be the pitcher of record.
For the top of the ninth, Orioles’ manager Buck Showalter opted for Darren O’Day, his primary closer in the absence of the injured Zach Britton. With his old nemesis Jose Bautista no longer around, the auguries were pretty good for O’Day, who has been mostly successful against Toronto in the past.
He sure started with a rush, as the over-eager Devon Travis and Aledmys Diaz both jumped at the first pitch and grounded out, Travis to second and Diaz to short.
This brought the veteran Curtis Granderson to the plate. Granderson held off on a slider in the dirt. Then he took one that stayed in the zone. Then he fouled off a slider and a fast ball, both low in the zone. Than O’Day made a mistake, a huge mistake, and Granderson punished him for it. He threw a below-90 fastball up in the zone, and Granderson smacked it out of the park to right field.
Toronto now had a 2-1 lead, and Sanchez stood in line for the win. O’Day was not quite out of the woods yet, though. He gave up a base knock to Donaldson and walked Smoak before Solarte finally popped out to Beckham at third to end the inning.
The night before, Roberto Osuna had been up in the bullpen and ready to come in for the save when Josh Donaldson hit the grand slam that put the game out of reach of the Orioles. His blast also ended the possibility of Osuna earning a save, because the save conditions no longer existed. So the opportunity to gain his hundredth save had to be deferred to another game.
Which, as it turned out, came just 24 hours later. This time, though, there was a particular cachet to the assignment: there wasn’t a person in the dugout who wasn’t all in for Sanchez earning the win after his great performance.
Osuna seems different this year. He carries himself more calmly, and seems to understand his talent more clearly. Last year he got in trouble from time to time as he experimented with a not very effective cutter, and was criticized for not relying on his fast ball and slider.
Last night he threw 15 pitches, 7 fast balls, 7 sliders, and one cutter. Adam Jones tied into an 0-1 slider but hit it to the deepest part of the park, where Kevin Pillar easily gathered it in. Pedro Alvarez put up quite a fight, fouling off the one cutter and then a slider and a fast ball before popping out to Diaz at short on a slider. Chris Davis also went to six pitches before lining out softly to Travis in the shift in short right for the game.
The end was neat and clean and all very easy, and at the end of it Toronto had a 2-1 victory, Aaron Sanchez had his first win of the season in most impressive fashion, and Roberto Osuna had become the youngest pitcher in major league history to have earned one hundred saves. And Curtis Granderson, the last-minute, bargain barrel free agent signing so many derided, was the hero of the night.
Not to mention that the so-called mediocre, stand-pat Blue Jays had guaranteed their third straight series win, and their second in a row on the road.
And let’s have no talk about the brooms here! We have to do all we can to keep on the good side of the gods of fortune.
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