For a team to entertain serious hopes of making the playoffs, let alone going deep once they get there, it is essential that every loss be followed by a win, that no loss marks the beginning of a streak, no matter how short.
That’s why it was reassuring that Aaron Sanchez would get the ball today for the start in the second game of the Jays’ three-game series against the very competitive Houston Astros. While some might advocate for Jay Happ as the one-game choice, I don’t think there’s much disagreement over who would get the start in a must-win situation, such as, God forbid, a wild card play-in game. Surely this very point had to be a factor in the decision to keep Sanchez stretched out as a starter by going to the six-man rotation.
And the fact that Sanchez was taxed today with the job of leading the rebound from Friday night’s loss is why it was so deflating that after four batters had come to the plate for Houston in the top of the first, he found himself down 2-0, with Carlos Correa in scoring position and only one out. Once again, as it has happened so often lately, the Jays were faced with the twin tasks of limiting the damage and overcoming a deficit.
If you look over the play-by-play of today’s game, it’s clear that though Sanchez was able to rise to the occasion, save for those first four hitters, he was almost constantly pitching from the stretch, and was frequently within one base hit of allowing the Astros to add to their lead. Only in the fourth and seventh innings did he retire the side in order, and you may add the sixth to that, since he got Evan Gattis to ground into a double play after a one-out single by Marwin Gonzalez.
In the first he struck out Evan Gattis with Correa on third. In the second he struck out George Springer with A.J. Reed, who had doubled to lead off the inning, on third. In the third he walked two in a row, Jose Altuve and Correa, but stranded Correa at first when he got Marwin Gonzalez to ground out. Altuve had already been erased on a caught stealing, thanks to a perfect Russell Martin throw into the glove of Troy Tulowitzki at Altuve’s feet sliding into the bag. In the fifth he stranded a one-out walk to George Springer, but survived a scare when the next batter, third baseman Alex Bregman, drove Michael Saunders to the wall in right to corral his deep fly. And in the sixth, as I mentioned, he neutralized Gonzalez’ one-out base hit with the Gattis double play ball which followed.
So, despite a pitching line (seven innings, two runs, five hits, three walks and six strikeouts on 95 pitches) that is clearly a more-than-quality start, it wasn’t a walk in the park for Sanchez by any means. But he did leave the game in the capable hands of Jason Grilli and Roberto Osuna, eligible for his twelfth win of the season, thanks to the heroics of Russell Martin.
One of the biggest plusses that Russell Martin brought with him from the Pittsburgh Pirates was a history of playing on teams that made the playoffs. The fact that he was Canadian and a proven all-star with strong skills both at and behind the plate contributed to the desire of the Jays’ front-office to see him in Blue Jay blue; but surely the clincher for trying to acquire him was that Russell Martin is indisputably a winning ballplayer. Before arriving in Toronto, he made the playoffs seven times in nine years, with the Dodgers, the Yankees, and the Pirates. And last year he proved his worth to the Jays by backstopping them to the ALCS, making it his eighth playoff appearance in a ten-year career, a phenomenal run for a player who has played on four different teams during the period.
One thing Martin has not done as well this year as in the past is throwing out baserunners. Just the last three years will be enough to show the difference. In 2014 in Pittsburgh he allowed 59 stolen bases (and I do realize that catchers don’t “allow” stolen bases all by themselves—it’s a manner of speaking), and threw out 37 attempted steals. In 2015 with Toronto he allowed 40 and threw out 32. In 2016 he has allowed 44 and thrown out eight so far. But that eighth caught stealing was a biggie. In the third inning with one out Sanchez walked Jose Altuve, who besides hitting over .360 for the entire season had stolen 26 bases and been thrown out only five times prior to today. Sanchez also walked the next batter, cleanup hitter Carlos Correa, which would have been a prescription for disaster for Sanchez, except that while Correa was at the plate Altuve tried to steal second, and Martin, who had to make a perfect throw to second to get him, made a perfect throw, and Altuve slid right into the tag. The Astros didn’t bother to request a replay review.
The thing about throwing out a runner like Altuve is that it makes him just a little hesitant to try to steal again, and any edge you can gain on a player as talented as he is, is worth the effort. And when your pitcher is having a spell of wildness, cutting down a baserunner can’t hurt.
But Martin’s major contribution to today’s outcome came in the sixth inning. Josh Donaldson had hit a solo homer off Astro’s starter Collin McHugh in the first inning, to cut the Astro’s two-run lead in half, and there it remained until the sixth. For the second start in a row the Jays’ hitters found it hard to solve McHugh. They had a chance in the second when Martin walked and Justin Smoak poked a single the wrong way into left centre field with only one out, but McHugh struck out Melvin Upton and Darrell Ceciliani to end the threat. From the third through the fifth he only allowed a walk to Edwin Encarnacion, retiring nine hitters out of ten he faced.
If Russell Martin was the author of McHugh’s demise in the sixth, Michael Saunders was the catalyst. After Josh Donaldson grounded out to third, Encarnacion singled to centre for his second hit of the game. With Saunders at the plate, the Astros put on the extreme pull shift that teams insist on using against him, despite his obvious power to the opposite field (the Astros supposedly use more analytics than any team in baseball; why don’t they read their printouts?) Faced with the opportunity of changing the course of the game, and perhaps not seeing another chance ahead, Saunders bunted toward third, into the deserted side of the infield. If nothing else, this forced the hand of Houston manager A.J. Hinch, who pulled the plug on McHugh, and brought in the young right-hander James Hoyt to pitch to Troy Tulowitzki. Tulo grounded out to short, but the runners were able to move up. This brought Martin to the plate.
Like his caught-stealing numbers, Martin’s power numbers are off this year, though his batting average, after a slow start, has almost reached last year’s level. In 2015, he hit 23 home runs over the entire season. This year, through game 116 of 162, he had hit only eight. But it’s mid-August, the pennant race is heating up, and not only are the Blue Jays in the middle of it, but they are actually looking back—though not very far—at the rest of the division.
So perhaps it was just time for the Montreal native’s competitive instincts to come to the fore as he strode to the plate to face Hoyt. Ironically, if he’d had his way, things would have turned out very differently for him, and possibly for his team. Hoyt quickly went to a 3-0 count, and then came a pitch that Martin clearly thought was ball four; he showed some irritation when it was called a strike. Then he fouled one off to go full count. When he swung at the next pitch, he knew almost at once he had hit it out; after about three steps down the line, he started sidestepping while he watched it soar out of the park to centre, banging off the facing of the 200 level.
One swing of the bat, three runs, and Martin’s pitching partner went from fighting to hold down the Astros and hoping for support, to going back out for one more inning to defend a two-run lead and secure his twelfth win. Heartened by his catcher’s support, Aaron Sanchez breezed through a clean seventh inning, and turned the game over to the bullpen.
And the pen had to be sharp, because Martin’s blast was the last hurrah for the Jays’ hitters. Hoyt got the third out in the sixth, and Jandel Gustave came in to pitch the seventh and eighth inning. He allowed a single to Melvin Upton, the first batter he faced, and then retired six in a row, striking out two.
The comforting teddy-bear presence of Jason Grilli graced the mound again in the eighth for the Jays. Continuing to inhale the fountain-of-youth elixir emanating from a pennant race, the now well-established setup man fanned Springer. Then he fanned Alex Bregman. Then Michael Saunders made a mistake in judgement that could have hurt badly, but Grilli bailed him out. The irrepressible Jose Altuve lashed a liner to right that Saunders dove for, trying to make the catch, and missed. It went all the way to the wall, and Altuve went all the way to third. Carlos Correa, who had doubled in the Astros’ two runs in the first, came to the plate representing the tying run. Correa ran the count to three and two, fouled one off, and then fanned on a 94-mph fastball that Grilli through right by him. Another exuberant fist pump from Grilli, and another whoosh of relief from the faithful.
Roberto Osuna came on for the save, not having pitched for five days. He added his own brand of excitement to Grilli’s, finishing off the game for us with the thrill of relief. He fanned Marwin Gonzalez, and then watched curiously as Gonzalez, angry about a called strike earlier in the at-bat, got himself tossed from the game. No matter, he wasn’t needed any more tonight anyway. The imposing Evan Gattis then drove Junior Lake, subbing defensively for Saunders in right, thankfully, to the wall for the second out. Then A.J. Reed hit an equally long bomb to left. Darrell Ceciliani tracked it back to the wall, timed his jump, got his glove on it, but it didn’t stick, and fell in for a double. Again, the two-out extra-base hit! No matter. Rookie Teoscar Hernandez, meet sophomore Roberto Osuna. Hernandez popped up to Devon Travis at second, and the game was over. Welcome to the pennant race, Teoscar; maybe next time . . .
Aaron Sanchez showed his mettle when his dominance wasn’t complete. The old (relatively speaking) war horse answered the call at the plate, and a very satisfying win was in the books. When you lose one, you gotta win the next one.
Leave a Reply