In a fitting end to what may have been the strangest game of the year, Steve Pearce hit a walkoff grand slam home run today in the bottom of the tenth inning to beat the Oakland Athletics 8 to 4, to sweep the four-game series against Oakland and start their seven-game home stand off on the very right foot indeed.
On the face of it this should have been a pitching duel between Marcus Stroman, who needs no introduction, and Sean Manaea, a young left-hander who has quietly established himself in the Oakland rotation. Manaea had faced the Jays in Oakland back on the sixth of June, and picked up the win for the Athletics, going a strong six innings giving up only two runs on four hit. Overall, he came into the game with a record of 8-5 and an ERA of 3.86, for a team with a worse record than Toronto’s.
Stroman showed himself susceptible to the same first-inning blues as other Toronto starters have experienced this season. It’s not that any of the A’s hit him hard; he just went through one of those spells where the ground balls he induced didn’t turn into outs. Plus, he walked two batters, and that was a big foreshadowing of what was to come later in the game.
First he walked Matt Joyce leading off, on five pitches. Two of them were up and in and looked to be on the black*, but Stroman didn’t get the call on either one from plate umpire Will Little. Then he went 2-0 on Marcus Semien, one of which was marginally on the black, up and in; next he threw a two-seamer low in the zone that Semien bounced through the left side of the infield for a base hit.
*I’ve never explained “on the black”: “the black” is the theoretical outline of the outer limit of the strike zone, in all dimensions, creating a vertical rectangle that adjusts, of course, for the batter’s height. Any pitch that even touches the edge of “the black” should be called a strike. If you’ve seen how fine-tuned the professional tennis replay is, that can show a ball virtually touching the outside of the line with its fuzz, you can imagine how useful it would be to have an electronically monitored strike zone.
To get back to the game, Stroman finally got that high inside pitch on the black called a strike by Little to catch Yonder Alonso looking for the first out. This brought the Oakland slugger Khris Davis to the plate, and another walk, with no questionable calls, to load the bases. Ryon Healy hit a soft grounder to Troy Tulowitzki that scored Joyce, catcher Bruce Maxwell grounded a single up the middle to score two, and Matt Chapman grounded into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
Four ground balls, not hard hit, two walks, one of which was sketchy, and a strikeout, and Oakland had a three run lead.
And judging by Stroman’s demeanour as he came off the mound, Toronto had a starting pitcher who was really steamed.
The Jays clawed one back in the bottom of the first when Josh Donaldson squared one up off Manaea and hit it out to left field, but the more interesting moment was when Russell Martin was called out on strikes after Jose Bautista flied out to right leading off. Manaea got the call he wanted on the high inside pitch that Little had not given to Stroman, and the third strike was on a pitch low and outside that Martin contested. Conversely, Maneae was, shall we say, puzzled over two calls that he didn’t get on pitches that were probably on the black.
The score remained 3-1 to the top of the fifth, when things got really strange. In the meantime, Manaea had a much easier ride of it after the first inning. He retired ten in a row after the Donaldson homer, and piled up five strikeouts in the process.
Stroman, on the other hand, had base runners in every inning. He walked Joyce and Semien with two out in the second, none of the pitches questionable. He gave up a two-out base hit to Maxwell in the third, and gave up base hits to Jaycob Brugman, Joyce, and Semien to load the bases with two outs in the fourth.
Somehow, though, Stroman managed to keep Oakland from adding to its lead.
Then came the explosive fifth inning, and the end of Stroman’s outing. First off, he walked Khris Davis on a 3-2 pitch with no questionable calls. Then Healy hit into a double play and Stroman was one out away from being out of the inning. This brought Bruce Maxwell to the plate and the trouble came to a head with the little plate umpire.
(I know I shouldn’t be riffing on somebody’s name, especially somebody I have a beef with, but what I do question is that Will Little is 33 years old. I don’t see that that’s nearly old enough to be a major league umpire, and it would seem to me that an umpire that young would likely feel rather defensive about his age, and just might be inclined to have a thin skin.)
Here’s the play-by-play, or rather pitch-by-pitch (pitcher’s pitches and umpire’s pitches): ball one was well outside. Ball two was outside on the black. Little shook his head at what he was hearing from the Toronto bench. The camera showed manager John Gibbons continuing to jaw at Little. Little called time and ejected Gibbie, who came out to share his thoughts before leaving. The third pitch was low and inside on the black. Little called it a ball. Maxwell took a called strike on 3-0. The fifth pitch was outside, and Maxwell had his walk.
Stroman stepped off the mound, rubbing up the ball, his jaw going, but not obviously shouting at the umpire. Little stepped out from behind the plate and pitched Stroman. Russell Martin turned to Little, and barely had three words out of his mouth (probably “WTF?”) and he was pitched. So, within three pitches, Little had three pitches too, ejecting Gibbie (what else is new?) and the Toronto starting battery, both pitcher and catcher. I’m not sure if MLB keeps records on such things, but I suspect that’s a pretty rare occurrence.
I also question how MLB can allow an umpire to intrude himself into the emotions of a game to take such a drastic course of action, one that could easily affect the outcome. Will Little face any sort of inquiry over today’s events? Alas, we’ll never know.
Luckily for Toronto, I guess, Stroman had reached 90 pitches with the walk to Maxwell, and while there was no question that he would have at least finished the inning, with two outs and a slow runner on first, it would have been pitch-to-pitch, batter-to-batter if he had come out for the sixth. Callup Chris Smith (Toronto version) came on to fan Mark Chapman to end the fifth and close the books on Marcus Stroman.
A measure of the emotional tinge that the game took on could be felt in the bottom of the fifth, when Manaea’s first pitch to Kendrys Morales, a four-seamer right down the middle, was belted out of the park to straightaway centre field to cut the Oakland lead to 3-2, inducing a level of hysteria among the assembled faithtul. Manaea managed to recover and retire the side, stranding a two-out ground double down the line to the left-field corner by Kevin Pillar.
Chris Smith held the line for Toronto in the top of the sixth, with a big assist from Justin Smoak, who contributes nearly as much with his glove as with his bat. With one out, Adam Rosales singled to left. Matt Joyce followed with a hard smash between first and second. Smoak dove hard to his right and came up with the ball on a sharp grab, got up, and made it to the bag to retire Joyce for the second out, with Rosales moving into scoring position. Smith took over from there and induced a ground-ball from Marcus Semien to end the inning.
The Jays tied it in the bottom of the sixth, again thanks to the heroics of Justin Smoak.
Jose Bautista led off the inning with a hard shot to right centre that went for a double. Once more the following two batters, Miguel Montero and Josh Donaldson, failed to advance Bautista to third, both lofting easy fly balls for outs. Smoak strode to the plate. Everyone’s thoughts went to the big blast that might come, but Justin Smoak is a more complete hitter than that this year. Manaea threw a strike on the outside corner, and then a fast ball up and in. Smoak fought it off and got just enough on it to loft it into no man’s land in short right centre, just enough of a base hit to score Bautista with the tying run, running from second with two outs.
Joe Smith took over for Chris Smith for the Athletics’ seventh and got three catchable outfield balls after walking Yonder Alonso. Manaea came back out for his last inning and managed to keep the game tied, with the help of a questionable managerial decision by DeMarlo Hale, sitting in for the ejected John Gibbons. With one out, Troy Tulowitzki hit a ground-rule double to left. With Pillar and Barney due up, I fully expected to see a pinch-runner for Tulowitzki, who has been labouring on the bases for some time. I thought it would be Ryan Goins: if the Jays delivered Goins for the lead run, he would go in at short for Tulowitzki and it would tighten the defense for holding the lead.
But Goins did not issue from the dugout. Pillar lined out to the left fielder for the second out, bringing Barney to the plate. As he often does, Barney made meaningful contact on a 2-2 pitch, shooting the ball through the right side of the infield for a base hit. Matt Joyce charged the ball and came up throwing. It was actually painful to watch Tulowitzki labouring around third, having nothing left as he passed the frantically waving third base coach Luis Rivera and sliding into an easy out at the plate. Rivera might take some of the blame for not stopping Tulowitzki at third, but he never should have been out there to be stopped.
Inevitably, in the top of the eighth the A’s scratched out a lead run off Ryan Tepera, whose wildness played a major part in the run. With one out, Jaycob Brugman singled to centre. He advanced to second on a wild pitch, stayed there while Tepera walked Jed Lowrie, hitting for Rosales. After fanning Joyce, Tepera gave up a single to Marcus Semien which plated Brugman with the lead run. After throwing another wild pitch that put possible insurance runs at second and third, he fanned Alonso to end the inning, but the Athletics had the lead.
Ryan Dull came on for Manaea in the bottom of the eighth and got the first two outs, but gave up a single to Donaldson. Oakland manager Bud Melvin brought in Blake Treinen to face Justin Smoak, which created what might have been a seminal play in the game, if Oakland had held the lead. On the first pitch from Treinen, a low outside heater, Smoak lofted what should have been a harmless foul popup behind third. With the Oakland infield in its Smoak shift, third baseman Mark Chapman, playing at shortstop, surely had no chance for the catch, and no one else was even in sight. But he ran, and ran, and kept running until he ran it down for a sparkling catch to end the inning.
Aaron Loup quickly dispatched the A’s in order in the top of the ninth on fourteen pitches, bringing Treinen back to the mound to face the first Toronto hitter in the bottom of the ninth, Kendrys Morales, who had homered in the fifth to shorten the A’s lead after all the ejections in the top of the fifth. There must be something about leading off the inning with Morales, because he crushed a 2-1 pitch to dead centre to tie the game.
After Steve Pearce struck out, Treinen walked Tulowitzki. This time acting manager Hale pulled him for the pinch runner Zeke Carrera. But Zeke never advanced from first. Pillar struck out, and then Barney was initially called safe on a squibber back to Treinen, but then called out after review for the third out.
Roberto Osuna took the mound for the top of the tenth, another example of the home team using the closer in a tie game at home. Osuna breezed through the inning, finishing it off with Jed Lowrie being called out on a checked swing by plate umpire Little. After the fuss of the fifth inning, it was kind of funny to be able to hear Lowrie hollering “No, no! I didn’t swing!”
Former Toronto reliever Liam Hendriks, the Aussie flame-thrower, came out to pitch the tenth for Oakland. In the way of things in baseball, this could only go really well for Hendriks, or really badly. Sadly for the former Jay, but happily for his former mates, it went really badly.
Hendriks came close to holding off the Jays, but close only counts . . . He got to within one out of extending the game, inducing a fly ball to right from leadoff hitter Bautista, walking Montero, and fanning Donaldson. Then he got a little too gunshy with Smoak, and never came close on a four-pitch walk, probably preferring to take his chances with Morales. After going 2-0 on Morales, Hendriks started to pound the zone up high. He got one swinging strike and Morales fought off two. Ball three was almost wild, high and outside. Morales fought off the next one, low and on the outside corner, before Hendriks lost him with another wild high one.
Up to the plate came Steve Pearce, with Jays at every base, through no effort of their own. The scene was set: Hendriks would either escape this trap of his own making, or the game would be over. Pearce fouled off a couple of good ones and laid off the wild ones, and Hendriks was again at a 3-2 count. There’s nothing more dizzying than a bases-loaded 3-2 pitch with two out: the runners circle with the pitch*, the pitcher and batter both have to ignore the runners. At least Hendriks didn’t walk in the winning run; his sixth pitch was in the zone, but it was sweet, up and in, and Pearce jumped on it. There was no doubt about the distance, only whether it would stay fair. With the help of an anxious lean by Pearce to steer it straight, it stayed fair and soared over the fence in left for the exceedingly rare, and exhilirating, walkoff grand slam.
I told you it was perhaps the strangest game of the year, and it had an ending befitting that description. Pearce’s blast gave Toronto a sweep of the four-game series with Oakland, and strengthened the very tenuous lifeline to which the Torononians cling in their slender hopes of climbing back into playoff contention.
*The reason baserunners take off on a 3-2 pitch with two outs is because they can’t be thrown out at the next base, and they can’t be doubled off: if the pitch is a ball, they have a right to the next base; if it’s a strike, the inning’s over; and you can’t be doubled up when there’s already two outs. As an experienced coach, I can attest to the fact that the two-out, 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded is by far the dizziest moment in baseball.
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