Get this: at the start of today’s action, eight teams were within three games of the second wild card slot in the American League. The bottom three of those teams, the Orioles, the Rays, and the Blue Jays, trailed the leading Angels by three games. And the record of the Angels? 62-59. Thus the Trash Heap Derby.
The funny thing is, every single game for every one of these eight teams counts mightily, with the result that games between “contending” teams in this race for mediocrity might hold more import—and more excitement—than the playoffs themselves.
Witness tonight’s series-ender in Toronto of the four-game set between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Tampa Bay Rays. It had a little bit of everything, starting with a pitching matchup that was a battle of the Chrises, though it might have looked a bit like a mismatch rather than a matchup. Like, Chris Rowley, with one major league start (and one major league win) against Chris Archer? Really? Give me a break!
And yet, when Chris Rowley was pulled by manager John Gibbons after one batter in the top of the sixth, he left with a 3-1 lead over Archer, the anchor of the Tampa rotation and one of the best starters in the league. (The one batter was Wilson Ramos, whom Rowley walked, and who would come around to score, cutting the lead to 3-2 and leaving Rowley with a line of five innings plus one batter, 2 runs, 4 hits, 5 walks, 3 strikeouts and 90 pitches.)
Archer? He went seven innings, and gave up 3 runs on 5 hits, walking none and striking out ten on 105 pitches. Sure, by the numbers Archer’s was the stronger performance, but Rowley left the game with the lead and a chance to claim the win, and Archer left the game on the hook for the loss.
It was interesting that there was so much singular drama packed into the first three innings of the the game, and even more interesting that the Toronto Chris did a better job of dodging the bullets than the Tampa Chris.
Rowley started the game with an easy ground out to second by Brad Miller, but then pulled out his trusty shovel and started to dig his own grave. He walked Evan Longoria, wild-pitched him to second, and walked Lucas Duda. Then Justin Smoak pulled off a great, running over-the-shoulder catch of a long foul pop up by Steven Souza for the second out; Rowley took a deep breath and got Logan Morrison to ground out to second for the third out.
Then, with Nori Aoki leading off for the first time for the Blue Jays, Chris Archer had to hustle to barely throw him out at first on a squibber in front of the plate. Good thing he did, because that made the Josh Donaldson jack to left only worth one run instead of two. Though they didn’t score again in the first, there was a little more in store for Archer after he fanned Smoak. Kendrys Morales came to the plate carrying an impressive record of 15 for 25—that’s .600, folks—against Archer. He immediately boosted it to 16 for 26 by ripping a double to the wall in right centre, but Steve Pearce popped up to Duda at first for the third out.
And that’s only the first inning.
Rowley ran into more trouble in the second, and needed a good bit of hubris from Tampa catcher Wilson Ramos and a great infield play to the plate to keep the Rays off the board. Leading off, Ramos smashed an 0-1 pitch to left and casually watched it sail over the fence as he dogged it to first. By the time he realized it hadn’t actually cleared the wall and was back in Pearce’s hands, he had no choice but to hold up with a single.
So, after Corey Dickinson fouled out to Smoak, when Adeiny Hechavaria ripped a double down the line, Ramos had to stop at third; his nonchalance had cost his team a run. The Jays pulled their infield in, which never works, except this time it did, thanks to a quick grab of a Mallex Smith grounder and a strong throw to the plate by shortstop Ryan Goins.
I don’t like playing the infield in, but I don’t like the contact play even more, especially when the runner at third is driving a lead sled, like Ramos. No matter, Brad Miller flied out to left, and Rowley’s lead was intact.
Good thing, too, because Chris Archer settled down in the bottom of the second and retired three south-sider Jays, Zeke Carrera, Miguel Montero, and Goins, on thirteen pitches with two strikeouts.
Rowley settled as well and put some of the drama behind him in the third, walking Duda with one out but stranding him by fanning Souza and grounding out Morrison.
In the bottom of the third, Archer struck out the side, but also helped hand Toronto a second run when Ramos couldn’t handle his stuff. Darwin Barney led off, and Archer struck him out with a nasty breaking ball in the dirt, so nasty that Ramos couldn’t corral it, and Barney made it to first. Then Aoki and Barney—the smallest guys on the field, played a littled small ball and pulled off a neat hit and run, with Barney going around to third on Aoki’s ground single to right through the hole that second baseman Brad Miller had just vacated to cover the bag. Archer dug down and caught Donaldson looking, but Smoak stroked a single to right to score Barney. Archer fanned his nemesis Morales, and escaped with his neck intact when Steve Pearce ended the inning by hitting one right on the button but right at Souza for the third out.
So far so good for the Jays, and for Chris Rowley, who was proving himself a better escape artist than Chris Archer.
But you can’t escape forever, not in the big leagues, oh, no. Now with a two-run lead, Rowley quickly retired Ramos and Dickinson, but walked Hechavarria. The only thing worse than a leadoff walk is a two-out walk. It almost always bites you in the butt, like when Mallex Smith tripled into the gap in right centre to drive Hechavarria in with the first Tampa run. Rowley retired Miller on an easy little fly to centre, but it was now 2-1.
Chris Archer glided through his fourth on nine pitches, two strikeouts and a grounder to first, but his first punchout, of Miguel Montero on one of his trademark sliders in the dirt, was his thousandth of his major league career, so the ball was taken out for Archer’s trophy case.
Chris Rowley retired the Rays on two strikeouts and a popup in the top of the fifth, but even that involved a bit of fun and strangeness. On the first pitch of the inning, Evan Longoria singled to centre and thus became the Rays’ Designated Table Tennis Ball.* Rowley is nothing if not efficient: Lucas Duda popped out to Smoak on the second pitch of the inning. But then he got into a deep count with Steven Souza before he struck him out with a low off-speed pitch.
The ball got away from Miguel Montero; Souza was automatically out because first base was occupied (that’s the rule: the catcher doesn’t have to control a third strike or throw down when first base is occupied and there are less than two outs). With the ball loose, Longoria broke for second and slid in without a throw, but wait: he was sent back to first, because Souza had clunked Montero in the head with his bat on his strikeout swing. The ruling here was that since Montero was interfered with by Souza’s bat, he couldn’t catch the ball or make a throw, so Longoria’s advancement was reversed. Then Chris Rowley balked and back he went to second—Designated Table Tennis Ball!
*Table Tennis, not Ping Pong! I play regularly with players a lot better than me: Ping Pong is a basement game, Table Tennis is a sport .
It was all for naught when Rowley struck out Logan Morrison on a 2-2 pitch to end the inning (don’t forget that Souza’s strikeout was the second out). Longoria was stranded at second. Or was it first? Third?
Archer must have been eager to get back out there after all this, as he retired Barney and Aoki quickly on six pitches, bringing Donaldson to the plate, the same Donaldson who had never homered off Archer before, and who proceeded to give Toronto a 3-1 lead with another blast to centre on the first pitch from Archer.
With Rowley out of the game after walking Ramos to lead off the sixth, Aaron Loup came in and for one of the few times in recent weeks he brought his gas can instead of his fireman’s hose: he quickly gave up singles to Dickerson and Hechevarria, and checked out, leaving Danny Barnes the unenviable task of coming in with the bases loaded and nobody out, a pickle he almost wiggled out of. (“Pickle” is a funny word in baseball, used to describe both a pitcher in trouble and a baserunner in trouble in a rundown. But why “in a pickle”?)
Barnes retired Trevor Plouffe, hitting for Smith, on the infield fly rule for the first out, and then almost got a double-play ball from Brad Miller, who is very quick. Miller bounced one between Smoak and Barnes. The sure-handed Smoak flagged it down and decided that his best chance was at second, rather than risking the throw home; no one was covering first. Miller was safe on the fielder’s choice and Ramos scored to make it 3-2. Barnes walked Longoria to load the bases again and keep it interesting, but then Duda grounded into the shift as Goins gunned him out from behind second to end the inning.
The noose was getting tighter, though, as we went to the bottom of the sixth, with Archer still on the hill at only 79 pitches. Twelve pitches, a couple of ground outs and another strikeout, and Archer was through to the seventh at 91 pitches, and it was definitely nail-biting time.
Barnes started the seventh against Souza and popped him up to Smoak. Then John Gibbons called on the lefty callup Tim Mayza to pitch to the two lefties among the next three batters. Mayza kind of mixed things up, though, by yielding a single to the lefty Morrison, fanning the righty Ramos, and then, while Morrison stole second for naught, fanning Dickerson. Archer must have gotten some extra gas in the tank from Donaldson’s homer in the fifth. He’d retired four in a row since, and his seventh inning
extended the string to seven, putting down Montero, Goins (his tenth strikeout), and Barney, to finish seven strong innings, if you don’t count Josh Donaldson. .
Dominic Leone came in for the eighth, tasked with defending Rowley’s slim lead. He tried, but couldn’t hold on, over 23 pitches and seven batters, as the Rays eked out the tying run; you just knew it had to happen, seeing how the Jays’ season has gone.
Leone got the first out, a squibber in front of the plate by Hechavarria that Montero played down to first. Then Peter Bourjos, in to play centre after Plouffe hit for Smith, singled to left, and stole second while Leone was fanning Miller for the second out, but veteran Jay-killer Evan Longoria, roused from his ominous quiet in this series, hit a drive to dead centre field. Zeke Carrera, playing in centre for Kevin Pillar, went straight back to the fence, leapt at the wall, and came down with the ball, but didn’t hold it long enough; as the ball popped free at Carrera’s feet, Longoria cruised into second with a double while Bourjos scored to tie it up.
Tampa wasn’t finished, however, and it took a great play by Darwin Barney to keep the score tied at three. With first base open, Duda was walked intentionally, bringing Souza to the plate. Souza bounced one up the middle that would have easily scored Longoria from second, but Barney dove for the ball, kept it on the infield for a Souza base hit, but his throw to the plate kept Longoria at third, where he was stranded when Logan Morrison grounded out to, you got it, Barney, at second.
With Archer finally finished, Kevin Cash called on Tommy Hunter to pitch the eighth. Better he should have left a tired Archer in, who might have done better than a fresh Hunter. (I just noticed the names: Archer, Hunter, where does it end?)
Actually, it ends with Smoaker, because it turned out that Hunter was Justin Smoak’s meat. Nori Aoki flew out to left, Josh Donaldson walked, and Smoak powdered a 2-0 pitch to the right-centre power alley that wasn’t coming back, and Toronto had a two-run lead with only three outs to get. Hunter finished the inning, but there was no getting that pitch back that he threw to Smoak.
Roberto Osuna came in for the save, and our hearts jumped into our throats again when Wilson Ramos lined a single to right on an 0-1 pitch. But on the very next pitch, Corey Dickingson grounded into a double play started by Ryan Goins, and the pressure was off with two outs and nobody on. Osuna went to a full count on Adeiny Hechavarria before he grounded out to second to end the game.
Here was a game that meant everything to both teams, held interest for the whole game, included enough strange and interesting plays to put a red star, not next to the great play, but next to the great game. Best of all, the good guys won the game and the series against the team they have the toughest time beating. Who needs the playoffs when you get a game like this?
Well, as a matter of fact . . .
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