Tonight’s tight 4-3 Toronto victory in Milwaukee over the resurgent Brewers represented something old and something new in the ongoing saga of Toronto’s strange 2017 odyssey.
The old? Well, not so old, but for the second start in a row, Joe Biagini pitched four really good innings, and suffered one really bad one. To be fair, this time out the bad inning didn’t put the Jays in the hole, but only allowed the Brewers to crawl a little closer to Toronto on the scoreboard. A lot closer, actually. Another difference was that this time it was hardly his fault, unless you want to blame him for throwing ground ball after ground ball, only to see them snake their way through the Toronto infield for crucial base hits.
The new? Well, if you go back far enough in Blue Jays history, this isn’t so new either, after all. For the second night in a row that wild and crazy guy John Gibbons reached into his wizard’s hat and pulled out a brand new third baseman, none other than Jose Bautista. Of course, Bautista came to the Jays as a third baseman from the Pirates in 2008, and did play third for Toronto, but hadn’t done so since 2013.
First Russell Martin at third, and now Jose Bautista? Okay, I’m making too much of this. Both players have a certain amount of experience playing in the infield, and it’s certainly not a stretch for either of them to put in a game at third, or, in Martin’s case second as well, where he’s finished up the odd extra-inning game, or first for Bautista, where he’s put in the odd inning.
The answer, of course, is National League baseball in a National League park. If this topic interests you, I’ve appended below an explanation of how this lineup was probably put together. You may pop down to the bottom and check it out now, or read it as a sidebar afterwards, or just forget about it. Kind of a choose-your-own-ending thing.
Joe Biagini had a lot to think about as he prepared for his fourth start since being inserted into the rotation because of the rash of injuries to Toronto’s starting pitchers.
His first two starts, necessarily short because he needed to be stretched out in terms of the number of pitches he would be allowed, were beyond successful, nine full innings, no earned runs, six hits, no walks, and nine strikeouts, on 93 pitches. Put that all in one game and Biagini is the American League pitcher of the week.
But the third start, in Atlanta on May seventeenth, was another story entirely. The first six batters reached base against him in Atlanta. They all scored. Five of the runs were earned. There was more than one anomaly in this outing. The first was that the four consecutive base hits he gave up, culminating in a three-run homer by catcher Kurt Suzuki, followed a throwing error by Biagini. With the leadoff batter on with a ground single that had sneaked through the left side, Biagini fielded a one-hopper from Freddie Freeman that arrived at the mound with DP already stamped on it. But Biagini’s throw to second pulled Devon Travis off the bag, all hands were safe, and the deluge followed. It was sad to see the sag in Biagini’s demeanour after that play.
The second anomaly was that after the Suzuki homer, Biagini retired twelve in a row, and only left the game for a pinch hitter in the fifth inning because the Jays needed to do everything they could to cut into the 6-2 deficit they faced.
Being a clearly thoughtful and reflective young man, he must have considered long and hard about this next start tonight. The big issue would be how he would handle misfortune if it should arise.
And arise it did, on just the second batter of the game. After Biagini fanned leadoff hitter Jonathan Villar, newly-minted super slugger Eric Thames, Toronto’s gift to the baseball world, grounded one sharply up the middle. Ryan Goins and Devon Travis converged on it, but Travis made as they say in tennis an unforced error. Moving away from first from his position at second, Travis should have peeled off and let Goins take a shot at it, since the shortstop’s momentum was toward first. But he didn’t yield, they both backed off to avoid a collision, and the ball trickled away for an infield single.
Then, to my eye, it happened a second time. Ryan Braun hit one hard, right at Kendrys Morales playing first. A clean pick would have been an easy double play, and I’m not saying that the clean pick would have been easy or should have been made. And this is not really about Justin Smoak versus Morales at first; Smoak’s very good, but not perfect, with the glove. And you can’t argue with Morales being in the lineup today.
But sometimes the hard play has to be made; it’s what distinguishes the good defensive team from the mediocre. At any rate, Morales knocked it down, and by the time he got to it, the DP was off the table, so Thames moved up to second while Morales took the out at first.
How did Biagini handle all of this? He used two of the most bodacious curve balls you’ve ever seen to fan Travis Shaw and solve the problem himself.
Well, okay, then.
Perhaps buoyed by Biagini’s effort to overcome the fielding blips, the Toronto hitters, who had wasted base hits by Kevin Pillar and Jose Bautista in the top of the first, did a better job of finishing things off to hand their pitcher a 2-0 lead, though actually it was Biagini himself who delivered the second run.
Devon Travis led off with a Texas Leaguer into right that maybe Domingo Santana could have caught with a decent jump. Russell Martin, back behind the plate after his turn at third on Sunday, went behind the pitch from the big Brewers’ starter Jimmy Nelson, and lined another shot to right for a hit, with Travis coming around to third. Chris Coghlan, who shares with Darwin Barney the ability to string out an at-bat, worked Nelson for a 3-2 walk to load the bases. This brought Ryan Goins to the plate, and on a 1-1 pitch he emulated Martin, going the other way with a sharp liner just out of the reach of shortstop Orlando Arcia. With Martin behind Travis on the bases, and the ball hit hard, they had to play station-to-station, Travis coming in to score and the bases still loaded with nobody out.
Up to the plate lumbered the eager Biagini, hopeful of aiding his own cause. Now, Biagini is no Marcus Stroman with a bat in his hand, but he’s nothing if not gutsy. After being badly fooled on a 1-1 sinker way down and in that he swung over, he managed to get his bat on the next sinker, one that didn’t sink, and bounced it out toward short, just out of the reach of the pitcher. Martin came in to score, Arcia made the easy force-out to Villar at second, and Villar turned it over, but Biagini hauled his large self very smartly down the line and decisively beat the relay to stay out of the double play.
His RBI put the Jays up 2-0, but his effort down the line came to naught, as Coghlan was out at the plate on the contact play with Pillar batting, and Nelson fanned Zeke Carrera to end the threat. But still, there are a lot of little things that go to make up a real major leaguer, and Joe Biagini has shown himself to be a real major leaguer.
There was some commentary from one of the beat reporters that maybe Biagini ran into trouble in the fifth because of the extra effort involved in running out the fielder’s choice in the second. That’s a bit of a stretch. In the bottom of the second, he walked Santana on an awfully good 3-2 pitch, retired Hernan Perez on a liner to Goins at short, and then got the double-play ball to third from catcher Manny Pina. 13 pitches. Guess he was a little out of breath.
Oh, wait! Double-play ball to third? To Bautista? Another beat reporter (these people, really!) called it a rather awkward double play. I beg to differ wholeheartedly. The hitter was the catcher, so Bautista knew he had time. The ball was to his glove side; he picked it cleanly, set up his footwork textbook-style for the throw, and fed Travis a perfect ball to the outfield side of second that would bring Travis off the bag safely and ready to plant for his throw to first. Awkward? No way, Jose!
The game rolled through the third with the pitchers in control. Between them Nelson and Biagini threw 20 pitches, and Biagini threw three ground balls to the Brewers. After the double play, that made five.
Another what-if moment came for Biagini in the top of four. After Nelson got ground ball outs from Martin and Coghlan, Goins stepped in for the second time against Nelson and got his second hit, this time a rousing double to right centre. This brought Biagini up for the second time with a runner in scoring position. Could it be? Alas, no. Obviously not a dues-paying member of the pitchers’ fraternity, Nelson threw Biagini a nasty 1-2 slider down and away. Biagini lunged and made contact, but it was a soft little hopper that the catcher Pina corralled and put the tag on the pitcher, who wasn’t sure whether it was a fair ball.
Obviously not breathless, Biagini got soft wrong-way contact from Thames again in the Milwaukee fourth, resulting in a lazy fly to left. He walked Ryan Braun, caught Travis Shaw looking with a slider, and got Santana on a grounder to third, which Bautista handled flawlessly.
Came the fifth inning, the pivotal point in the game. It was a good one for Toronto, but not a great one for Biagini, and the events of the fifth led to the long denouement that was the rest of the game.
For the Jays, it all started with two, as Nelson gave up a line single to left by Bautista after retiring Pillar and Carrera. This brought Kendrys Morales to the plate, and he stroked the key hit of the contest, getting all of another 2-1 sinker that didn’t, and hitting a monster blast to dead centre. Much as we loved it, little did we know how important that shot would be.
With Milwaukee down 4-0 and coming to bat in the bottom of the fifth, one of the most frustrating and exciting innings of the season was imminent. Biagini kept throwing ground balls, but they kept finding holes. Perez to left, Pina to centre, Arcia to centre scoring Perez. Jesus Aguilar, hitting for the pitcher, rolled one slowly to second that moved the runners up for the first out. Jonathan Villar rolled one through the right side that scored both of them. Villar stole second, and then Biagini pitched very carefully to Thames, staying way away with four straight to put him on. Who says they eliminated the four-pitch intentional walk?
That was it for Biagini, as much as everybody wanted him to finish the inning and qualify for the win. Manager John Gibbons went to the pen for Danny Barnes. Next thing you know, with Ryan Braun at the plate, Villar and Thames pulled off a double steal. With the double play off, Barnes did the only thing he could: facing the unfavourable matchup with two power-hitting lefties, Braun and Shaw, he and catcher Russell Martin set them both up beautifully to finish off with high heat. High heat, high drama.
Barnes then went on to pitch a clean sixth, during which the third out was recorded by Bautista with another good play at third, diving glove-side and coming up throwing to take a hit away from Pina, who’s gonna be glad not to be looking down at Bautista playing third any time soon. If it was a disappointment that Biagini didn’t get the win for Toronto, it was absolutely natural justice that it went to Barnes.
Joe Biagini’s grit, Danny Barnes’ brilliance, and the bats of Ryan Goins and especially Kendrys Morales set the table for the Jays’ bullpen to try to take it home against this powerful Brew Crew.
Ryan Tepera followed Barnes to the hill in the seventh and, ahem, kept the Brewers loose, but also kept them off the board. He fanned Arcia on a terrible (or brilliant, depending on whose colours you wear) breaking ball in the dirt. He fanned Nick Franklin who hit for the Milwaukee pitcher. Then he walked Villar, who promptly stole second. With a base open, he nicked Thames to bring up Braun who flied out to Anthony Alford—more on him later—who’d hit for Barnes and then stayed in to play right. It was a bit crazy, but it looks like that’s what you get with Tepera, who, like Tina Turner, never “does easy”.
Joe Smith, however, “does easy”, and he did so in the eighth, striking out poor Shaw for the fourth time, and Santana, before Perez grounded out to short. Eleven pitches and it was over to Osuna.
Osuna got the save with a little less drama than usual, though it took 19 pitches and a two-out walk to get there. Manny Pina grounded out to short. Orlando Arcia lined out to centre. Eric Sogard hit for the Milwaukee pitcher Naftali Feliz and drew a walk, but then Osuna fanned Villar to put it away and draw the curtains back on the Knock-Knock Game with Russell Martin.
As for Toronto, the Blue Jays basically circled the wagons around their bullpen, and only their seventh was of interest. With the pitcher Barnes up first, John Gibbons sent Alford up to hit for him. At this point Alford was zero for six in his major league debut stint with Toronto. Rob Scahill, who had pitched a pretty clean sixth in relief of Jimmy Nelson, was still on the mound for the Brewers.
Alford walloped an 0-1 pitch from Scahill over the head of the centre fielder Perez. The only question was double or homer. Unfortunately, it didn’t have the elevation and Alford was on second, the ball out of play for a souvenir, on Alford’s first MLB hit, a rousing double. Alford made it to third with a nice bit of base running when Kevin Pillar grounded out to short, but was eventually stranded there.
For those who don’t know the story, last off-season Alford’s parents’ home burned to the ground with no injuries but costing them all of their belongings, and the Blue Jays’ organizational brain trust and players’ group pitched in to get them set up again, in one of the warmer and fuzzier stories of the off-season. But the losses included all of the sports memorabilia related to Alford’s nascent career. So the first-hit ball from tonight became the first piece in a new collection, and what a pleasure it was to have his mother present in the Milwaukee ball yard to receive it.
In an unbelievable turn of events, Alford, having tasted life in the show and found it to be good, had another at bat in the ninth inning and struck out. But in the process, when he fouled one off, he felt a pain in his hand and it was later learned that he had broken the hammate bone in his palm, and instead of going back to New Hampshire to hone his skills he is now headed for the disabled list, where there may or may not be enough space to add his name at the bottom.
ADDENDUM: JOEY BATS AT THIRD? MAKES PERFECT SENSE TO ME!
There is a much greater effect on the creating of a lineup for an American League manager getting ready to play in a National League park than you might imagine, starting from the fact that teams’ rosters are built slightly differently according to the league. National League teams would tend to go with perhaps one less relief pitcher in order to make room for an extra position player, since there is more of a need to pinch hit.
In this case, the problem was compounded by the fact that there is an anomaly in the Milwaukee pitching staff: they have zero left-handed pitchers, starters or relievers. Zero.
So John Gibbons was facing two problems: pack as much power as possible into the eight spots in the batting order available to him, to make up for the fact that the pitcher has to hit, and, even worse, American League pitchers have had very few major league at bats, and at the same time get all of his left-handed batters into the lineup. But how do you do that with Zeke Carrera only able to play the outfield, Chris Coghlan able to play both infield and outfield, and you absolutely have to have both Bautista and Kevin Pillar in the lineup, since you’re are already unable to use both Kendrys Morales and Justin Smoak at the same time, losing one of the power switch-hitters who would be hitting left against all the Milwaukee righties. And with Devon Travis hitting the way he is at the moment, there’s no way Coghlan was going to take his place at second just because he hits left.
So to review: we already knew that Gibbie was going to give one game at first to Morales and one to Smoak. Tonight it was Morales, whose two-run homer iced the game for Toronto. Martin or Maile behind the plate? The power bat, obviously. So now you’ve got three infield positions and three outfield positions to fill. Bautista, Pillar and Travis are in because of their bats, and Pillar also because, well, Super Kevin. If the Blue Jays have had a team leader in this strange spring, it’s been Pillar. Goins hits left and is the linchpin of the infield. Carrera and Coghlan are in, and Darwin Barney is out, because the latter hits right, and not with as much power as the other right-handed hitters. It might seem obvious that Coghlan would be at third, Carrera in left, and Bautista at home in right.
But if you look at Coghlan’s career record, he’s spent far more time in the outfield, and very little at third before this year, and frankly he has been less than steady at third for the Jays. So this interesting exercise in organizing a batting order tonight actually came down to Gibbie’s instinct that the team would be stronger defensively with Bautista at third and Coghlan in left, alongside Pillar and Carrera.
As it happened, Coghlan had easy chances in left, and Bautista sparkled at third. Good call, Gibbie!
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