Long Ball Stories

A tale of two baseball games:

On April twelfth in Toronto, Marcus Stroman was the starting pitcher for the Blue Jays against the Milwaukee Brewers. At the end of the game his ERA had “balooned” from 1.42 to 1.76. He pitched a complete game, 9 innings, and gave up two runs on seven hits while walking one and striking out four. He threw 100 pitches. He took the loss that day, to even his season record at 1-1.

Today in Milwaukee Stroman started against the Brewers once again. This time his pitching line showed that he went five and two thirds innings, gave up four runs on four hits with four walks and struck out five. He threw 106 pitches. By the end of the game his ERA had gone from 3.00 to 3.30. But today he took credit for the win, raising his record for 2017 to five wins and two losses.

What was the difference between these two games, besides the obvious, that Stroman had been a much more effective pitcher on April twelfth in Toronto than he was on May twenty-fourth in Milwaukee?

Everything else about the Blue Jays, that’s what. First of all, there was the lineup. Troy Tulowitzki was at shortstop. Josh Donaldson was in the batting order, but not ready to play in the field coming back from a day’s rest because of the lingering effects of a right calf injury suffered in spring training. Because Donaldson was serving as the designated hitter, Kendrys Morales started at first, Darwin Barney at third, and Justin Smoak was on the bench. Steve Pearce was in left field. Devon Travis led off and Kevin Pillar hit eighth.

Oh, and Stroman took the loss because the Toronto lineup was shut out on four hits and three walks with eight strikeouts by a combination of Chase Anderson, Corey Knebel, and Naftali Feliz. Backup catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia ran for Donaldson when he walked in the ninth inning.

Today, Tulowitzki, Donaldson, and Pearce are on the disabled list. Playing in the National League park, after Morales started at first yesterday and hit a monster home run that turned out to be the game winner, he sat out today while Smoak played first, went one for four and did not figure in the scoring, though his ten home runs and 29 RBIs continued to lead the team. Ryan Goins was at shortstop. Russell Martin played third. A different backup catcher, Luke Maile, was behind the dish, this being a day game after a night game, a situation in which Martin is normally relieved of his catching duties. Chris Coghlan patrolled left field for the second game in a row against the Brewers. Kevin Pillar led off and kept his batting average above .300 even though he only had one hit in five at bats. Devon Travis hit second, and saw his batting average drop from .240 to .238, though his average for the month of May was .351, and he had hit fourteen doubles in the month, which added to the two he hit in April when he was struggling at the plate, gave him sixteen for the year. This tied him for the major league lead in doubles with Mitch Moreland of the Rangers and Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals.

Oh, and Stroman got the win because this crazy patchwork lineup scored eight runs on ten hits with one walk while striking out only seven times. Pillar, Travis, Goins, and Jose Bautista hit home runs, Goins’ was a grand slam, and he had six total bases on the day, having doubled in the fifth inning as well.

“What a diff’rence a [month] makes!”* (Give or take a couple of weeks.)

*A slight adaptation of the title of a great song of Dinah Washington, an American R and B singer who deserved a wider audience than she ever had.

The irony of it all is that Toronto now comes home on a three-game win streak and having gone four and three on the road by playing a scrappy, gritty, and now explosive type of ball that is very reminiscent of some of their best runs of the last two years. Yet the lineup that has finally come together to deliver this improvement, from all reports, is about to be shaken up by of the imminent return of Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki.

Conventional wisdom would have it that replacing Goins and Coghlan/Barney with the All-Star duo on the left side of the infield can only be a good, even a great, thing, but what happens if the whiff rate starts to escalate again, just as the present group seems to be getting it under control?

Ah well, let’s stick with the present, as in today’s game, shall we?

Marcus Stroman started out with better command than in his last start, and breezed through the first and second innings with just a walk to Domingo Santana in the second. He ran into a spot of trouble in the third which cost him a run, but there was an pattern to the proceedings that excused his lapse to a certain extent, though it did show him capable of being rattled on the mound.

Stroman was really upset about two strike calls that he didn’t get from home plate umpire Mike Winters. I’m going to pledge right now that I will not mention ball and strike calls unless I am absolutely backed up by PitchCast. These two calls were definitely bad calls. After the first, an 0-1 pitch to Keon Broxton that would have made it 0-2 but was called a ball, he threw a cutter that was basically a batting-practice pitch and Broxton parked it in the left-field seats.

The second call didn’t show up on the scoreboard, but it was still illustrative. Winters stiffed Stroman on an 0-1 pitch to Jonathan Villar, exactly the same pitch he missed on Broxton—at least he’s consistent—so he brought the next one in over the plate where it could be reached, and Villar reached out and slapped it to left for a base hit. Stroman then seemed to forget that Villar was on base, rocked into his windup and was correctly called for a balk. He went on to walk Eric Thames on a 3-2 pitch before settling down and striking out Hernan Perez.

So the Brewers took a 1-0 lead, which was concerning at that point because Matt Garza was dealing pretty confidently for Milwaukee. He ran through the order without a base runner first time through, with three strikeouts, and showed absolutely no respect for the Stroman of Swat**, throwing him a steady diet of breaking balls until he struck out.

**One of Babe Ruth’s more famous newspaper monikers was the “Sultan of Swat”.

But the Milwaukee lead didn’t last long. With the lineup turned over to begin the fourth inning, Garza made the mistake of hanging an 0-1 slider to Kevin Pillar, who crushed it to left to tie the game. Pillar’s aggressiveness seemed to spark his mates, because Travis followed by jumping at the first pitch but didn’t get it, popping out to Thames at first. But then Garza made a big mistake. For some reason he didn’t try to punish Travis for the Pillar homer, but Jose Bautista, well might as well send him a message, ’cause he’s so lovable, ya know?

So Garza’s first pitch to Bautista was seriously up and in, and flipped Bautista. Then he threw one way away. Then he threw one away but in the zone. Like the bears and the porridge, this one was just right, and Bautista hammered it straight out to dead centre.

D’ya think these guys might learn some time not to poke the bear with Bautista? I don’t even know why Garza did it, other than that he belongs to the militant anti-flipper brigade. Well, if you don’t want a bat flip, don’t flip the batter. Not to mention that Garza and the Brew Crew were now down 2-1.

I just want to mention in passing here that one of the Sportsnet writers just published a piece about how the next big thing in baseball analytics was going to be extreme outfield shifts and a move toward a fourth outfielder at times. Well, if you saw the first two times Justin Smoak came to the plate tonight hitting from the left side, tomorrrow’s already here. The Brewers stationed Jonathan Villar in a position akin to the old rover position in soft ball, forming an outfield triangle with the centre and right fielders. It worked twice tonight as Smoak hit a looper right to him in the second, and a hard grounder to him in the fourth. Both would have had some likelihood of being a hit without Villar’s positioning. They’d better handle the ball carefully on grounders though, because it’s a much longer throw to first for the second baseman.

Of course these things have their limits. His next time up, in the sixth, the new improved 2017 Justin Smoak lined a single through the gaping hole on the left side of the infield to become one of the passengers who rode home on Ryan Goin’s grand slam.

But that’s getting ahead of ourselves. Stroman settled down again in the bottom of the fourth and fanned Travis Shaw, who went down twice on strikes again in a very bad showing for Shaw against his old team. Then he got a groundout to Martin at third by Santana, with Martin handling the chance with aplomb. Finally, he fanned catcher Jett Bandy.

In the top of the fifth the Jays produced another run for a little cushion, but Garza did a good job of limiting the damage. This time it was the bottom of the order for Toronto. Chris Coghlan ran one up the middle on the ground to lead off, the first of two hits run up the rug by the left fielder. Ryan Goins then ripped a grounder past Thames down the line for a double that moved Coghlan to third. The Brewers called foul on this one but nobody listened. Then Luke Maile chipped in with a solid RBI, a deep sacrifice fly to centre on Garza’s first pitch that also moved Goins to third.

That brought the Stroman of not-much-Swat to the plate, and Garza was not going to give up a ribbie to the likes of him. He went after Stroman with a vengeance. Stroman managed to put himself in the hole by fouling off two wicked sliders, and then he was at Garza’s mercy, finally going down on very high heat. Kevin Pillar then popped out to second on the first pitch.

Stroman went back to work in the bottom of the fifth and walked Eric Sogard on a 3-2 pitch. But then he got the ground ball he needed, and the slick Goins-to-Travis-to-Smoak double play nipped the speedy Broxton. Brewers manager Craig Counsell must have felt that his lineup could turn things around for Garza so he let him hit with two outs and nobody on and a pitch count of 65 after four, and Garza grounded out to second. What with the double plays, it seemed like Stroman might join Garza in a possible deep outing.

But things changed big time in the sixth, and neither starter survived the inning. Maybe Counsell should have taken a shot at a pinch-hit homer instead of letting Garza hit. Leading off, Devon Travis finally broke out of his doubles jinx (some jinx!) and elevated one of his drives about twenty seats deep into the left field seats, making the score 4-1. Bautista lined one hard up the middle for a base hit. Smoak hit his shift-buster to left, with Bautista holding second. Russell Martin scorched one to centre that Broxton made a great catch on, sliding on his knees, while the runners held.

It was the loud out, not the base hits, that brought Garza’s day to an end. Oliver Drake, a right-hander, was brought in to face Chris Coghlan and then Ryan Goins, both left-handed hitters. There is a problem, you see, with an all-right-handed pitching staff.

Drake, who by name it seems to me should be a distinguished author, or perhaps a cerebral detective, threw six pitches to the two lefties. The first four were balls to Coghlan to fill the bases. The fifth one was a dodgy called strike, a splitter that looked high and inside. The sixth one was definitely a ball, not quite as high but inside.

Ryan Goins didn’t care where that pitch was because he jerked it out of the yard, far into the second level of stands in right, and suddenly the Toronto lead was doubled and it was just like 2015 all over again. It should be noted that two of Goins’ home runs this year have ranked among the longest shots of the year in major league baseball. Who knew?

Drake quickly dispatched Luke Maile and Marcus Stroman who fanned for a third time but the damage was done, and it was now just a question of keeping the Brewers’ potent lineup from mounting a comeback.

Stroman gave a good shot at doing just that but in the end he couldn’t survive the sixth either. It was a rocky ride from the start, but he had a shot at getting out of the inning until he threw a two-out gopher ball to Domingo Santana with two on that brought the Brewers half-way back.

Jonathan Villar drew a walk leading off, and then Stroman struck out Eric Thames, but gave up a double to the wall in centre by Hernan Perez. Curiously, Villar, who can fly, didn’t score from first on the double. It was almost as if he didn’t trust his own eyes that Kevin Pillar wouldn’t run the ball down, like usual. So with runners on second and third and one down, Stroman caught Travis Shaw looking, for another strikeout for Shaw, and Stroman was that close to walking off the sixth with a seven-run lead.

The gritty right-hander then went to 2-2 on Santana and but just threw a mistake, inner half, above the waist, and Santana didn’t miss it. That was the end of Stroman’s outing today, at five and two thirds innings and a bunch of fours: four runs, four hits, four walks, and five strikeouts. What did him in, presumably, was the pitch count of 106 pitches. Dominic Leone came in to finish the inning by striking out Jett Bandy, who went down for the second time today.

With the game in the hands of the bullpen, the question was whether the Toronto bullpen could continue its recent run of fine multi-inning outings. The short answer was yes.

Leone pitched his own full inning and retired the side in order. Aaron Loup retired the side in order in the eighth with two strikeouts and then a big assist from Jose Bautista, who made a nice run into the alley in right centre to haul down a drive off the bat of Hernan Perez.

The Milwaukee relievers pitched equally well and the score remained 8-4 going to the ninth, so with no save situation Manager John Gibbons brought in Jason Grilli to finish off the game. Given the way he’s been pitching lately, there was a lot of angst in the land when Shaw finally broke loose and led off with a double to right. But Grilli settled in and got the next three batters on soft contact in 17 pitches to finish the game.

The Milwaukee bullpen helped keep Toronto’s lead at four through to the end. Jared Hughes pitched a clean seventh, and Wily Peralta, who had a good start against the Jays in Toronto earlier in the year, gave up two hits while finishing off the game. Chris Coghlan picked up his second single of the night in the eighth, and for the second night in a row a rookie outfielder for the Blue Jays picked up his first major league hit, and for the second night in a row it was a double. This time it was Dwight Smith. As far as we know, he did not hurt himself doing so.

So Toronto comes home from a seven-game road trip during which they split two games in Atlanta, lost two out of three in Baltimore, and won two Milwaukee. Were it not for the bad start to the season, were it not for the fraught nature of their losses to Baltimore, were it not for the two terrible losses to Atlanta at home before they left, everybody would be just fine with a 4-3 road trip. But these are not normal times, this is not a normal season, and introspection seems to run deeper than usual.

With the All-Star left side ready for duty this weekend, and the Jays now having nearly approximated their record at the same point as last year, maybe we can relax and start enjoying the show.

Still, the quesion lingers: Donaldson and Tulowitzki have been out for a long time. Keyed by the all-around play of Ryan Goins, the stepping up of Kevin Pillar, Jose Bautista and Justin Smoak, the amazing hot streak of Devon Travis at the plate, the constant looming presence of Kendrys Morales, and the ability of puzzle pieces Darwin Barney, Chris Coghlan, and Zeke Carrera to chip in some useful work, has the team built a chemistry and some momentum that will now need a reset? And especially whither Ryan Goins, who has blossomed with regular duty. Will Manager John Gibbons be able to find him enough playing time to keep him at this level?

As for the team’s immediate prospects, seven out of ten at home would do nicely, bringing us to 28-29, but first it’s the Texas Rangers, who just got swept in Boston and will be loaded for bear, and first up for Toronto is fill-in Mike Bolsinger. Hold on to your hats, folks!