Long Ball Stories

Let’s not overthink this here.

In my ongoing crusade to get Ryan Goins more playing time, my first inclination about the disaster that was tonight’s game was to wonder if Goins would have made the plays on the two ground balls to second that started Chicago’s first and second innings tonight.

The thinking would have been that Darwin Barney, in the lineup at second base because the White Sox had left-hander Jose Quintana on the hill, though a very competent defender, is no Ryan Goins, either glove-wise or arm-wise, and maybe if Goins had been in the lineup and got the first outs against speedy White Sox leadoff hitters things would have turned out differently.

But there’s no point in even going there, though I just did. The fact is that Biagini was just really bad tonight, without a clue as to how to find the plate except by throwing batting-practice fast balls to the likes of Jose Abreau, Melky Cabrera, Todd Frazier, Matt Davidson, and Avisail Garcia. In fact, when you look at Chicago’s lineup, and their won-loss record of 29-36 going into tonight’s game, all you can think is how bad their pitching must be.

No, you might as well look at totally crazy, off-the-wall explanations for the start that Biagini had tonight. Like, for example, the death this week at the age of 88 of Adam West, the chestnut-voiced actor who starred as Batman in the original, and originally cheesy, first television series named after the comic-book super-hero.

Among the strangenesses of that first Batman series was the silliness of its wall-climbing scenes, in which Batman and Robin were depicted supposedly climbing the outsides of buildings to get the drop on evil-doers. All they did to film these scenes was to have the two heroes walk forward on a horizontal surface pretending to pull themselves along a rope that had been thrown to the “top” of the building. But they shot the scenes with the camera held rotated ninety degrees, so that they would appear on screen as if they were climbing up.

Another strangeness, and the one that comes to mind while considering tonight’s game, is that the producers of the show came up with the idea of inserting comic-book-illustrations of onomatopoeic words describing the sounds made during battles between B and R and their enemies. Batman would give, say, The Joker, a shot to the head and then they’d show a comic-book illustration of the punch with a huge “BIFF!” or “POW!” or “SOCK!” hanging over the scene.

Maybe the whimsical and otherwise light-hearted Biagini wanted us to be able to insert our own sound-pictures into our account of the game, in honour of Adam West. I know, that’s really stupid, but it’s probably as good as any other explanation of why the Chisox biffed Biagini around on the mound tonight right from the start of the game, and why he never once showed a flash of the aggressive brilliance that has been a trademark of his work since the first outing of his Toronto career.

Alen Hanson is a diminutive Dominican middle infielder who was claimed by Chicago off waivers from Pittsburgh a week ago today (what was Pittsburgh thinking?) Because of injury problems, White Sox Manager Rick Renteria inserted him in the lineup tonight as the centre fielder, his first start ever in centre. The only other thing you need to know about Hanson is that he runs like stink.

So when he hit a slow bouncer out toward Darwin Barney to lead off the game, a bouncer that took a wierd hop at the last minute, you knew that there was going to be trouble in River City. And there was, as he easily beat Barney’s throw to first, and put the Blue Jays in one of their common first-inning dilemmas, leadoff runner on first, a speedster who was going to distract the pitcher while threatening to run, and big bats coming up behind him.

Biagini, obsessed with Hanson at first, couldn’t find the plate with Melky Cabrera up, throwing four balls in the dirt, or nearly so. In the meantime, Hanson stole second, definitely off Biagini’s motion. It was hardly necessary, given the base on balls that Cabrera was getting.

This brought the fearsome Jose Abreu to the plate. No respecter of traditions, he stepped into Biagini’s 3-0 cripple—94.5 mph, just above the knees, centre-cut—and belted it to right field. In a play that encapsulated the hopelessness we would face tonight, Jose Bautista tracked it all the way back to the wall, in the desperate hope that it was catchable. Of course it wasn’t, and by the time Bautista ran down the carom, half-way back to the infield, two runs were in and Abreu was on third.

Damage control was still possible at this point, though it was a narrow line to walk, and Biagini couldn’t manage it. He actually got ahead of Avisail Garcia, who happens to be leading the league in hitting, and induced a sharp grounder to third that forced Abreu to hold while Josh Donaldson threw out Garcia at first. Then the veteran Todd Frazkier leaned into Biagini’s first pitch enough to loft it into right, not too deep, where Bautista was able to set up well for a throw to the plate. He had a chance at Abreu, but his throw was up the line toward third, and Abreu came across with the third run.

Even at this point, you might have thought Biagini was sorting things out, and we might get back into it, Jose Quintana on the mound for them be damned. But with two out and nobody on, poor Joe couldn’t close the deal. Matt Davidson hit a hard liner into the left-field corner for a double. Davidson ended up at second, and there was still room for Biagini to escape at 3-0 and regroup. Especially when shortstop Tim Anderson hit a short bouncer to the pitcher’s right, which he got to; but Biagini rushed the throw to first. The ball sailed over Justin Smoak’s glove, Anderson went to second on what was scored an infield hit plus a throwing error, and Davidson came in with the fourth run. Finally, the catcher Omar Narvaez ended the agony by grounding out to second.

The only thing worse than being down by four before coming to bat is being down by four before coming to bat against Jose Quintana, the White Sox left-hander who has a record of manhandling Toronto, most particularly on our home grounds. Quintana started out with a bang by fanning Kevin Pillar, but then Josh Donaldson raised our hopes with a solid line single through the left side. But if there was a secondary theme for this night, beyond Chicago’s trashing of Joe Biagini, it was the inability of Toronto to get anything serious going against Quintana, who was aided and abetted by a Chicago infield that turned four, count ’em, four double plays. With Donaldson on first and one out, Jose Bautista hit into the first one, a sharp grounder to short that made for an easy twin-killing.

As Toronto took the field for the top of the second, we wondered whether Biagini would find his mojo and give his team a chance to try to hack into Quintana’s lead, as difficult as that may have looked. We didn’t have to wait long for the answer. Four batters later, three more runs were in, Abreu was on second, there was nobody out, and Dominic Leone was on his way in from the bullpen to replace a shattered Joe Biagini.

It started with another scratch hit by another speedster, the second baseman Yolmer Sanchez, who wears cool white-framed glasses that just don’t belong on a baseball field, I can imagine Gregg Zaun thinking, who should talk considering how he dresses. Sanchez’ hit was a near carbon copy of Hanson’s in the first inning: bounce, bounce, bounce out to Barney while Sanchez raced across the bag at first.

This turned the order over and brought Alen Hanson up again. This time he hit it better, off Donaldson’s glove for a legit single, with Sanchez checking in at second. Melky Cabrera, who seemed happy to be back in the friendly confines of his former home, ripped one up the alley in right centre for a double, scoring the two speedsters and upping the tally to 6-0. Jose Abreu followed with a double to centre to score Cabrera, it was 7-0, Avisail Garcia was due up next, and Leone was on his way into the game.

Leone walked Garcia, but then retired the side in order: Todd Frazier lined out to Pearce in left, Matt Davidson fanned, and Tim Anderson fanned.

Faint hope was revived for the Blue Jays’ faithful when Kendrys Morales, who has hit Quintana well, homered to centre on a 1-0 pitch to lead off the bottom of the second, but Quintana then retired Smoak, Tulo, and Russell Martin to restore order.

At the end of two innings there were only two questions remaining to be resolved in this contest: Would Quintana keep the Toronto bats from mounting a comeback? And would the Blue Jays’ relievers keep Chicago more or less in check for the rest of the game without expending too many pitches? (Pitchers, yes, would be expended, lots of them; but how many pitches would each have to throw? Would there be anything left in the tank for Saturday and Sunday?)

The Sox answered Morales’ homer with a run in the top of the third that restored the seven-run lead. Catcher Omar Narvaez led off with a drive down the line in left that may or may not have been misplayed into a double by Stever Pearce, who failed to anticipate and corral a high bounce off the turf. (Anyone out there who thinks Pearce might be the answer to Toronto’s defensive problems in left field needs to be reminded that Pearce has been primarily an infielder for most of his career.) Narvaez moved to third on a groundout by Sanchez, and scored on a single by Hanson.

In the bottom of the third, Pearce led off with a line drive down the foul line in left that cleared the fence for a solo home run. The lead was now 8-2, but once again Quintana retired the side in order after the homer. In the fourth he struck out the side. In the fifth, with two outs, Pearce grounded to the third baseman who threw wildly to first, allowing Pearce to reach second. Darwin Barney followed with a single to left. For whatever reason, six runs down, third base coach Luis Rivera sent Pearce on Barney’s hit, but he was easily out at the plate on a fine throw by Melky Cabrera right to the glove of the catcher Narvaez.

In the sixth, Kevin Pillar doubled to centre leading off. Donaldson walked, but Bautista hit into yet another double play with Pillar moving to third. Morales gave it another ride to centre, but this time it stayed in the park. The lead remained intact.

Quintana went out with a flash of the glove in the seventh, leaving the Jays farther behind than they had been in the third, thanks to a Melky Cabrera home run in the fifth. After Smoak grounded out to second, Quintana walked Tulowitzki, bringing Russell Martin to the plate. Martin had been hitting the ball harder each time out. This time he hit it right on the nose, right up the middle. Quintana threw up his glove, snagged it, shook off his surprise, and threw to first to double off Tulo and end the inning.

So, no, despite having a few opportunities, the Jays were not going to crack Quintana in any meaningful way tonight. Nor did it matter that Sox manager Rick Renteria had to use a second reliever to finish off after Quintana’s seven-inning stint. Jake Petricka came in for the eighth inning, walked Steve Pearce, then got Darwin Barney to hit into a very pretty 3-6-1 double play, in which Jose Abreu ranged far to his right to pick the ground ball and fed Tim Anderson floating nicely across the bag, while Petricka hustled over to take the return throw at first.

Sometimes you gotta just sit back and admire.

But in the ninth, with two outs and up 11-2, Petricka had to be rescued after he gave up a two-run homer to Justin Smoak, which counted Dwight Smith who had come on to replace Pearce in the field. Actually, Renteria left Petricka in after the Smoak homer, but a following single by Tulowitzki was the last straw, and he brought Gregory Infante in to retire Luke Maile, on to catch for Russell Martin, to end the game.

As for the Jays’ pitchers, John Gibbons used everybody but Joe Smith and Roberto Osuna to fill in the eight innings left uncovered by Biagini’s abrupt departure. Besides the run given up by Leone in the third, the only other Toronto reliever to be touched up was Jeff Beliveau, who was victimized by Melky Cabrera’s three-run homer in the fifth. Leone had given his team three innings in his longest outing since joining Toronto, extending to 44 pitches, giving up the one run on two hits while walking one and striking out four.

After Beliveau in the fifth, Jason Grilli, Aaron Loup, Ryan Tepera and Danny Barnes each put in an inning. Only Loup gave up two hits, and none of them, to the relief of John Gibbons, exceeded Danny Barnes’ fifteen pitches. As long as Toronto gets some reasonable distance out of Marcus Stroman on Saturday, Biagini’s unexpectedly short outing won’t have damaged the bullpen too badly.

Nothing hurt but our dignity, Biagini’s feelings, and the drive for .500.