Tonight’s game was quicksilver. It wouldn’t lie still long enough to let itself be pinned down.
First it was about Marco Estrada soldiering on without his best stuff, but managing with his wit and wiles to keep his team in the game.
Then it was about Austin Bibens-Dirkx, aka BD, and how he was not going to be the story of this game, as yet another fill-in/callup/ex Blue Jay prospect who would stonewall the feckless Jays’ offense yet again.
Then it was about the long-awaited arrival of Steve Pearce and the radical concept of scoring runs without hitting homers.
Then it was about how even a Marco Estrada can be brought down by bleeders, bases on balls, and bad luck.
Then it was about a depleted bullpen that must be running on fumes stepping up in spectacular fashion one more time.
Finally, it was about ninth-inning heroics, and more runs without homers.
But in the end, it was all about the bullpen. A bullpen that was called on yet again to fill in an unreasonable number of innings when the starter fell short. In the end it was about a bullpen that, after an initial bout of wildness by Dominic Leone, retired fourteen Texas Rangers in a row, starting in the fifth inning with the bases loaded on Leone walks and one out, when Aaron Loup came in to strand the runners by striking out Shin-Soo Choo and retiring Elvis Andrus on a comebacker.
In the end it was about Leone, who put out one fire before starting another. It was about Loup, who went one and two thirds and struck out three in what may have been his strongest outing ever for Toronto. It was about Jason Grilli, who continued his reputational rehab with a clean seventh and a strikeout. It was about still-newcomer Jeff Beliveau, who threw a strong, clean eighth with two strikeouts, and was in the “right place at the right time” (if we mean lucky, why don’t we just say lucky?) to pick up a win. And it was about Roberto Osuna, who seems to have eschewed the strikeout as too labour intensive, retiring the side for the save with an infield liner, a groundout, and a popup, on nine pitches.
And all of this on the day that the news came out that the redoubtable and almost unhittable Joe Smith, who had become setup man non pareil for Toronto, has been placed on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation, and replaced on the roster by Leonel “Red Eye Special” Campos, who has shown well in limited appearances so far with the Jays. Whether Campos is just another Joe Smith or not, waits to be determined.
From the start it looked like Marco Estrada might have sorted some of his issues out since his last and most horrendous start against Tampa Bay on June thirteenth. Eight pitches in he had two outs on a foul popup to third by Shin-Soo Choo and a strikeout of Elvis Andrus. Then it happened, the classic Marco Estrada (2017 version) first-inning moment, the lanky and powerful Nomar Mazara nearly leaping at his first-pitch fast ball, low but not low enough, outside but not outside enough, and driving it like a lightning bolt into the grandstand in right for a 1-0 Texas lead. Shocking, but not the end of the world: Mazara has the tools to do that sort of thing against anybody, and it was only one run, right?
Understandably a little rattled, Estrada walked Adrian Beltre on four pitches, but then regrouped and caught Roughned Odor looking on a 3-2 pitch.
Estrada was bendy but not breaky in the second and third, stranding a leadoff single by Carlos Gomez in the second, and surviving consecutive base hits leading off the third by Choo and Andrus. To be fair, only the Gomez hit, a liner to centre, was very respectable. Choo’s hit was a defensive 1-2 count slap job to left, a trademark of his, and Andrus reached down and across the plate to loop his hit into left. But at the end of three, the Rangers had one run on four hits, two of them sort of cheap, and Estrada had two strikeouts on fifty pitches. Swimming upstream, maybe, but swimming all the same.
In the fourth inning the tide changed for Estrada, the stream ultimately became the Niagara River, and before the inning was over it had swept him away. But before we get to the demise of Estrada, we have to have some context for the mess the inning became for him, and that means turning to the meeting of Toronto’s hitters with their former minor-league colleague, Mr. Austin BD.
The Jays’ first inning seemed to foretell another of “those” games, and I assume I don’t have to define “those” games any more. Kevin Pillar, over-anxious at 1-2 and with his average slipping by the day, reached for an outside pitch and flied weakly to right. Josh Donaldson grounded to Beltre at third, and almost evaded a circus tag by Joey Gallo at first after Gallo had to flag down an errant throw from Beltre. Jose Bautista grounded out to Beltre with no extra drama. Eleven pitches for the Jays, the Mazara lightning bolt, and Mr. BD was back on the hill for the second inning.
Not so easy this time, though. Kendrys Morales hit the ball hard down the first-base line, and was only retired as the result of an odd, shift-induced sequence. The ball was hit to Gallo’s glove side, and deflected off his glove, but right to Roughned Odor, stationed in the rover position. Odor fielded it, and threw, not to Gallo, but to BD covering first for the out. An interesting play to be sure, but if Morales runs any better, it’s still a base hit.
But it was a hard-hit ball. So was the one that Justin Smoak hit over the fence in right centre on the very next pitch, giving Smoak twenty already for the year, and tying the game at one. BD quickly recovered to retire Troy Tulowitzki and Russell Martin to end the inning and then continued on a roll in the third, retiring Steve Pearce on a grounder behind second in the shift and striking out Ryan Goins and Pillar.
After Estrada escaped the two leadoff hits by Texas in the bottom of the third, the Jays came in to take their hacks against BD in the fourth. Donaldson started by grounding out to third, but then the Rangers’ starter tried to sneak a changeup down and in past Bautista on three and two. But it got a little too much of the plate, and Bautista’s bat got a little too much of it, resulting in a resounding Bautista homer to left and a 2-1 Toronto lead.
Morales followed with a booming drive to right. I had my thoughts about Mazara starting in left tonight, and Choo in right, the reverse of what we had seen when Texas visited Toronto earlier in the year. The previous arrangement made sense because Mazara has the far superior arm, and is generally a much more secure defender than Choo. The Morales drive backed Choo right up into that odd corner in the middle of the right-field fence in the Texas ball park. I’m not sure if Mazara would have played it any better, but Choo seemed not to know quite where he was, and the ball hit the wall near enough to his glove that it might have been catchable. In any case, Morales ended up on second, and there was still no one out.
Smoak followed with a solid drive to left that fell for a single near the line, given that the outfield was shifted around toward right for him, with Morales stopping at third after holding up to see if the ball would be caught. Troy Tulowitzki, continuing to struggle in the clutch, fanned for the second out, but then Martin drew a walk from BD to load the bases. Finally, finally, bases loaded, two outs, Steve Pearce ripped the first pitch from BD into the left-field corner for a bases-clearing double and a 5-1 Toronto lead. Ryan Goins grounded out to end the inning, but barn door, horse gone, etc.
So having fought to keep his team in the game, Estrada was able to come out and enjoy the richness of this new lead his mates had given him. Not so much. No chance to enjoy the fruits of our collective labour!
I was writing yesterday about the game of inches. It really is, you know. Despite walking two batters after being given the lead, Estrada was that close to getting out of the fourth with no harm. Twice. But it didn’t happen; he ended up giving up five runs on one solid hit, two cheap hits, and three walks, departing the game after only three and two thirds innings, exactly one out deeper than his last start against Tampa Bay.
Despite the fact that he walked two of the first four hitters he faced in the fourth, Estrada was a pitch away from being out of the inning unscathed, from the fifth batter on. That’s because while walking Carlos Gomez and Jonathan Lucroy, he also struck out Mike Napoli after walking Gomez, and Joey Gallo after walking Lucroy. The Gallo strikeout turned the order over and brought Shin-Soo Choo to the plate. Choo, who always seems to do something to annoy Toronto, produced the single most heartbreaking moment of the game.
Estrada started Choo off with a changeup high in the zone on the outside corner that Choo took for a strike. Estrada went back to the same pitch in the same spot, just a little farther outside. Choo reached for it, just barely made contact, and squibbed it into no man’s land between Estrada and a charging Justin Smoak. Estrada dove for it and it ticked off his glove, making it totally unplayable. Even if he had corralled it, there was no one home at first, and at that point the bases were loaded for Elvis Andrus, who by his past record against Toronto, would either strike out flailing wildly, or do some damage.
Damage was the order of the day. Andrus hit a two-hopper in the hole that just evaded the outstretched glove of a flailing Troy Tulowitzki, and went into left field for a two-run single. I’ve watched and rewatched the video of this hit, and I keep coming away convinced that a Super-Kevin, or even a Zeke Carrera dive, would have kept this ball on the infield and saved a run. Seriously, folks, I’m troubled by my own darker instincts here. Is it too much to ask, in major league ball? Am I being too hard on Tulo?
After a visit from Pete Walker, Estrada walked Nomar Mazara on four pitches, possibly by design, as none of them were close, the first wildly outside, the other three all high. If they chose to put Mazara on and pitch to the veteran Adrian Beltre, I can understand their reasoning, but I’m not sure I agree with it. However, it’s unfair to employ hindsight on these matters, so I won’t comment further on Beltre’s hitting a 2-2 fastball into the right centre field alley to clear the bases. Except to point out that he swung at a pitch up in his eyeballs. Yogi Berra swung at pitches like that and he’s in the Hall of Fame. Beltre will be there too, no doubt, as soon as he’s eligible.
Inches drove Marco Estrada out of the game. The inches that determined the exact placement of the Choo squibber. The inches by which Andrus’ bouncer evaded Tulo’s glove. Even the inches above the strike zone where Estrada’s fatal fast ball to Beltre ended up.
Some inning, the fourth: Toronto takes the lead on a blast and a bases-loaded double, and Texas overcomes the deficit and takes the lead on one decent hit . . . Well, you get the picture.
I’ve already given you the rundown on how the bullpen shut down Texas the rest of the way, keeping Toronto within that magical one run deficit right to the ninth. I should return to Aaron Loup, however, whose contribution to tonight’s eventual win was monumental.
Dominic Leone had only needed six pitches to strand Beltre at second, getting Odor to fly out weakly to right. But home plate umpire Jim Wolf must have got his hands on the same bucket of balls from which Estrada had drawn all those wild ones, because Leone came out in the bottom of the fifth, after BD had retired the side in order for Texas in the top of the fifth to qualify for a possible win, and couldn’t find the plate. At all.
In a display from Leone that we hadn’t yet seen, with one out, after Carlos Gomez flew out to centre on the first pitch of the inning, he walked Napoli on a 3-1 pitch. He walked Lucroy on a 3-2 pitch. He wild-pitched the two to second and third, and then walked Gallo on a 3-1 pitch to load the bases.
That was more than enough for John Gibbons. With the left-handed Choo coming up, he brought Loup in to try to get out of the jam, and Loup answered the call with a flourish, striking out Choo on a 1-2 pitch, and then grabbing a sharp comebacker off the bat of Andrus to take the easy out to end the inning. It was icing on the cake, and very nice icing indeed, that Loup came back out for the sixth and fanned Mazara and Beltre before ending off his share of the evening’s duties by getting Odor on an easy grounder to second.
If the goal of the relief corps is to deliver the game to the closer in the same shape that it was received, then Texas’ relievers succeeded equally as well as Toronto’s. They were just a little messier about it. Tanner Scheppers, a right-hander recently recalled from Triple A and making his first appearance of the season for the Rangers, was called on to start the sixth, and he gave manager Jeff Bannister an inning and two thirds of shutout, if somewhat shaky, relief.
In the sixth Scheppers gave up a one-out single to right by Smoak, and then a double down the left-field line by Tulowitzki, followed by a walk to Martin. Surrounded by Jays in a nice cozy circle, he managed to pop up Steve Pearce on the infield fly rule, before retiring Goins on an opposite-field fly ball to left. In the seventh he popped up Pillar, walked Donaldson, and fanned Bautista before Bannister called on the lefty Dario Alvarez to turn Morales around. Still don’t know why they do that, but this time it worked, and Alvarez fanned Morales to strand Donaldson.
Alvarez’ sole job had been Morales, and so righty Jose Leclerc came on to set up for the Rangers’ closer, Matt Bush, and he did a good job of it, despite issuing a two-out walk to Martin, who collected three walks on the night. The walk was sandwiched between striking out Tulowitzki and Pearce, so it was all good for Leclerc.
Came the ninth inning, with Bush on the hill and Ryan Goins at the plate. Both bullpens had done their jobs, and delivered the same score to the ninth that had pertained at the end of four. Goins, who had been oh for three to that point, and had stranded four base runners, three in scoring position, wasted no time. He put an inside-out swing on a 97 mph heater on the inner half and hit it hard to left centre. The ball didn’t have the legs to make it to the wall, but Goins was looking for a double as he rounded first. Gomez’ throw made it close at second, but Odor never really had control of the ball as it bounced off Goins’ helmet. More of a concern was the fact that Goins had slid in with his glove hand extended and felt some pain in the hand. He stayed in the game, however, and later indicated that there was no lingering problem with the hand as a result of the play.
After Pillar failed to move the runner up to third, popping up to second, Donaldson was up. I do not understand why Gibbie did not have Pillar, who can bunt, try to sacrifice Goins to third. The Toronto manager of course prefers to rely on his big guns to do their thing, and this time it worked, as Donaldson lashed a first-pitch curve ball from Bush into left field to score Goins with the tying run.
Then came the pivotal play of the game, and this time it was all on Donaldson. With Bautista at the plate in the process of being walked by Bush, Donaldson, on a very short lead, read Bush perfectly and got a great jump for second, stealing the base in a flourish. This put him in scoring position when Morales delivered the game-winning hit, another opposite-field drive to left-centre that scored Donaldson and moved Bautista around to third.
The Jays went on to miss a glorious opportunity to add on to their lead and ease the pressure on Roberto Osuna, but they failed to pull the trigger with the bases loaded and one out. Following Morales’ hit, Bush walked Smoak to load them up, but Tulo was out on the infield fly rule, and Martin struck out to end the inning.
And then it was left for Osuna to finish off the last three outs in the bullpen’s streak of fourteen consecutive outs.
So this was a game that was momentarily bad, then okay, briefly very good, then a disaster. And then you just had to sit back and admire the great work of the bullpen, and hope that somehow, some way, the hitters could scratch out a couple of runs to make the difference. In the end, they did.
One under .500 again. Will this time be the charm?
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