Aaron Sanchez made his long-awaited return to the mound tonight after finally conquering the blister problem that has bedevilled the 2016 American League ERA leader for most of this season. However, it didn’t go well for Sanchez, as he left the game in the second inning after only five outs and fifty-five pitches, with his team already down 8-0, and the game for all practical purposes over.
How much of Sanchez’ implosion could be attributed to the aggressive Houston hitters, and how much to the failure of home plate umpire Dana DeMuth to allow him the strike zone he needed to succeed in the first inning, is hard to determine.
As I write this, it occurs to me that sometimes we forget how young some of these players are. Roberto Osuna has admitted to anxiety problems, and has brought his family up from Mexico to provide support for him off the field. Marcus Stroman displays some rather immature behaviours at times. And who knows what’s behind Aaron Sanchez’ seemingly bland and sleepy countenance? Sanchez is twenty-five, Stroman is twenty-six, and Osuna, or course, is only twenty-two. But Sanchez and Stroman are now in their third seasons, Osuna in his second. At what cost to them has been their immersion in the very real and very tense environment of the Show at such young ages?
Through no fault of his own, Sanchez found himself in trouble right off the bat tonight. On his second pitch, George Springer looped one just over Ryan Goins’ outstretched glove for a soft base hit. On his fourth pitch, he sawed off Jose Altuve, but the latter still dribbled the ball with his cracked bat toward third for an infield hit. He went to 3-1 on Josh Reddick with some questionable calls on low pitches before Reddick hit a double-play grounder to Goins at second, with Springer moving to third. This should have been Sanchez’ ticket out of the inning, but these are the Astros here, and he still had to face Carlos Correa.
His first two pitches were way outside, and Correa didn’t bite. He didn’t bite on the first four-seamer up in the zone, either, but when Sanchez came back with the same one, he was all over it, and hit it out to centre field, scoring Springer ahead of him.
Maybe things would have been different if he had been able to retire the side after Correa’s blast, but he couldn’t get a call on several close pitches on Marwin Gonzalez, and eventually walked him on a 3-2 count. Gonzalez then stole second with Carlos Beltran at the plate, but Beltran grounded out to end the inning.
So, two runs in the first was not such a big deal, but who can say for sure how much the plate umpire threw Sanchez off his game? What he was thinking about the next inning while he sat in the dugout? Several times in the first he had backed off the mound to regroup, his usual response to being unhappy with the strike zone.
What we do know is that after the Jays went down against retread Houston starter Charlie Morton, with a single by Josh Donaldson erased by a Justin Smoak double-play ball, when Sanchez came out for the second inning he couldn’t find the plate at all. He walked Evan Gattis; not one of the balls was remotely close to the strike zone. After Alex Bregman hit a comebacker to him, Sanchez walked Norichika Aoki on four wild ones.
This brought Springer back to the plate, and Sanchez managed to get him to foul off a curve ball out over the plate, so he threw him a fast ball in the same spot. Big mistake, because Springer teed off on it, and hit it where it was pitched, for a homer to right, chasing home the two Sanchez walks ahead of him. 5-0, with one out in the second.
After that, it just went all crazy, both for Sanchez and the rest of the team. Altuve grounded one through the left side for a base hit. Pitching coach Pete Walker came out to try to settle his young pitcher, but after the visit he walked Josh Reddick. Correa then hit what should have been a double-play ball to Troy Tulowitzki, but in the strangest play of the game, Tulo flipped the ball to an uncovered base for an error, and the bases were loaded.
The base was uncovered because Ryan Goins backed off, since it looked like a straightforward shortstop unassisted to first double play. The ball was hit to Tulowitzki’s left, and he picked it up two steps from the bag, with his momentum going both to the bag and toward first. Had Goins moved into position, his pivot would have been a full 180 degrees to throw to first, whereas Tulowitzki had the clearer path to finish the double play.
The effect was an Alphonse-Gaston routine, only it wasn’t comedy night, and nobody was laughing, except the Astros. In short order, Gonzalez’ grounder to Goins scored Altuve, Beltran’s high bouncer off the plate went for an infield single to score Reddick, and Gattis’ double to centre scored Correa. Finally, manager John Gibbons came out with the hook, and Sanchez was finished, after one and two thirds innings, having given up eight runs, five earned, on seven hits with four walks and no strikeouts.
Mike Bolsinger came in to strike out Alex Bregman to end the misery.
When you’re down 8-zip going into the bottom of the second, you pretty well have to start pecking away at the lead right away, or you can just sign off on the loss. So the Jays came out in the bottom of the second, got two base hits, and nothing came of them. With one out, Steve Pearce blooped a safe hit into short right, and for some strange reason thought it was okay to gamble and go for two. He didn’t make it, so there was nobody on and two out when Tulowitzki followed with an infield single, instead of two on and one out for Miguel Monteiro . . .
And that’s basically the story of the game. Mike Bolsinger ended up putting in what was in effect an okay start, pitching five and a third innings, giving up four more runs on six hits, walking one and striking out seven on 88 pitches. Jeff Beliveau finished the last two innings, and gave up just one hit while striking out two.
As for the Jays, they finally picked up their only run off Morton in the fifth when Tulowitzki hit a solo homer to “cut” the Astros’ lead to 10-1. Morton went six innings and gave up the one run on only four hits. He was followed by James Hoyt, Tony Sipp, and Francis Martes, all of whom went an inning apiece, with only Martes being touched up by a last-gasp homer by Zeke Carrera leading off the ninth, which made the final score 12-2 for Houston.
Is it surprising that the Houston offence broke out big time after being held down fairly well the night before? Not particularly. Is it surprising that having fallen behind right from the first inning there was little hope for the Jays’ offence to catch up, even against mediocre pitching? Not at all. Is it troubling that Sanchez had such a poor outing? You betcha.
To be fair, the young right-hander with the scintillating stuff came out of the game claiming absolutely no problems with his healed blisters and that he’s good to go for his next start. That comes up after the All-Star break, when he’s first up in Detroit. We shall see.
Funny thing about baseball: Houston leads the aggregate scoring for the series so far, 16-9, but it’s still one victory apiece, with two games to go.
Funny thing about baseball: Houston leads the aggregate scoring for the series so far, 16-9, but it’s still one victory apiece, with two games to go.
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