What if you were throwing a no-hitter and nobody noticed?
In the first few innings of today’s third game of the Houston-Toronto series at the TV Dome, Houston starter Mike Fiers was all over the place with his curve ball, which is normally his bread-and-butter pitch. He walked two in the first and two in the third, not to mention throwing in a balk for good measure in the third, and by the end of three innings had thrown 60 pitches, the benchmark for an early exit after five innings for a typical starter.
Marcus Stroman was just about as shaky for Toronto in the early going. He also walked two in the first, throwing 26 pitches in the process, though Russell Martin and Troy Tulowitzki helped him out with a nifty caught stealing on George Springer, who had led off with a walk. After a quick second inning, he walked Norichika Aoki to lead off the third, and then saw Springer rifle a double into the right-field corner to score Aoki for a 1-0 Houston lead. Josh Reddick then singled Springer around to third, but Josh Donaldson saved further damage to Stroman with the defensive play of the game, leaping high in the air to snag Carlos Correia’s screaming liner, and coming down throwing to double the trapped Reddick off first. Stroman then popped up Evan Gattis on the infield to bring the inning to an end.
Both pitchers settled down in the fourth, Stroman retiring the side in order and helping himself by making a nice barehanded catch and throw on a ball to his right to nip the speedy Yuli Gurriel at first to end the inning. Fiers easily pitched over an error by Alex Bregman that allowed Troy Tulowitzki to reach by retiring Zeke Carrera on a fielder’s choice at second, and Kevin Pillar on a popup.
Stroman whipped through the fifth on only ten pitches, giving up a single to Aoki but getting Springer to ground into a double play, one of four pulled off by the Jays to support the sinker-throwing right hander.
As Fier took the mound for the home half of the fifth, it barely occurred to me, and I’m sure most other observers, that Fiers was actually working on a no-hitter. After five base runners and 71 pitches in four innings the fact that the Jays didn’t have a base hit kind of got lost in the shuffle.
No matter. After only one more out, Darwin Barney’s fly ball to left, and Jose Bautista reaching on a hit batsman, Russell Martin came up to the plate and spoiled the no-no with a base hit to right. This brought Josh Donaldson to the plate, and his blast into the 200 level in left centre on a 2-2 pitch not only emphasized the end of Fiers’ dominance over the Torono hitters, but also gave the Blue Jays a 3-1 lead that they would never relinquish.
In a way Fiers was lucky not to suffer further damage. Justin Smoak followed with a deep fly to right that stayed in the park, and Kendrys Morales hit one into right centre that should have been a double except that he hit it too hard and had to settle for a single. Fiers finally escaped by fanning Troy Tulowitzki, and even extended an extra inning to save his bullpen some work, putting the Jays down on only eight pitches in the sixth inning.
As it turned out, despite Fiers’ holding the Jays hitless for four and a third innings, it was Stroman who took the pitching honours today. After Donaldson’s homer gave him the lead, he struck out the side in the sixth, despite giving up a two-out base hit to Evan Gattis. He retired the side in the seventh on soft contact to finish up his day’s work, going seven full innings, giving up one run on 6 hits with three walks and six strikeouts on 109 pitches.
By the time Danny Barnes took the hill for the top of the eighth, the game had become a mopup operation. Houston manager A. J. Hinch followed Fiers with one of his most effective relievers, Chris Devenski, a big right-hander who relies on a changeup and mid-90s fast balls, and had only given up two runs in 14 appearances in June, and none in his first two appearances in July.
But Devenski wasn’t the right fit against Toronto on this day. After retiring Jose Bautista on a foul popup to the first baseman, Russell Martin stroked his second hit of the game to left. Donaldson worked Devenski for a walk, and Justin Smoak lined a 2-0 pitch to centre for a single that scored Martin with Toronto’s fourth run. Morales struck out on what was definitely ball four, giving Devenski some hope that he might escape the inning with only one run charged against him, and the Astros still within striking range.
But Tulowitzki spoiled that hope with a two-out line shot to left that extended the Toronto lead to 7-1, basically out of reach even for the tough Astros’ lineup. Devenski finished off the inning by fanning Zeke Carrera, but the damage was done.
Ken Giles for the Astros, and Danny Barnes and Joe Biagini wrapped up the game quickly enough, Danny Barnes picking up Stroman in the eighth with a quick 14-pitch clean inning, and Giles pitching a clean eighth to keep the Jays from extending their lead.
In the non-save situation Manager John Gibbons opted to give Joe Biagini his first airing since returning to the bullpen from the rotation, and he maneuvered the top of the ninth on only six pitches, one of which, however, was knocked out of the park by Marwin Gonzalez to shave a run off the Toronto lead. It would have been nice for Biagini to have put up a goose egg on the board, but he’s not the first good pitcher super-sub Gonzalez has taken deep, given that this was his sixteenth homer of the year.
So Marcus Stroman fell behind early in what looked like it was going to be a pitcher’s mess, while Mike Fiers didn’t give up a hit until the fifth. But it was Stroman who settled in and took control, while Fiers couldn’t get past the meat of the Toronto order in the fifth. When Devenski coughed up four more runs to the Jays’ order in the seventh, that was the ball game.
The Blue Jays, improbably, bounced back today from the drubbing they took from Houston last night, and now we shall see whether or not they can actually take this final series before the All-Star break from the hottest team in the league.
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