It’s funny how easy it is to forget just how good Marco Estrada can be.
Last night he returned to Arlington, Texas, the scene of the most important great game he’s ever pitched, when he brought Toronto back from the brink of elimination in Game 3 of the 2015 ALDS.
Now, two full seasons later, facing a very different team of Texas Rangers, at the cusp of a new and suddenly hopeful season for his own team, he showed that the brilliance of which he is capable has not diminished one whit.
For six innings Estrada, backed by a robust offensive presence by his mates, dominated the Rangers as only he can, with precision, subtlety, and an amazing knack for delivering precisely the very coup de gràce best suited for each hopeless opponent, whether veteran or rising prospect.
The Jays had let Matt Moore off the hook in the top of the first, Kendrys Morales flying out weakly to centre after Moore had loaded the bases on walks to Justin Smoak and Yangervis Solarte (the first of three walks on the night for Solarte, who showed a discipline at the plate that was positively un-Blue-Jay-like) and brushing Russ Martin with an inside breaking ball.
Normally, that might have made the Toronto starter come out a little unsettled, to think that he could have had a nice lead to start with. Not Estrada, though. He came out and carved up Chin Soo Shoo and Joey Gallo like a surgeon, before deigning to let Elvis Andrus, who ended up having a great night, smack a hard grounder to third that Josh Donaldson adroitly went to his knees to snag and then throw to first for the out.
But it was what he did to Choo and Gallo that showed Estrada at his best. Of course he only throws at best a little over 90 for a fast ball, but because hitters are so on edge for his killer changeup, the “heater” is arguably his most effective pitch. Choo took a first-pitch changeup for a strike, took a fast ball that missed, swung through a fast ball, and then waved at a changeup that dropped out of the zone. Gallo took a fast ball strike low in the zone, fouled off a fast ball up and away, and waved at a changeup that Martin had to block in the dirt. Both looked hopeless, or perhaps clueless, at the plate.
After Moore seemed to settle in with a quick 9-pitch second inning, future Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre hit a hard bouncer up the middle that Devon Travis took nicely on the backhand, but then he rushed a leaping throw to first that sailed over the head of Smoak while Beltre was still fifteen feet from the bag, just lumbering along as he does. Beltre was given a home-field-scorer’s base hit, but Travis had enough time to plant and go into a full pitcher’s windup to throw out Beltre. A bad decision on his part, but no error scored against him.
As a “fly-ball” pitcher, Estrada is susceptible to the occasional fly ball that goes too far. With Beltre on first, Nomar Mazara, who can hit the ball a long way when he makes contact, hit one a long way, but to deep right centre field, where Randal Grichuk tracked it without too much trouble for the first out. Then the weak contact elevation induced by Estrada’s interference with the hitters’ timing caused catcher Robinson Chirinos to pop out and Roughned Odor to hit an easy fly to right for the third out, stranding Beltre.
It’s interesting how sometimes a pitcher can inspire his team-mates to produce the support he deserves. After two innings of Estrada magic it was time for the bats to step up. On his second time up against Moore, Pearce ripped a liner to third for the first out. Josh Donaldson stepped up and decided to take what the Rangers were giving, and hit a bounding ball through the gaping hole open on the right side of the infield because of the shift, for the Jays’ first hit.
Smoak took the opposite approach and challenged the shift hitting a grounder into it and through to left field as Donaldson moved up to second. Then Moore contributed to his own problems by walking Solarte for the second time. Russ Martin hit a third ground-ball single right up the middle. Donaldson scored on the hit, and when centre-fielder Drew Robinson booted the ball off to his left, Smoak scored and Solarte moved up to third, still with only one out. Kendrys Morales picked up his third RBI with a fly ball to right. Martin moved up to second on Mazara’s mental-error air-mailed throw to the plate that had no chance of nailing Solarter, but died there when Pillar flied out to centre.
So Estrada went to the bottom of the third with a nice 3-run cushion. Eager to get the bats back to the plate, he retired Texas on 14 pitches: pop-up, strikeout, groundout.
Moore only got one out in the Toronto fourth; Grichuk popped up on the first pitch. But Travis doubled down the line past Beltre. Honestly, I don’t hardly think Beltre moved on the ball, which to me was the type of hit that the Donaldsons at their best gobble up. I’m wondering if it’s time for Beltre to give way at third and finish up his career as a DH, sitting on a throne in the corner of the dugout and cracking jokes while his mates play the field for him. No disresepect intended, but watch for it.
After Pearce drew a walk behind Travis, Donaldson lined a single to right field opposite the shift, scoring Travis as Pearce alertly hustled to third. And that was it for Matt Moore, at only three and a third innings and, eventually, six runs, since old friend Jesse Chavez came in and yielded a sacrifice fly to Smoak, a third straight walk to Solarte, moving Donaldson to second, and a ground single, again up the middle, by Martin, scored Donaldson with the last run charged to Moore.
So, three and a half innings in, Toronto was up 6-zip and Estrada was dealing like only he can. Does life get any better?
Well, a little, for a while, as it turns out. Estrada gave up a hit to Andrus in the fourth but put the Rangers down through the fifth with 3 more punchouts on only 27 pitches. After five innings, Estrada had only thrown 70 pitches, and looked good for two more for sure.
Meanwhile, to his credit Chavez had breezed the fifth to hold the score to 6-0, but Rangers manager made the mistake of sending him back out to face the middle of the Jays’ order in the sixth, but then what did he know?
It started out well enough, with Chavez fanning Donaldson and retiring Smoak on a ground out to medium right field (might as well call it what it is). This brought Solarte to the plate, Toronto’s “walking man” (when he’s not dancing), who was 0 for 0 with three free passes so far in the game. This time, though, Solarte, whose bat manager John Gibbons likes so much that he posted him at shortstop tonight, defensive concerns be damned, was having no more of those bases on balls.
After two more off the plate, Chavez finally came in with one down at the bottom of the zone, and Solarte turned on it like a cobra, a very well-muscled cobra, and golfed it almost instantaneously into the right-field seats, hit so hard that it had no chance of going foul. Thoughts of, “oh, that’s why they got him!” danced through my head like happy little Blue-Jay-geared sugar plums.
Solarte might be the team’s new designated cheerleader, following in the august if silly footsteps of Muni Kawasaki and Zeke Carrera, but he’s also a pro, and knew not to show off with his team up 7-0. He quietly rounded the bases, suppressing a little skip coming down from third, but he just had to let it out at the end of his route, giving his signature butt wiggle just before descending into the welcoming arms of his new mates in the dugout.
When Russell Martin, who does everything calmly, calmly blasted an 0-1 pitch over the wall in left centre for Toronto’s first back-to-back home runs of the year, he trotted calmly around the bases to touch for an 8-0 lead, while Jeff Bannister bitterly reconsidered his confidence in Chavez. The latter exited with as much dignity as he could by fanning Kendrys Morales on a 2-2 pitch, a low breaking ball, of course, and it was time for Estrada to take the mound again.
But beware of the baseball gods. When they make things too easy, it’s only because they like to mess with your minds. With one out, Drew Robinson having grounded out to Travis, bad news came to the plate, in the person of the Rangers’ leadoff hitter and DH, Shin-Soo Choo, who must sip from the same flagon of anti-Toronto mead as The Duke, Welington Castillo. On a 2-2 pitch, Estrada made his only real mistake of the night, leaving his changeup up in the zone, whence Choo deposited it promptly and decisively into the right-field seats. 8-1 Toronto, too bad for spoiling Estrada’s shutout, but not to worry, right.
Unfortunately, a combination of probable annoyance over the mistake to Choo and likely fatigue set in on Estrada, and, though he kept the Rangers from further scoring, he proceeded to load the bases, chew through a total of 35 pitches in the inning, make us all very nervous, and end all possibility of his pitching into the seventh.
After fanning Joey Gallo (what else is new?) for the second out, he gave up base knocks to Andrus, his second of three on the night, and Beltre’s, his second, before walking Mazara to load the bases. This brought us to the crucial moment of the game, as Gibbons left Estrada in to face the Texas catcher Robinson Chirinos. The latter dragged it out to a 7-pitch 3-2 count before Estrada finished him off with a low fast ball that he knocked softly into centre for an easy fly out.
So Estrada exited with a line of 1 run, 5 hits, 1 walk and 7 strikeouts on 105 pitches over his 6 innings pitched, and with an 8-1 lead, it seemed like Toronto could just mail in the rest of it and get ready for Saturday night’s game.
It didn’t quite work out that way, because though this isn’t the playoff-bound Texas team of yore, they’ve still got a bit of piss (Roughneck Odor, we’re talking about you here) and vinegar left in them.
While Matt Bush and Alex Claudio were doing the job on the Jays’ hitters in the seventh and eighth that Moore and Chavez couldn’t do earlier, conversely Aaron Loup and Seung-Hwan Oh didn’t exactly profit from the nice situation Estrada had left behind.
Between them, they contrived to give up a big four-spot in the seventh inning, and suddenly that sense of breezing along the coast road enjoying the scenery came to a crashing halt. When you’re only up by three, a bloop and blast is all it takes to bring you to nail-biting territory, so the Loup-Oh combo didn’t help things at all.
Loup walked right into a buzzsaw. The aptly-named Odor greeted him with a double to centre. He moved to third when Ryan Rua hit a grounder behind second in the shift that was handled by Ngoepe, who had come in at short for Solarte, who moved to second replacing Travis. No reason was given for pulling Travis after his infield single in the top of the inning.
Drew Robinson scored Odor on an infield single to short. The dangerous Choo hit a double the wrong way to left centre that scored the speedy Robinson from first. That was it for Loup, who had given up 2 runs and was responsible for Choo on second. In came Oh to retire Gallo on an off-balance short fly to left, but then with two outs he couldn’t seal the deal, quickly giving up Andrus’ third hit that scored Choo, and a Beltre double (I didn’t say he couldn’t hit, did I?) that scored Andrus from first. Finally Mazara flew out to left and the bleeding stopped at 8-5.
Luckily for Toronto Ryan Tepera and Roberto Osuna kept the lid on for the rest of the game, though note that Osuna ended up being used because Texas had turned it into a save situation. Tepera pitched around another base hit by Stinky Odor, and Osuna actually gave up his first two hits of the season while gaining his third save.
The Toronto closer gave up a fluky single off the end of his bat by Robinson, but then erased him with a double-play ball to Choo before Gallo hit a last-gasp single, but then Andrus hit into a fielder’s choice to end the game.
Phew!
It was pretty for six innings, not-so-pretty for three, but we got more runs than they did, Estrada pitched great for six strong, and that’s all that counts. 5-3 and the first game of the road trip in the bag.
Did you realize that if a team never sweeps a series, and only wins two out of every three games, they end up with 104 wins for the season?
What’s so hard about that?
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