Excitement buzzed around the Blue Jay world yesterday as word spread about a couple of roster changes, one of which was quite unexpected.
With Kendrys Morales returning from the disabled list, left-handed reliever Tim Mayza was being optioned back to Buffalo, as expected.
The second move saw Gift Ngoepe being optioned to Buffalo, which wasn’t exactly a surprise either, considering his poor performance at the plate this year.
But what really caused all the excitement was that the infield depth player being brought up to replace him would be Lourdes Gurriel Jr., which meant that Gurriel was jumping all the way from the Double-A New Hampshire Fisher Cats to the big club.
Morever, it was soon confirmed by manager John Gibbons that Gurriel would be pencilled in to start last night’s game at second base. This raised more than a little speculation that Devon Travis’ foot bruise from a foul ball Wednesday night might actually be worse than expected.
With all the hype surrounding Vlady and Bo, Gurriel has flown a little more under the radar, though he’s been a highly-rated Jays prospect since he was signed, and he carries a baseball pedigree equally as lofty as those of Vlady, Bo, and Cavan Biggio, whose fathers were all major league players, two of them, of course, Hall of Famers.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is one of three baseball-playing sons of the Cuban great Lourdes Gurriel, the greatest Cuban player of his generation, winner of numerous championships and awards in Cuban baseball, and veteran of many a world championship tournament.
With no way to leave Cuba legally to pursue their careers, all three sons of Gurriel Sr. fled Cuba clandestinely at great risk to their personal freedom. The oldest, Yulieski, was too old to sign with a big club when he arrived, so he became a presence in senior independent league baseball in Quebec. The middle son, Yuli, of course, wears a World Series ring as the slugging first baseman of the Houston Astro.
Now there is Lourdes Jr., nine years younger than Yuli, who was signed to a 7-year contract by Toronto in November of 2016 for the relatively unheard of sum of 22 million dollars for an international agent.
And last night he made his major league debut, playing second and batting ninth for the Blue Jays in the Bronx against the Yankees.
The Jays needed a boost of enthusiasm after Thursday night’s frustrating one-step-forward-two-steps back affair in the opener of the four-game series at Yankee Stadium. It was a 4-3 loss that dropped their record to 12-6, in an April when it seems every game is already crucial, given the jet-fuelled start being experienced by the Boston Red Sox.
With two established right-handers on the mound, Marco Estrada and Sonny Gray, on the surface it would looked to have been a game where pitching dominated over hitting. But on closer examination, it was more likely to be a bit of an offensive explosion.
Estrada, of course, is a fly-ball pitcher, never a good thing in Yankee Stadium, with its inviting little spots that seem so close to the plate. Despite his 3-0 career record in New York going into the game, you could expect to see a few balls flying, and you did; three were jacked out of the park off Estrada..
Sonny Gray, meanwhile, has had his issues with Toronto, and lost 2 of 3 to the Jays lost year, though truth be told his defence let him down in both losses. He is a soft tosser who relies on control, though, the kind of pitcher who can get in big trouble in a big hurry if he can’t find the plate with his breaking stuff and has to come in with fast balls.
In his first start of the season against Toronto he lasted 4 innings and gave up only one run, but was in and out of trouble, scattering 7 hits and 3 walks, in a game that the Yankees’ bullpen coughed up to the Jays long after he was gone.
There’s a certain inevitability in some at-bats against Marco Estrada. The first time he pitched against the Yankees in the opening series he gave up two home runs to Tyler Austin, the young New York first baseman. Now, nearly 20 games into the season, Austin was still sitting on those 2 home runs.
After an easy first inning when Estrada gave up just a bloop single to Aaron Judge, Austin came up in the second inning last night with Aaron Hicks on on a walk ahead of him and didn’t he jack out number 3 for the season and number 3 off Estrada for an early 2-run Yankeee lead.
But this was a game in which no lead was safe, at least in the early going. After an easy 10-pitch first and a second inning in which he went a little wonky, walking 2 and throwing a wild pitch but not giving up a run, Gray came out for the third with the 2-run lead and promptly gave it right back,
After Gurriel lined out to centre on his first big-league at-bat, Gray issued his third walk to Granderson, and then threw a low inside fast ball to Teoscar Hernandez on a 1-1 pitch that Hernandez lined into the Yankees’ bullpen in left.
Hernandez’ shot tied the score but it didn’t stay tied for long, not with the Bronx Bombers looking for their perfect pitch off Estrada, and sometimes finding it. In the bottom of the third it came with two outs, after Gardner popped up and Judge was called out on strikes on a fast ball from Estrada. But the pesky Gregorius looped a little single into centre, and Stanton reclaimed the lead with a blast to right of his own.
The top of the fourth inning for Toronto was a special time, ya might say. They claimed the lead for the first time in the game with three runs, they forced Yankee manager Aaron Boone to pull Sonny Gray, and two of the three runs came courtesy of the first base hit off the bat of Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
The inning started with a run coming from back-to-back doubles by Russell Martin, a deep drive off the wall in left, and a ground-rule double by Kendrys Morales, hitting left-handed. Morales lofted a high twisting fly down the left line that Gardner could not get to, and when it hit it bounced into the stands.
Kevin Pillar lined a hard single to left on which Morales had no chance of scoring. With Aledmys Diaz at the plate Pillar advanced to second on a wild pitch, but Diaz popped out to Gregorius at short for the first out. This bought Gurriel to the plate for his second major league at-bat.
Well, you couldn’t pick a better scenario for making a good first impression, could you? Your team is down 4-3 to the mighty Yankees in Yankee Stadium and you’re standing up there against a veteran major league starter, with the tying and lead runs in scoring position. While kids all over the world can imagine themselves in a situation like this, how many wil actually get to act it out? And how many fewer get to don the hero’s mantle?
How exciting was it, then, that in his second major league at bat, Lourdes Gurriel Jr., in his first major league game, took a 1-1 pitch sharply up the middle that bounded between the converging Yankee infielders into centre field as Morales and Pillar scampered home to give the Blue Jays the lead at 5—4. (About the “scampering”: sure, Pillar scampered home from second; Morales from third? Not so much!)
The Gurriel hit was the penultimate blow to Sonny Gray’s start; he walked Curtis Granderson on 4 pitches, and that was it. Aaron Boone brought in young reliever Domingo German to face Hernandez whom he walked, also on 4 pitches. But then German found the key he needed, and retired Smoak on a short fly to centre and Solarte on a fly to right.
Once again the lead wasn’t safe. The Yanks had one more blast in the tank to use against Toronto, and Marco Estrada was only fortunate that the bottom of the fourth evolved the way it did. Aaron Hicks led off with a line single to centre, and I fully expected that Estrada had come to the end of the line.
But if this is in many ways a different John Gibbons this year, there’s one way that he’s the same old Gibbie. He tends to trust his veterans right to the limit. So Estrada stayed in, got a sharp grounder to third, and watched Gurriel show off an awkward but effective pivot and an extremely strong arm in turning the double play.
Without the double play, the hot-hitting Miguel Andujar’s following home run shot to right centre would have given the Yankees the lead. Ronald Torreyes followed with a double into the left-field corner before Estrada escaped further damage when Brett Gardner flied out to right.
Did I say no lead was safe in this one? It may have been a measure of where manager Boone felt he was with in terms of his bullpen corps, but he not only sent German back out to pitch the fifth against Toronto, but he let him absorb two more runs while leaving him in for the whole inning.
German went to 3-2 on Russell Martin before losing him. Kendrys Morales then contributed a shift-buster single to left, bouncing an easy ball through the empty left side of the infield as the Yankees overloaded the right side on Morales. Kevin Pillar struck out on a curve ball in the dirt that got away from Gary Sanchez behind the plate, allowing the runners to move up.
German then walked Aledmys Diaz to load the bases, bringing up—wait for it—Gurriel to the plate with the bases loaded and one out.
If you thought his first at-bat was a professional piece of work, how about this one? Gurriel swung and missed, badly fooled by a curve low and outside. He swung and missed at a high outside changeup, maybe a strike. German then threw a changeup down and away, and Gurriel went with it beautifully, stroking it through the right side on the ground to score Martin.
After Granderson struck out, Hernandez walked to force in Morales for the seventh Toronto run, before Smoak struck out to end the inning.
With a 2-run lead, of course Gibbie sent Estrada back out to try to finish the fifth and qualify for the win. The rest and the 2-run lead had miraculous restorative power for Estrada, who cut through the heart of the New York order, Judge, Gregorius, and Stanton, on 12 pitches. Gregorius fanned, and Judge and Stanton were put out on poor contact.
The next Yankee pitcher to try to stop the bleeding would be right-hander Adam Warren who came in to pitch in the top of the sixth. After starting Yangervis Solarte out with a curve ball for a strike, Warren made the mistake of throwing a high fastball out of the strike zone, hoping to get Solarte to chase. Solarte chased all right, and tomohawked the pitch into the right field streets for a solo homer to increase the Toronto lead to 8-5.
And just like that the taps were turned off. With nobody out in the fifth inning Toronto scored to make it 8 to 5, and that was the last run scored in the game.
After his rude introduction, Warren pitched very well for two and two thirds innings, performing the vital task of saving the rest of the arms in the Yankee bullpen, while keeping the Jays’ lead at three. He gave way to Chasen Shreve who got the last out in the eighth inning and retired the side in the ninth on only ten pitches in total.
Meanwhile, four Toronto relievers, Seung-Hwan Oh, Danny Barnes, Ryan Tepera, and Roberto Osuna, allowed one hit each and no more in their respective inning of work, Osuna finishing up for his sixth save in six opportunities.
So Marco Estrada gave up 3 big flies to the Yankees but survived to claim a win last night. The offence, keyed by 5 RBIs from its two youngest and least experienced members, put up enough runs to overcome the Yankee power and lead the Blue Jays to a game-two victory that evened this four-game series in the Bronx at one game apiece.
Today, we’re looking at Marcus Stroman versus Jordan Montgomery in game three in New York.
If it’s only April, how come it feels like October?
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