Normally I like my baseball nice and tidy. 3-1, 5-2, 2-0, like that. Occasionally, just like changing up my ice cream flavour, I’ll take, say, a 9-6. As long as the good guys have the 9.
But 14-5? Normally, yecchh! Normally, maybe I shoulda watched TFC beat Mexico Club America in the miserable rain at BMO Field. But this 2018 season is not normal times so far, folks.
Yes, last night’s Blue Jays’ laugher over the Chicago White Sox was from almost all perspectives one hot, stinking mess of a baseball game. But damn, this team is all of a sudden fun, and if they keep it up on the upcoming road trip, I don’t think anybody will be talking about small crowds any more when they come back.
Tonight’s crowd of just under 17 and a half thousand was treated to enough pitching to hold the young, free-swinging Chisox in place, and more solid and timely hitting packed into a Blue Jays’ game than I can remember in, since, well, September of 2016, when the hitting doldroms first struck, and that eventually doomed Toronto in the 2016 LCS against Cleveland.
Check out these numbers: 15 hits. 7 doubles, including 2 by Luke Maile, thank you very much. 1 triple. (Let’s gold-plate that one!) 2 homers, neither a solo shot. 7, 2-out RBIs. 7 for 14 with runners in scoring position. Only 4 runners stranded in scoring position, and only 7 runners left on base.
Sure, Aledmys Diaz made a bad throw on a ground ball in the sixth to let Yolmer Sanchez reach, and Aaron Loup made a rushed throw down the line to try to nip Avisail Garcia at first on a little dribbler when he was mopping up in the ninth. But Loup made up for his bad call with two strikeouts, including a sweet punchout of Matt Davidson to end the game. As we’ll see, Aledmys Diaz more than made up for a measly throwing error.
And sure, Jay Happ threw way too many pitches in the first two innings, and was only able to go 5 and a third for the win. And sure, the Sox scored first and kept pecking away at the Jays’ lead after they put up a three-spot in the bottom of the third, to the point where it was only 7-5 going into the bottom of the eighth.
But for the fourth game in a row Toronto exploded late to secure the win, and this time they did a tattoo on a couple of veteran Chicago relievers. In the process they set up a date with a diminished White Sox bullpen tomorrow night in game three of the series. When you put up 7 runs in the eighth inning, you can overlook a lot of niggling little negatives.
In fact, the only concern after the game is that Diaz had to come out in the seventh inning with back spasms after feeling something wrong on his home run swing in the third. With Troy Tulowitzki out of the picture, and Diaz’ bat suddenly coming alive in a big way in the last two games, we have to hope that he really is “day to day”, and a night off tomorrow plus an off day Thursday will be all he needs to recover.
If there’s any consolation over Diaz’ injury, here is what he did after he tweaked his back in the third inning. In the fourth he doubled to right centre and got himself thrown out at third protecting Pillar who was scoring all the way from first. In the fifth he made a fine play to retire Jose Abreu, ranging to his left behind the bag to catch up to a low, hard scooter, planting, and firing to first. In the sixth, after making the throwing error in the top of the inning, he hit a Texas League blooper to right for a single, then stood at first tentatively stretching his back. Then he alertly tagged up and dashed to second on Curtis Granderson’s fly out down the left field line, so that he was in position to score on Donaldson’s smash single to the left-field wall.
If Aledmys Diaz can play like that with a wrenched back, maybe they should just pack him in ice and send him back out to play hurt!
One of the most noticeable features of this team so far is that it’s deeper and enjoys a lot more flexibility as a result, with more players contributing than in recent years. Consider that it was only in this fourth game of the win string that Kendrys Morales returned to the lineup.
Josh Donaldson could hit but not throw? Bench Morales, put Solarte at third, and DH Donaldson. Solarte delivers at the plate, as does Josh, and Morales remains lurking on the bench if you need a pinch-hitter.
Devon Travis and Russell Martin need regular rest? Solarte can shift over to second because Donaldson’s back just in time. And nobody right now is very concerned about whether or not Luke Maile is an “adequate” backup to Martin. That’s the Maile who handles pitchers so well, is currently 3 for 8—all crisp line drives—with 3 RBIs, and don’t forget, a stolen base. Gift Ngoepe might not be Ryan Goins at the plate, but he’s certainly a good enough glove to fill in where needed.
Curtis Granderson’s too old and a desperate acquisition? Who’s cavorting around the field like a young colt, and contributing in multiple ways, to the point where the platoon idea of switching mid-game seems to have been scratched, leaving Steve Pearce as a reasonably viable backup, and a pretty hot bat once the weather warms up.
So this game started with Jay Happ dancing a tightrope between staying on and blowing hitters away, and falling off into a morass of trouble. In the first two innings he allowed 4 base hits and a walk, gave up a run and threw 47 pitches. But it could have been so much worse: he also struck out five, and retired Jay-killer Duke Wellington Castillo with two on and two out in the first on a weak ground ball to Donaldson at third. Donaldson’s throw looked fine, by the way, though he did bounce one weakly while getting an out later in the game.
Happ finally settled down in the top of the third, after hitting Abreu on the foot to put him on leading off. Avisail Garcia then hit a hopper back to Happ who calmly turned around and started a nice 1-4-3 double play, neatly converted by Yangervis Solarte, who, remember, is not a regular second baseman. Then Happ spread a little icing on the cake by punching out The Duke with a low fast ball that Castillo, to his dismay, took.
It took Happ only 9 pitches to do all of this, so things were definitely looking up as the Jays came to the plate except that it was the bottom of the order due up.
Bottom, shmottom! Maile ripped (I mean ripped a double into the left-field corner leading off. Diaz ripped (see above) a line-drive homer into the bullpen. A can of Ernie Harwell’s “Instant Runs”, and lead erased. That was, by the way, Diaz’ second homer in as many at-bats, after the one in the eighth inning Monday night.
Sox’ starter Miguel Gonzalez, a soft-throwing, well-travelled righty, had stranded a Solarte leadoff double with panache in the second, but here in the third he wasn’t out of the woods yet after Diaz’ blast. With two outs he walked Justin Smoak, and then that frisky kid scampered around to third on Solarte’s looping single to right (ah the benefits of running with two outs!)
Gonzalez should have been out of it when Randal Grichuk hit a fairly routine grounder to short, but the usually sure-handed Tim Anderson just plain muffed it, and Smoaky came in to score the unearned third run.
The Jays were never headed after that, but, like I said, the Sox hung on their tails through seven and a half innings, and then it was game over. I mean, really game over.
Anderson immediately atoned for his error by hitting one that scraped the top of the fence in left to get a run back leading off the fourth. Happ shrugged it off and fanned two more in retiring the side to push his total to 8 in 4 innings of work.
Not liking that 3-2 count on the scoreboard, Toronto put some more space up on the Sox right away in the fourth, achieving the odd feat of the team hitting for the cycle in the inning to notch three more runs. It was a “natural” too, coming in the order of single, double, triple, home run.
After Luke Maile struck out, Kevin Pillar muscled one into centre for a broken-bat base hit. Diaz followed with the double we mentioned, that ended up with Pillar across the plate and Diaz out at third. Granderson followed with a deep drive to centre that Adam Engel almost caught up with, in a desperate drive. But the ball ticked off his glove, and by the time the Sox had retrieved it to the infield, Granderson was on third. From there he had an easy ride home on Donaldson’s second homer of the year, and of the series, a shot down into the left-field corner.
Sox manager Rick Renteria seems committed to playing his outfield in, relying on their blazing speed, but he was burned twice in this inning, as the drives of both Diaz and Granderson soared over the heads of the Sox’ desperately retreating fielders.
With the score now 6-2, Chicago wasn’t ready to quit by any means. With one out and nobody on in the fifth Avisail Garcia blasted one to deep left that was measured at 481 feet, the longest so far this year in MLB.
Manager John Gibbons sent Happ out for one more inning, but with a pitch count at 87, he was going to be on a short leash; the pursuit of a team win being far more important than the pursuit of a quality start.
Happ retired The Duke yet again on a popup to second, but when Anderson shot a single to right centre that was enough for Gibbons, and the call went out for Danny Barnes. For some reason Anderson had Barnes’ and Maile’s numbers, and stole second and third while Barnes pitched to Engel, so when Engel finally grounded out to short, Anderson was able to score from third and cut the Toronto lead to 2 again.
After Sanchez reached on the Diaz throwing error, Barnes fanned Nicky DelMonico to end the inning, and after five and a half this game was still hanging very much in the balance.
In the bottom of the sixth Diaz and Donaldson victimized lefty reliever Hector Santiago, who had come in for the starter Gonzalez, with the single/advance on the fly ball/single combination, and with three innings to go we were up by three, but not with a lot of certainty as to the eventual outcome.
John Axford replaced Barnes on the mound for the seventh, and Diaz was finally pulled for Ngoepe at shortstop. Axford came in over-throwing, and kept everybody loose, from the Chicago hitters to catcher Maile. It was an adventure, but he worked around a walk to Yoan Moncada and a base hit by Abreu to keep the Sox at bay.
Notable in Axford’s adventure was the play he made for himself to throw out Moncada on a brisk tag play at the plate. After Moncada walked, he had moved up on Garcia’s short dribbler to Donaldson, who had to go to first and bounced a soft throw off the turf again. Grichuk in right nearly caught Abreu’s liner, but it fell for a single, while Moncada had to hold up and only got to third. Davidson chopped it to Axford’s left, and the big Canadian pounced on it and made a perfect throw to Maile for the tag. The Duke, facing frustration all night, hit into a fielder’s choice to end the inning.
After Santiago breezed the Jays’ seventh with a couple of strikeouts, Tyler Clippard came in to pitch the eighth in a hold situation. Clippard quickly got the first two outs, but grooved one to Yolmer Sanchez, who hit one a mighty long way to right centre to cut the lead to 2. Clippard fanned DelMonico for the third out, but he was not happy with his outing, having allowed Chicago to creep back within 2.
Not to worry, though, because all hell was about to break loose over the heads of the ChiSox relievers. Hector Santiago so far was successfully giving Chicago some length out of the bullpen, at the cost of minimal damage. But the third time was definitely not the charm for him: he only lasted three hitters, while giving up a double, a walk, and a run and recording one out, leaving Granderson at second.
Renteria called for the big righty Gregory Infante, hoping that Infante could keep the Jays’ lead at three and give the Sox a bit of a chance in their last kick at the can in the ninth. Sorry, Rick, Infante wasn’t your guy tonight. Infante took his manager from just hold ’em close so we have a chance, to please finish the inning so I don’t have to use another pitcher.
Neither happened, as Toronto busted it wide open on Infante. This was the sequence: Donaldson walk, Smoak ground rule double scored Granderson, Solarte intentional walk to load bases, Grichuk sacrifice fly scored Donaldson, Morales single scored Smoak (Morales’ first hit and RBI of the season finally), Pillar double scored Solarte, and Infante was done, having achieved one out, and eventually (Pillar and Morales scoring after he left) giving up 5 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks.
Finally, mercifully, Renteria pulled the plug on Infante and brought in Juan Minaya to face Maile, who hit another solid rip to centre for the double that plated the last 2 runs. Even Ngoepe almost joined in the fun, making a loud third out with a liner to Moncada at second.
The final damage was 7 runs, for a total of 14, and a 9-run lead. Roberto Osuna, who had been warming up alongside Aaron Loup, had long since taken his seat, and it fell upon Loup to finish up, as we have seen.
So a sort-of tight, sort-of back-and-forth game turned into a laugher, and that’s always a good thing, as long as the laugh’s not on you.
I’m still not a big fan of sloppy score-fests, but like I said, you gotta like what Toronto’s done in these last four days.
One more game on the homestand, Marco Estrada’s up next for Toronto, and wouldn’t it be nice to head for Texas with a 5 and 2 record, on a 5-game run?
Historical note: if we win tomorrow night, we’ll be only three short of last year’s win total for all of April. On April fourth. Just sayin’.
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