Not to beat a dead horse here, but I can’t help but wonder what Paul Molitor must be thinking about the play of his currently-tanking Minnesota Twins after they threw away a second straight game to the visiting Toronto Blue Jays.
The Twins took an early lead on Marco Estrada with two runs in the first inning, on a solo homer by Joe Mauer, who looks like he’ll go on forever, and a double to right by Eddie Rosario that scored Max Kepler, who had reached on a walk.
Estrada, who has regularly experienced one really bad inning in each start, came up short in the first inning yesterday, and ended up throwing 31 pitches, virtually guaranteeing that he wouldn’t be seeing the seventh inning, or even a quality start.
To be fair to Estrada, he’d gotten the soft contact in the air that he needed from Rosario to end the inning, but the foul fly he hit to left just barely spun out of the reach of a sliding Curtis Granderson, giving him another shot that resulted in the RBI double.
Estrada kept the Twins from extending the lead as he settled down to complete five innings without further damage. He allowed two base hits in the second as his pitch count ballooned to 54.
After Kepler’s leadoff single in the third, however, he retired eight in a row to take him to the end of the fifth. By then the game was all tied up, and things were looking fairly bright for Toronto.
Minnesota’s veteran right-hander Kyle Gibson had protected his early lead through four innings. He allowed a walk to Kevin Pillar in the second, hit Granderson on the foot with a pitch in the third, and gave up a two-out double to Pillar in the fourth.
Pillar had two doubles on the day, the second one starting the Jays’s winning rally in the tenth inning, thereby extending his extra-base-hit streak to ten, one short of the franchise record.
Gibson started the fifth inning by going to 3-1 on Kendrys Morales, who was leading off. For some silly reason Gibson and catcher Mitch Garver thought it was a good idea to throw Morales a fast ball on 3-1. Then they got to watch their good idea soar into the elevated seats in right, cutting the Twins’ lead to one.
Luke Maile followed Morales with a sharp line single to left. But Gibson at this point suffered another one of those defensive lapses by his team-mates that doesn’t show up in the box score, but hurts just the same.
Jays’ manager John Gibbons, in his ongoing quest to be named Manager of the Year, with nobody out started Maile on a 1-1 pitch to Aledmys Diaz, who strikes out. A lot. But Diaz made contact, and it resulted in a strange play on the scoreboard.
Diaz hit the ball sharply to third. It looked like a double-play ball. But with Maile running, the third baseman Eduardo Escobar had to field the ball quickly and unload in a hurry to second-baseman Gregorio Petit to have any chance to turn two.
Escobar bobbled the ball, then threw to second, and Petit made the pivot and throw to first. But Maile beat the throw to second, whereas Diaz, who doesn’t exactly go down the line like a shortstop (well, maybe Troy Tulowitzki) was out easily at first.
This resulted in Diaz’ out being recorded as a ground ball 5-4-3, with Maile safe at second on a fielder’s choice. If you get one out while trying to turn two because the ball was mishandled or there was a bad throw, the rules don’t allow an error to be scored for the bobble, because the rules don’t assume double plays will be made.
So, no error, but a defensive lapse that led to the tying run. Maile, who runs the bases sharply, especially for a catcher, advanced to third on a short grounder to third by Teoscar Hernandez, and then scored when Justin Smoak flared a little looper into centre for a hit.
By the way, is there anybody out there who is still scorning the waiver selection of Luke Maile last April? As Russell Martin’s regularly scheduled relief catcher, he has been a treasure, and a big contributor to the team’s record.
Gibson fanned Yangervis Solarte for the third out, but by the time all this transpired, the Twins’ starter had accumulated 30 pitches in the inning, taking him to 96 on the game, and he would have to give it up and not come out for the sixth, leaving with the score tied.
Estrada retired the side in the bottom of the fifth, throwing only 13 pitches. The last one was a beauty, a mesmerizing curve that froze Max Kepler for strike three. Kepler had been the last batter to reach base on Estrada, with his leadoff single in the third, and with this strikeout he was the ninth straight Twin to go down before Estrada’s slants.
Kepler is an interesting anomaly: he was born in Berlin, and when I first heard this I assumed he was a U.S. military brat, but, no, he’s actually a German-German. More interestingly, he was a fellow participant in the MLB European tryout camp in Torino, Italy, with Gift Ngoepe. They both came out of the camp with contracts with major league teams. Kepler signed with the Twins in 2009.
Most importantly, he’s a fine-looking young ball player with a quick and strong bat, and good fielding instincts. He has handled centre-field well for the Twins in the absence of the injured Byron Buxton and will be a good fit for the Twins in either corner when Buxton comes back.
Molitor gave the ball to Ryan Pressly for the Jays’ sixth. Pressly had wavered but not cracked in an inning and two thirds on Monday night, but last night he became the second victim of the amazing and unexpected revival of Kendrys Morales. Pressly retired his first two batters, Pillar and Gurriel Jr. on line drives to the outfield, on only three pitchesl.
But despite the extensive book on Morales’ troubles with the curve, Pressly and Garver decided to lay in another 2-1 fast ball to the big slugger, and this one ended up in almost the same spot as the first one. Toronto had a 3-2 lead, up on the Twins for the first time in the game.
John Gibbons sent Marco Estrada back out for the bottom of the sixth when he’d already thrown 94 pitches. I understand why he sent him out for the bottom of the sixth. He had been rolling along nicely, and with his easy delivery he could easily go another inning, up to about 110 pitches or so. Besides, Estrada is a veteran, and that cuts a little more ice with Gibbie, I think.
So he sent him back out to face the switch-hitting Escobar and the left-handed Rosario. I would have done the same. And would have been just as disappointed as Gibbie surely was, that Estrada gave up a double to the right-field corner to Escobar, and a jack to Rosario that not only gave the Twins the lead again, but knocked Estrada out of the game.
Seung-Hwan Oh came in and threw about as well as he has so far this year, retiring the side, striking out Garver and Adrianza, and getting a grounder to second from the slumping Logan Morrison, all on 18 pitches.
The lefty Zach Duke protected the slim lead in the top of the seventh inning, and John Axford, who’s building quite a late-inning resume, whipped through the bottom of the inning on 14 pitches. Gregorio Petit hit a grounder back to him that he deflected off to Gurriel Jr. but he’d slowed it down and Petit was safe. The second sacker, of course, was lined up to make the play just fine until the pitcher got in the way.
Non-plussed, Axford blew a high fast ball past Robbie Grossman on a 2-2 pitch, and then got a double-play ball from Joe Mauer. Diaz took the ball at short and made a good feed to second, and the fast pivot and strong arm of Gurriel Jr. in turning the ball over to first were a wonder to see.
Paul Molitor brought in Addison Reed to protect the one-run lead in the eighth. Reed ran into control trouble immediately, going 3-0 on Justin Smoak. The latter disdained two fast balls to bring it to a full count, and then took ball four down and in. Oh, those leadoff walks . . .
The catcher Garver went out to talk to Reed. I’m pretty sure he didn’t tell him to go 3 and 0 on Solarte, and then throw two fast balls in the zone. Solarte took the first one for a strike, but the second one, a little higher and on the inside half, he really liked, so he pulled it on a line into the left-field corner for a double, with Smoak chugging into third. Nobody out, of course.
Pillar wasted no time ensuring a tie game, hitting the first pitch from Reed out into left field deep enough for Smoak to score standing up after the catch. Solarte held second, and died there, as Reed struck out Gurriel Jr. , walked Morales intentionally to fill the open base at first, and struck out Maile to end the inning.
Ryan Tepera efficiently disposed of the tough part of the Minnesota order, Kepler, Rosario, Escobar, on three easy chances and only 12 pitches.
Molitor went to his closer, Fernando Rodney, for the Toronto ninth, and Rodney needed an overturned call at first on leadoff batter Aledmys Diaz to keep Toronto off the score sheet. After Diaz was declared out at first on a play from the shortstop Adrianza, Rodney fanned Granderson, but gave up an infield hit to Hernandez and walked Smoak, so that when Solarte came to the plate, there were two on and two out, instead of the bases loaded and one out. But that’s what video replay is for, and Solarte grounded out to second to end the inning.
Tyler Clippard continued the fine run of the Toronto bullpen, and his own run of good work, retiring the side on eight pitches to send the game to extra innings. On this night, Oh, Axford, Tepera, and Clippard allowed only one baserunner in total, and that was the infield hit that Axford slowed down with his glove in the seventh.
Kevin Pillar led off for Toronto in the top of the tenth, and the way Pillar’s been going, you had to know he’d be up to starting things off on the right foot. John Curtiss, he of the flowing locks, had replaced Rodney on the mound. Pillar didn’t let him get too comfortable out there.
On a 1-0 pitch Curtiss threw a low fast ball, in the zone and a little outside. Showing his new-found maturity, Pillar didn’t try to pull it, but drove it toward the alley in right centre, and ended up with a double. As I mentioned above, this was his tenth straight extra-base hit.
But it was after Pillar reached base that he created the conditions for a game-winning rally with his smart, aggressive baserunning. Gurriel Jr for the first time was undisciplined at the plate, striking out on a 3-2 fast ball that was clearly ball four outside. Morales was up next, and after two dingers, he barely had time to pick up his bat before he was waved to first on an intentional pass.
Choosing his moment perfectly, Pillar broke for third and stole it easily. On the next pitch, John Gibbons and Tim Leiper tried to decoy the Twins into throwing the ball away. Morales was improbably sent off to second on a straight steal, but the Twins didn’t bite, Garver ate the ball, and Morales had himself a stolen base.
With only one out and first base open, and maybe with the Twins aware of the success rate of Luke Maile in situations like this, Curtiss pitched carefully to the Toronto catcher and walked him on a 3-2 pitch.
Then the Twins just threw the game away, literally. Curtiss threw a wild pitch to Diaz that scored Pillar, with Morales and Maile moving up. Gibbie inserted Gift Ngoepe to run for Morales at third as Diaz came to the plate.
Diaz hit a sharp grounder to short but Petit, playing in, had all kinds of trouble handling it. Ngoepe scored, Maile moved up to third, and Diaz had an infield single, courtesy of an overly-indulgent Minnesota scorer.
Then, and finally, Curtiss wild-pitched Maile home with the third run of the inning for Toronto. Matt Magill came in to retire Granderson and Hernandez on outfield chances. So the Jays led 7-4 with three runs in the tenth on one solid hit, one infield hit, two walks, two wild pitches, and a bobbled ground ball.
With a three run lead it was still a save situation for Toronto, and Roberto Osuna made short work of it, two easy flies and a grounder on six pitches.
So, led by Kendrys Morales, and especially Kevin Pillar, Toronto secured its third straight win after the dismal losing streak. We owe a lot to those two for leading us to a win during which we only led briefly by a run one time until the tenth inning.
But, for both Monday night’s game and last night’s, to be honest, we owe a bigger debt of gratitude to the feckless, error-prone Twins for their great generosity.
My thoughts return to Paul Molitor, who has been an excellent presence as the manager of the Twins, but must be suffering deeply through this bad stretch.
Do we think that Molitor may be thinking back fondly to the glory days of his short Toronto stay?
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