After a bizarre spell of wildness in the sixth inning of Saturday’s game at Yankee Stadium turned a pitchers’ duel between Marcus Stroman and Jordan Montgomery into a blowout, Toronto’s hitters rolled over and played dead for the first time this season on Sunday to absorb their first series loss of the season.
This was not the result that had been hoped for to begin this early, crucial string of games for the surprisingly competitive Blue Jays. The weekend results did not augur well for the upcoming 3-game home series against the Boston Red Sex, who have experienced the hottest start of any team in baseball since the Detroit Tigers went 35-5 to open the 1984 American League season.
For your information, the Tigers were never headed, and went on to win the American League East pennant that year by a whopping 15 games over the Toronto Blue Jays, who would go on to win the division the following year for the first time in their history. In a bizarre twist, the Baltimore Orioles finished fifth in the East Division out of seven teams with a winning percentage of .525; the Kansas City Royals won the West Division with a winning percentage of just .519. Only the Angels and the Twins at exactly .500 finished above at or above .500 in the West that year.
It’s interesting to note, before going back to those sad weekend results in the Bronx, that imbalance anomalies still appear from time to time in the American League standings. In 2016 the East Division was far the strongest of the now-three divisions, and provided both Wild Card teams. If the present trend continues in 2018, there appears a fair chance that the same result may develop, since three of the top six teams are from the East, and only the West appears to offer the possibility of a second-best team that could make the Wild Card game.
So we’ve put off the sad story of Toronto’s lost weekend in April long enough.
Except for a too-fat 3-2 pitch to Aaron Judge in the New York third inning, Marcus Stroman for five innings Saturday looked like the Marcus Stroman of September 2015, or the Marcus Stroman of last year’s World Baseball Classic, and not the Marcus Stroman who scuffled and battled through all of last year for Toronto.
Here’s what he did for those five innings on Saturday: he gave up two runs on two hits, the second a single to Miguel Andujar in the fifth inning that was promptly erased by a double play. He issued two walks, struck four, and recorded eight ground ball outs. He achieved this while throwing only 63 pitches, just over 12 per inning.
The only glitch on his record in those five innings was the brief loss of control in the third inning that caused him to issue a 2-out walk to Brett Gardner, and then go 3-0 on Aaron Judge, who hammered the following pitch into the left-field stands for a 2-0 New York lead.
So the question for which we still await the answer is: why was it that he started the sixth inning like this: base hit, wild pitch, walk, base hit, wild pitch, walk? After four batters he’d given up a run, which extended New York’s lead to 3-1, loaded the bases, and had not recorded an out.
To make matters worse, with Aaron Judge at third as the lead runner with the sacks loaded, Aaron Hicks hit a teasing little dribbler to Stroman’s left on a 2-2 pitch. Stroman made a valiant effort to get the force at the plate on Judge, but the usually sure-handed Luke Maile muffed his last-ditch throw for an error that allowed Judge to score from third, tripling New York’s lead to 4-1, and there was still nobody out.
After that sequence of events it was a credit to Stroman that he was able to gather himself together to freeze Neil Walker on a fast ball up and in. But the rookie Miguel Andujar, on a tear in this series, was not to be denied. He took a 2-2 pitch from Stroman and fired it over Hernandez’ head to the wall in left centre, for a double that easily cleared the bases, with the speedy Hicks the trailing runner on first.
At 7-1, looking at the good end of the Yankee bullpen sitting out there waiting, this game was effectively over. Gibbie came and got Stroman and called for John Axford, who reloaded the bases on a walk and a base hit, allow Andujar to score on a sacrifice fly that was charged to Stroman, and then give up one of his own, knocked in by Judge with a base hit. If the game was effectively over at 7-1, what was it at 9-1?
Call it a day, eh?
Without belabouring the point, if we could rewind a bit, this was a really good game until the Yanks broke it open.
Left-handed starter Jordan Montgomery had rolled through the first six batters for Toronto before giving up an infield single to Aledmys Diaz and a walk to Randal Grichuk to lead off the inning. We held our breath again as Lourdes Gurriel Jr. came to the plate. But this time, though it was an effective at-bat, he didn’t deliver the thunder we hoped for. Rather, he grounded hard up the middle again, but this time into the shift and the Yankees converted a second-to-short fielder’s choice, with Diaz moving to third.
Montgomery proceeded to walk Steve Pearce to load the bases, but then fanned Oscar Hernandez and retired Yangervis Solarte on a soft fly to left to leave the bases loaded. He then stranded a leadoff hit by Kendrys Morales in the fourth, and after four innings the Jays had two hits and New York one, but an awfully long one that made the difference.
Montgomery failed to get by the same part of the lineup in the fifth inning without damage, but he emerged protecting the lead into the bottom of the sixth when all hell broke loose.
He walked Grichuk again, and then Gurriel picked up his first extra-base hit, a hustle double into left that moved Grichuk to third. Pearce hit a ground single to left to plate Grichuk with the first Toronto run, but Gurriel had to let the ball go through in front of him and so stopped at third. Montgomery shut the door again on Toronto, retiring three in a row to strand the Toronto rookie at third and Pearce at first.
So there you have it. A pitching duel between Marcus Stroman and Jordan Montgomery turned into a messy rout. Montgomery retired the side in the Toronto sixth while it was still close, and Aaron Boone pulled the plug on him, at 1 run, 3 hits, 3 walks, and 5 strikeouts, over 91 pitches.
The Jays never had a chance to get off the carpet. Chasen Shreve dismissed them on 13 pitches in the seventh, and then Boone was able to luxuriate in Jonathan Holder’s fine mopup job over the last two innings that allowed the manager to rest his better bullpen arms.
Holder didn’t give up a hit and struck out 2 on only 22 pitches for the two innings he worked.
Tyler Clippard in the seventh and Aaron Loup in the eighth locked down the barn door after the horse was stolen.
Sadly, there would be no series win for Toronto in New York this weekend.
The teams returned to a very different Yankee Stadium on Sunday afternoon, a Stadium basking in the warm sunlight of a real spring day.
The optimism the changed weather evinced in us, however, would not be fulfilled for Blue Jay fans on this beautiful afternoon, as the frustrating inability to cash baserunners continued for Toronto.
With Luis Severino on the hill for New York, scoring chances would surely be few and far between, making it all the more crucial that they be cashed.
Severino had already retired six in a row in the first two innings, on only 24 pitches, with 4 strikeouts, when the first baserunners gave Toronto a chance in the top of the third.
Kevin Pillar grounded their first hit up the middle and then Devon Travis walked on a 3-2 pitch, bringing to the plate Lourdes Gurriel, starting his third game in a row since coming up, but this time at shortstop, giving Aledmys Diaz a break. Gurriel rifled a 2-2 pitch into left field, but it was secured by Giancarlo Stanton, playing in left field for the first time in the series in place of Brett Gardner, for the first out.
Severino overmatched Curtis Granderson and Teoscar Hernandez; both hit weak grounders to end the threat and strand Pillar at second and Travis at first.
Justin Smoak hit a drive to centre that looked promising to deliver Toronto’s first run in the fourth inning, but it faded and hit the wall for a leadoff double. In a display of ineffectiveness we’ve barely seen all season to this point, Solarte fanned, Martin hit a weak grounder to short, and Morales popped out to short. Smoak never budged from second and another chance was wasted.
Other than Hernandez’ home run with nobody on and one out in the seventh, Severino only had to deal with minor problems on the way to a fine seven-inning outing of one run on three hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
In the fifth he had to hold his breath while his neophyte left fielder circled awkwardly but gamely around the Yankee sun field, and managed to capture two somewhat threatening drives, one off the bat of Pillar, and another off the bat of Gurriel, who continued to square up the ball nicely each at-bat.
In his last inning he nicked Kevin Pillar on the arm, and Pillar promptly stole second, but there were already two outs, and Devon Travis reached for an outside pitch and flied out to right.
In the meantime Toronto left-hander Jaime Garcia put in the kind of performance that might have sufficed for a win if his hitters weren’t facing Luis Severino at his best.
He gave up a two-out solo homer to Didi Gregorius in the first inning. In the second he gave up two more runs on a two-out RBI double to right by catcher Austin Romine.
Garcia caught a bit of bad luck on this one, though. He walked Gary Sanchez on 4 pitches leading off, admittedly his bad. He struck out Tyler Austin, but then had to face the streaking rookie Miguel Andujar, who hit yet another double, this one inside the line into the left-field corner, with Sanchez stopping at third.
Then he struck out acclaimed Yankee rookie Gleyber Torres in his first major-league at-bat. I don’t think anyone thought of tossing the ball out of play for a souvenir for Torres. With 2 outs, that brought weak-hitting catcher Austin Romine to the plate. Weak-hitting, yes, but with a fairly good record of run production against Toronto in limited appearances.
Garcia fell behind 3-1, a count that turns poor hitters into pretty good ones some of the time. Garcia threw a low fast ball headed for the outside corner. Romine kind of jumped at it and whacked it away from him, into right field, where it bounced for a while and became a double producing 2 RBIs.
3-0 against Severino after two innings didn’t look too good for Toronto. And as we’ve seen they didn’t make much headway at all against him from that point on. Even when the Hernandez homer cut the lead to 3-1, the Yankees staged a minor uprising in their half of the sixth which restored the 3-run lead and in the process brought Jaime Garcia’s not-quite-good-enough start to an early end at five and a third innings.
In the Yankee sixth Sanchez doubled to left and Austin singled to centre with one out. That brought manager John Gibbons out of the dugout and Garcia out of the game, to be replaced by Seung-Hwan Oh on the mound. Oh promptly gave up another double to Andujar. Yes, you read that right, folks, another double by Andujar, that plated Sanchez but not Austin. Torres popped out to Smoak in foul territory, in what was becoming Torres’ “oh-fer” debut. Austin Romine flied out to right to end the inning, and the Jays were down by three again.
Garcia gave up 4 runs on 6 hits with 3 walks and 6 strikeouts on 95 pitches for his five and a third innings. Like I said, not quite good enough, not against Luis Severino dealing his best.
Danny Barnes gave u p a meaningless unearned run in the seventh inning, manufactured b y Aaron Hicks’ speed, as he got on with a base hit, stole second and advanced to third on Russ Martin’s errant throw. He scored on a sacrifice fly b y Old Dependable Didi Gregorius.
Yes, a meaningless run, because while David Robertson gave up a base hit in the eighth and Aroldis Chapman walked two in the ninth, neither allowed the Jays to cross the plate as the y ensured a Yankee win in the game and in the series, on the strength of Luis Severino’s strong right arm and Miguel Andujar’s hot bat.
With all the superstars on the Yankees’ roster, you have to single out Andujar as being pretty well solely responsible for the Yanks winning three out of four in the series.
Here’s what Andujar did against Toronto in the three games he played, Friday through Sunday: he went 7 for 12; he racked up 13 total bases; he hit 4 doubles and a home run; he picked up 5 RBIs.
Aaron Judge? Piffle. Giancarlo Stanton? Puffle. Even King Didi Gregorius? What have you done for me lately? Miguel Andu jar? Now, there’s your man!
Toronto’s lost weekend in the Bronx is now over, and it’s time to regroup and get ready for those rampaging Red Sox . . .
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