You’ll recall that for yesterday’s post I modified the title of the popular Lemony Snicket series of gruesomely sad tweens’ novels, A Series of Unfortunate Events, for my title. But this time I have to use it straight up. Unfortunate events indeed.
After Tuesday’s amazing leap-froggin’-Coghlan, pinch-doublin’-Stroman extra inning thriller, you could have been excused for having a bit of optimism for the first time this year.
Toronto was 3 and 2 with two games to go on their first tough road swing of the year, and the players must have felt like they had some momentum going for once.
I don’t know whether it was the seemingly spurious early cancellation of Wednesday night’s game, forcing the scheduling of a day-night doubleheader on Thursday, but the euphoria of Tuesday night’s win, while it might have carried the Jays for a while in the first game Thursday, gradually dissipated over the course of a very long day and night, and by its end the troubled crew of players who just couldn’t put it together were on their way home to Toronto having been swept in the doubleheader, with the promise of 3-2 turned into the reality of 3-4, and the deeper reality that there seems no end in sight to Toronto’s disappointing start for 2017.
It’s true there were no great omens to be found in the pitching matchups for Thursday. The Cards had staff bellwether Carlos Martinez going in the day game, and Adam Wainwright, admittedly no longer the Adam Wainwright of old but still an imposing puzzle on the mound, going in the night game. Meanwhile, it was fill-in day for the Jays, who, in the absence of Jay Happ and Aaron Sanchez, were forced to turn once more to the “Buffalo boys”, Matt Latos and Casey Lawrence.
Game one of the day was an object lesson in not making any bets based on the perceived merits of the starting pitchers. Latos, showing much better command than in his first start, despite walking four, went pitch-for-pitch with Martinez. This is not to say that there were any long strings of batters retired by either pitcher.
Both pitchers went six innings. Martinez gave up five hits and three walks, Latos gave up three hits and five walks. The only real differences between the two were that Latos never had a clean inning, while Martinez had two, and Martinez, as could have been expected, doubled Latos’ strikeout total, 8-4.
Er, except for the fact it was the Jays who nicked Marinez for three runs, while Latos kept the Cardinals off the board, so that when both starters finished up after six innings, Toronto turned a 3-0 lead over to the bullpen.
The Jays struck early when Russell Martin took Martinez out over the centre field fence leading off the second.
The 1-0 lead held until the top of the sixth, when Martinez’ command failed him, and he hurt his own cause with an ill-advised and errant pickoff attempt at second. But it came down to unlikely hero Ryan Goins grounding a two-out base hit up the middle to score two and extend the Jays’ lead to 3-0. The inning went down like this: Jose Bautista worked a walk on a 3-2 pitch. Justin Smoak popped up. Russell Martin walked on a 3-2 pitch. Chris Coghlan fanned. Then Martinez carelessly tossed to second, as if Bautista was a threat to steal, a move that caught his mates by surprise. It allowed Bautista and Martin to advance to second and third. On a 3-2 count to Devon Travis, Martinez sort of intentionally walked him to set up the two-out force-all-around, and bring the presumably weaker stick, Goins, to the plate.
But it’s best not to take Goins for granted these days, and he delivered Bautista and Martin with a clutch hit that stretched Toronto’s lead to 3-0.
With the callup Latos at 82 shutout pitches, Manager John Gibbons figured he’d gotten the best from his starter that he could, and decided that six innings was more than enough. Martinez had fussed his way to 97 pitches through six, so by the start of the seventh inning the game was in the hands of the bullpens of both teams.
The Card’s bullpen was the first to crack. Manager Mike Matheny went to Tyler Lyons, a left-hander who surrounded himself with trouble immediately, but pitched out of it relatively unscathed. Kevin Pillar led off with a single. Zeke Carrera walked. Lyons hit Bautista to load them up for Justin Smoak, who promptly delivered Pillar with a sacrifice fly, extending the lead to four. Carrera was also able to advance to third on the play. But the rising stopped with one run as Lyons steadied and struck out Russell Martin and Darwin Barney hitting for Coghlan, thus escaping a first-and-third with one out situation.
First out of the bullpen for Toronto was Joe Biagini, and the Cardinals finally got on the board against him. With one out, Jose Martinez singled to centre. Kolten Wong hit a grounder to Devon Travis’ glove side, and he wisely chose not to try for the double play, taking the out at first with Martinez taking second. This brought Randal Grichuk to the plate, and he came through with the two-out single that scored Martinez with St. Louis’ first run. But, like the Jays in the top of the inning, the Cardinals lost the chance to do more damage when Grichuk tried to advance to second on the play and was cut down by a well-executed cut-off play, Pillar to Smoak to Goins.
So, 4-1 to the eighth, and, as I like to do, time to count down the outs. Lyons came back out for the Cards in the top of the eighth and retired the side in order, though a couple of the outs were pretty loud. Joe Smith, who is gaining more confidence from Manager Gibbons by the appearance, was handed the ball for the eighth. Perhaps it was an omen that the low hard drive leadoff hitter Dexter Fowler hit to centre popped out of Kevin Pillar’s glove as he hit the ground, against all expectations, but there he was on second, to be delivered later in the inning by a Matt Carpenter single to right, so we went to the ninth still up 4-2.
So, 4-2, Osuna time; lookin’ pretty good, right? Well, yeah, until Yadi Molina hammered Osuna’s first pitch into left for a double, bringing the tying run to the plate with nobody out. But Osuna settled in, and soon enough Molina was still at second with two outs. He had to hold when Jose Martinez grounded out to short, and then Osuna fanned Kolten Wong. This brought Grichuk to the plate, who had victimized Biagini in the seventh for the Jays’ first run, but ended the inning with a bad baserunning mistake.
This time he victimized Osuna, and made no mistake about it. On one and one, Osuna left a 94 mph four-seamer out over the plate and Grichuk extended, getting all of it, and the Toronto lead nurtured so well the whole game was gone. It mattered little that Osuna ended the innng by fanning Dexter Fowler because the cat was out of the bag, and the chorus of concern over Osuna’s sagging fortunes started to grow louder.
It’s my sense that when you have a blown save in an away game it pretty much marks the end of the road, and that was the case in this one. The Jays went quickly and quietly in the tenth and eleventh, wasting a pinch-hit single by Kendrys Morales in the eleventh when Kevin Pillar hit into a double play.
On the other hand, the Cards knocked at the door in the tenth and Dominic Leone was lucky to escape with the game still tied, getting Jose Martinez on a fly to right after the Cards had loaded the bases with two broken-bat singles and an intentional pass to Molina.
Ryan Tepera came in to pitch the eleventh and was doomed from the start, as Kolten Wong led off by pulling an 0-1 fast ball right down the line that rattled around in the corner long enough for him to reach third. It would take a miracle to get out of this, but they were fresh out of miracles at the Hope Store on this day.
Following traditional strategy, the Jays put Grichuk and Fowler on, and pitched to Aledmay Diaz, who provided temporary relief by hitting a short fly to Zeke Carrera in left, with the Cards wisely holding Wong at third. This brought the left-handed Matt Carpenter to the plate, and the left-handed J.P. Howell, fresh off the disabled list, into the game.
Howell went to 3 and 2 on Carpenter. With the spectre of a second walkoff walk of the season looming, Carpenter threw a dinky curve that cut the heart of the plate. Carpenter timed it and parked it, unfortunately for the Cardinals wasting three extra runs they could have saved for the second game. Final score 8-4, now 6 wins and 15 losses and counting, and I don’t have the heart to count how many we should have won.
Lesson from today’s game one? Don’t blow a save in the other guy’s yard.
As soon as I saw the lineups for game two of today’s day-nighter I thought, okay, Gibbie’s resting important people, Casey Lawrence is pitching, and this game is gone already.
Though Toronto made it close at the end, I was right.
Look, I understand the basic principles of setting your lineup each game. Sure, double headers are hard, especially on catchers. So I was fine with Jarrod Saltalamacchia behind the plate. Fine, that is, with someone who’s leading the league in strikeouts and is zero for whatever in throwing out runners. Russell Martin wasn’t going to catch this game and that was that. But his bat was starting to get hot. Why not third base again? We got away with it Tuesday night; what’s to lose?
And why rest Bautista? In case you haven’t noticed, despite his hitting slump, he’s been as frisky as a young foal this spring, and surely would have been ready to answer the bell this time. Absent a stated reason for his sitting this one out, he should have been in there.
So we start with this black hole of strikeout prospects Salty and Steve Pearce hitting in the five-six holes, and you can just imagine the rallies going a-glimmering.
The thing is, Manager John Gibbons was really restricted in his pitching. I get that. He used six relievers in the first game, albeit some with a very light pitch count. And the Jays had a stretch of six games in six days coming up. Gibbie had to start Casey Lawrence and hope for innings, but he could have taken the approach of assuming the Cardinals were going to put up some numbers against Lawrence and try to stack his lineup in order to counter the Cards and turn it into a slugfest.
But—no Jose, no Martin.
Between the pitching issue and the lineup they put on the field, it was inevitable that the Jays would fall into a hole, and that’s exactly what happened. Sure, Lawrence could have been lights-out, but if he were ready to turn in a shutout, he wouldn’t be shuffling from Buffalo, would he?
On the other side of the hill, the Adam Wainwright of 2017 is not the Adam Wainwright of yore, but he’s still in the St. Louis rotation because he’s a veteran who knows how to pitch in the big leagues.
After the Jays wasted a single by Chris Coghlan in the first, the Cardinals went to work on Lawrence right away, and chalked up a big 3 in their half, though it was hardly Lawrence’s fault.
Dexter Fowler led off with a single. Shortstop Greg Garcia followed with a single to right, sending Fowler to third. Matt Carpenter, he of the walkoff grand salami in game one, hit a grounder to second that scored Fowler, but should have been a double play, except that Darwin Barney didn’t field it cleanly and had to take the out at first, Garcia advancing to second.
The Barney fumble was the first mistake Toronto made in the first. The second one can be attributed entirely to the coaching staff. With one out Garcia took off for third, and for once Saltalamacchia’s throw was good enough. But the ump called Garcia safe, and Gibbie waved off a review. The thing is, though, even the home replays had a perfect shot of Coghlan’s glove holding the ball, tagging Garcia on the helmet while his lead hand was still reaching for the bag.
So with Garcia on third when he should have been the second out, Piscotty lofted a sacrifice fly that scored Garcia. Okay, two outs, two runs in, let’s walk it off now. Um, nope. Randall Grichuk, the villain of game one, hit a teaser to third and reached with an infield single. Now there’s bad luck in the mix. With two outs, Grichuk could be off with the crack, and scored on Matt Adams’ double to left. If Grichuk doesn’t get on, Adams never comes to the plate. In the real world, though, Kolten Wong struck out to leave Adams at second, and a seriously hitting-challenged Blu Jay lineup was down 3-0 from the outset.
Like Chinese water torture, the Cardinals dripped, dripped away at Lawrence and the Jays. In the second, Dexter Fowler hit a solo homer with two outs. A big problem with Lawrence in this game was his inability to hold runners, which was coupled with Saltalamacchia’s inability to throw anyone out. In the third Piscotty walked, stole second, and scored on a single by Adams. In the fourth Lawrence let Wainwright get a leadoff base hit, and he came around to score on a broken-bat single, a walk to load the bases, and a fielder’s choice.
By the time it came to the top of the fifth, it was 6-0 St. Louis. Oh, and the Jays? It’s not like Wainwright was mowing them down, but they couldn’t come up with the base hit when they needed it. They loaded the bases in the second, just in time for Lawrence to come to the plate with one out. He hit a come-backer to the mound for the force at the plate, and Pillar flied out. In the third a one-out Zeke Carrera single was erased when Kendrys Morales hit into a double play. In the fourth they went down in order.
This brings us to the top of the fifth, with, remember, the Cards up 6-zip. Then the Jays came to life and made the game close before going back to sleep for the rest of the night. Darwin Barney led off with a double to left. Lawrence successfully bunted him to third. Kevin Pillar scored him with an infield hit. Chris Coghlan doubled to right, sending Pillar to third. Zeke Carrera struck out for the second out. That brought Kendrys Morales to the plate, and Morales brought the Jays within two with a two-out, three-run homer to right.
In the bottom of the fifth, Lawrence’s last, he finally managed to keep the Cards off the board, though he had to strand Matt Adams’ leadoff double in the process.
So at the end of five it was 6-4 Cardinals, and at the end of eight and a half, it was still 6-4, the Cards had swept the day/night double header, and taken the series. The Jays would head home with a 3-4 record on a tough road trip that could easily have been 5-2, with a little bit of luck, but there’s not a lot of luck raining down on Toronto these days.
The rest of the game? Oh, the Jays had exactly one base runner for the rest of the game. In the seventh, Devon Travis, the second last batter faced by Wainwright, singled to left. Kevin Pillar lined out to the left fielder, and Brett Cecil took over. Travis stole second and third almost at will off Cecil, but Cecil was focussed on fanning Jose Bautista, who hit for Coghlan, and popping up Carrera to the second baseman in foul territory. They had gone out in order in the sixth against Wainwright, again in the eighth against Kevin Siegrist, and the ninth against Trevor Rosenthal, who picked up the save.
As for the Jays’ bullpen, Aaron Loup managed to survive filling the bases with walks in the sixth, and then retired the side in the seventh. Danny Barnes had an adventurous ride in the eighth, but kept the Cardinals off the board, with the help of some timid base-running by the Cardinals, and an exciting tag play on the contact play at the plate. With Fowler parked at third instead of scoring on Matt Carpenter’s grounder to Morales at first, Piscotty hit a grounder to third and this time Fowler broke. But third baseman Jose Bautista (yes, that’s right; he stayed in to play third after hitting for Coghlan) made a great throw around the runner in time for Saltalamacchia to make the tag on Fowler.
You have to give Casey Lawrence credit for gritting out five innings, and saving a tired bullpen, as only Loup and Barnes had to be used and made unavailable for the first game with Tampa Bay back home tomorrow night.
Such are the small gifts you can take away from losing a doubleheader and falling to six and sixteen, heading into the last weekend in April. Can the train wreck be averted?
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