I’m appending some comments about this afternoon’s 3-2 loss to the Royals to the end of my long-form coverage of last night’s 5-4 loss, because I missed today’s game, and have only reconstructed its major details through “Blue Jays in 30” and my study of the box score and play-by-play.
But first, Friday night. If you must.
It was all so pretty. Easy, almost. And then it wasn’t.
These weren’t the Royals of 2015. Not at all. But then they were, and pretty is the last word you’d use.
With Roberto Osuna not available tonight, for reasons that were never given, it was up to the rest of the bullpen to try to protect a 4-1 Toronto lead in the bottom of the ninth at Kaufman Stadium in Kansas City. Ryan Tepera got the first two outs all right, but neither he, nor Aaron Loup, nor Jason Grilli, ever got the third one. A good name for a baseball novel, maybe a mystery: The 26-Out Game.
And before we go any further, let’s not lay a single smidgeon of blame on the relievers here. First, it’s a wonder that any of them can even lift their arms at this point. And second, this game should never have been that close. I’m talking about you, Blue Jays’ hitters!
Let’s start by giving credit to Jay Happ for a masterful performane tonight. Each start he’s made since his return from the DL has been stronger than the last, and this one was the best by far, as he went six and two thirds innings and gave up one run on four hits with no walks and five strikeouts on 105 pitches.
While the one run scored off Happ in the seventh may have technically been earned, it was tainted nonetheless. Lorenzo Cain led off with a soft double just over Troy Tulowitzki’s glove at shortstop; despite Kevin Pillar’s hustle and quick release Cain just beat the throw to second. Then Ryan Goins fumbled a soft grounder by Eric Hosmer to allow him to reach and move Cain to third. Finally, Salvador Perez lined another one to left that Dwight Smith charged and got his glove on, but couldn’t quite corral, allowing Cain to score. To be fair, if Smith had caught the ball in a dive Cain would have scored anyway on the sacrifice fly.
With runners on first and second and nobody out, Happ reached back for a little extra, popped up the over-eager Mike Moustakas on the infield fly rule, and struck out Brandon Moss on four pitches. This prompted manager John Gibbons to pop out of the dugout with the hook. Alcides Escobar, who hits right, was coming to the plate, and Gibbie didn’t want the lefty Happ to face him.
This is where I have trouble comprehending Mr. John Gibbons. He’s all non-traditional when it comes to such things as bunting and starting the runner, but when it comes to pitching matchups he’s as rigid as can be. Happ was throwing really well and hadn’t been hit all that hard in the inning. Escobar was hitting under .200 on the season.
Admittedly, Danny Barnes came in and retired Escobar and the Royals on an easy fly ball to centre, so what’s the big deal? Well, it’s this: Barnes came out again for the eighth, having faced one batter and thrown six pitches already. Fast forward to the eighth, when Barnes was running out of gas with two out and a man on second, Jorge Bonifacio, whose one-out drive to left had been lost in the lights by Dwight Smith and fallen for a double. So he brought in Ryan Tepera, who like Barnes got the last out, fanning Lorenzo Cain on six pitches.
In the ninth, then, the game was in Tepera’s hands, with Osuna unavailable for whatever reason. But Tepera had faced a batter in the eighth. He got to two outs before also running out of gas, which was just when Gibbie ran out of effective pitchers.
Have you followed all this? If Gibbie lets Happ deal with Escobar, and he does so successfully, Barnes comes in fresh for the eighth, and Tepera fresh for the ninth. Certainly a scenario much more promising than what transpired, especially when Tepera ran out of gas trying to close it.
And don’t get me started on bringing Aaron Loup in to face Alec Gordon. But let’s look on the bright side first. That is, everything that happpened before the Royals came to bat in the bottom of the ninth.
Happ cruised through the first three innings, getting balls in the air in the first, adding a strikeout and a couple of grounders in the second, and another strikeout in the third. The only hard hit ball was a grounder by Alec Gordon on which Goins made a nice pickup of a tough hop to get the out. After three Happ had thrown only 41 pitches.
In the fourth he gave up his first hit, a one-out double to Jorge Bonifacio, who advanced to third on a groundout to second by Cain but died there when Justin Smoak handled a tough chance on a high bouncer by Eric Hosmer to feed Happ to end the inning.
In the fifth Happ gave up a Texas-Leaguer to left by Brandon Moss with two outs, but Alcides Escobar fouled out to Russell Martin behind the plate to end the inning. Then Happ pitched a clean sixth to bring him into the seventh, as we were saying, having given up no runs on two hits.
Meanwhile, the Jays were having a tough enough time cracking the Royals’ rookie starter, right-hander Jake Junis, who was going after his third win against one loss in his fifth start for Kansas City. His record in his starts so far this season had been decidely spotty, though he he’d had one solid performance against San Diego on June eleventh when he went seven innings for the win and gave up three runs on six hits.
Junis gave up a hit but nothing more in each of the first three innings, and clocked in at 47 pitches, comparable to Happ’s record at that point. Jose Bautista had led off the game by shooting a bouncer to right for a single, taken advantage of the big hole created by the Royals’ shift, but he was erased on a strikeout/throw out/caught stealing with Josh Donaldson going down at the plate on the front end.
In the second inning with two outs Dwight Smith singled to left opposite the shift and was promptly balked to second, the second balk gifted to Toronto this week, when Junis dropped the ball while on the rubbber. But Kevin Pillar was over-anxious and flailed at an 0-2 slider very down and away.
In the third the Jays mounted their best threat against Junis so far, but it was perhaps doomed by coming with two outs. Bautista reached again on soft contact with a Texas Leaguer to centre that Cain should have caught; it was generously scored a hit. Russ Martin finally hit a hard shot that was rewarded as he lined one off Moustakas’ glove into foul territory at third for an infield hit. But then it was Josh Donaldson who brought things to a close by striking out while trying to check his swing on another slider that was ridiculously down and away.
Toronto finally broke through against Junis in the fourth, picking up two runs largely owing to the generosity of the Royals’ starter himself, who started the inning by nicking Kendrys Morales with a low inside curve ball. There was clearly little damage done to the big DH, as he managed to gallop all the way around and score on Troy Tulowitzki’s sliced double to right centre that spun away from Jorge Bonifacio just far enough that it would have taken perfect throws to cut down Morales at the plate. While Bonifacio’s throw to Whit Merrifield was dead on, Merrifield’s throw to the plate was just enough off line toward first to allow Morales to slide in safely with the first run of the game.
Dwight Smith got hold of one off Junis and drove it deep enough to centre that Tulowitzki was able to tag up and move to third on the catch, which was the first out of the inning. Then Kevin Pillar drew a walk, and moved up on a wild pitch to Ryan Goins by Junis that also allowed Tulowitzki to come in with the second run. Pillar wound up at third when Goins grounded out to second, but was stranded there when rookie Ian Parmley, just called up from Buffalo and playing his first major league game, also grounded out to second.
Junis stayed on into the seventh, and left with only the two runs against him on six hits. He’d retired Toronto in order in the fifth, gave up another ground ball single to centre by Dwight Smith with two outs in the sixth, which came to nothing, and was finally “knocked out” if you can call it that by walking Goins to lead off the seventh and giving up a successful sacrifice bunt (you read it here first!) to Parmley, who could claim credit for knocking out the Kansas City starter on a ball that only went twenty feet.
KC manager Ned Yost brought in the unhittable, at least to Toronto, Peter Moylan to stifle the Jays and leave Goins out there on the base paths. Just wild enough to be effective, Moylan continued his dominance over the Jays by making Bautista look foolish on a low outside slider, walking Martin, and then making Donaldson look as foolish as Bautista on an equally low and outside slider.
The Jays missed a glorious opportunity to add on in the eighth inning, when with one out Tulowitzki reached on a slow bouncer to short that was ruled a hit, but that Alcides Escobar muffed with enough time to throw out Tulo, in my opinion. Dwight Smith followed with his third ground ball hit of the night, a high chopper over Hosmer’s head at first that went down into the corner for a double, with Tulo stopping at third.
This set the stage for a play that in retrospect might have been crucial to the outcome of the game, though at the time it seemed innocuous enough. Kevin Pillar hit a modest grounder out to second that Merrifield played on to first. When the play was over, I was surprised to see that Tulowitzki was still at third. Generally I’m not a big fan of the contact play, because I hate to see runners at third wasted, but this was the opposite of the contact play, and seemed to me like a perfectly good grounder to the middle of the field that should have scored the runner. But Tulo stayed home, and ended up still there when Darwin Barney, hitting for Goins against the left-handed Scott Alexander, grounded out to short.
Keeping in mind that the domino effect of John Gibbons yanking Happ with two outs in the seventh was still playing out, Danny Barnes turned it over to Ryan Tepera with two outs in the eighth and Bonifacio on second. Tepera fanned Cain to strand Bonifacio, but at what cost?
The top of the ninth played out like the dream Toronto fans have been waiting for all season. Then of course there was the nightmare, but first the good stuff. Toronto was facing Joakim Soria, a veteran with over 200 saves under his belt, though in his latest stint with the Royals the closer’s job is occupied by Kelvin Herrera, and Soria has been mostly used as a setup man.
After Soria struck out Parmley leading off, Bautista got things going with his third base hit of the day, a single to right, which was also his third safety that was not pulled. It will be interesting to see if that was an anomaly or if it becomes a trend. Soria then walked Martin on a 3-2 pitch. It was interesting that just before Soria threw a wildly inside ball four he threw over to first, presumably to keep Bautista on a short lease. I’m wondering why this obsession with whether or not Bautista might be running. So many pitchers seem to be affected by it, yet how often does he actually run?
This brought Donaldson to the plate, and a big, black cloud to park over my head. In my mind I was already typing my shorthand annotation for “ground into a double play”, or “strikeout swinging”. But lo and behold, Donaldson surprised with a Texas Leaguer to right field on a low outside pitch that not only scored Bautista from second but sent Martin around to third. Justin Smoak followed with another wrong-way 1-2 single to left to score Martin, and Toronto had put up two, count ’em, two, magical insurance runs. It hardly mattered that Tulowitzki grounded into a fielder’s choice, pushing Donaldson to third, and that Soria finally struck out Dwight Smith, keeping him from hitting a fourth ground-ball base hit.
With a 4-1 lead to protect, Tepera came out to salt the game away. Whatever the reason for the absence of Roberto Osuna, you had to like our chances with Tepera.
Especially after he won a ten-pitch struggle with Eric Hosmer leading off, who finally lined out to centre. Then it all went south, not just for Tepera, but for the whole team.
We should have given some thought to the fact that with Salvador Perez coming to the plate, Tepera was already fifteen pitches into his stint. Whatever the reason, arm fatigue or mental fatigue, his second pitch was supposed to be a sinker but did nothing except wait in the middle of the zone for Perez to whack it to deep left centre. Again Smith may have misplayed the ball, in that it cleared his glove and hit the wall as he was drifting back for it, and it hit the wall and kicked toward Pillar coming over from centre while Perez motored into second.
While he looks pretty comfortable at the plate, the jury has to be out on whether Dwight Smith is ready to be a big league outfielder.
Mike Moustakas then hit a soft little liner to Tulowitzki in short centre field for the second, and, little did we know, last, out of the game. Tepera walked Brandon Moss, bouncing one in the process, which allowed Perez to advance to third. Alcides Escobar reached down and looped a Texas Leaguer into right centre that scored Perez and moved Moss around to third. And also brought John Gibbons out with the hook, with the left-handed Alec Gordon coming up.
Time for Gibbie to play the traditionalist, and bring in Aaron Loup to face Gordon, Loup, whose batting average against for left-handed batters is over .300. Gordon’s single to centre didn’t help that stat, and with one pitch the Royals were down to a one-run deficit, and Loup, who put Gordon on with that one pitch, had qualified to lose the game if Gordon scored.
In came Jason Grilli to pitch to the talented rookie Whit Merrifield with the tying run on third and the winning run on first. Unfortunately, Grilli came in likely over-pumped, and had trouble finding the plate. One off the plate inside, one outside, one close that Merrifield fouled off, and then one across the bill of his cap. Sooner or later, Grilli had to come in with it, and Merrifield was ready, pulling the ball into the left-field corner where it went to the fence, and took a deadening bounce off the chain-link which gave the speedy Gordon enough time to come around and score the winning run.
So, on the surface the Jays lost because Tepera, Loup, and Grilli coudn’t get that third out in the absence of Osuna, but if you dig a little deeper you have to question the impact of John Gibbons pulling Jay Happ with two outs in the sixth, and the failure to send Tulowitzki on Pillar’s ground ball in the eighth inning.
Sometimes, baseball is a bit more subtle than what pitcher failed to get which out. Last night’s loss gives us two good examples of that.
And sometimes baseball isn’t subtle at all. Consider a Toronto game in which the following elements existed:
1: Marco Estrada pitches seven innings, gives up three runs on five hits and strikes out six while walking four.
2: Toronto outhits its opponent nine to five.
3: Toronto’s offence produces two home runs.
4: Toronto plays ostensibly error-free ball.
Would you expect that the Blue Jays would have won such a game?
Yeah, me too. And we would have been wrong, as today’s game against Kansas City turned out to be a 3-2 loss to the surging Royals.
How does this happen? It’s quite simple, really, as I look over the box score and play-by-play, having missed the entire game for my grand-daughter’s dance recital. (She was terrific, by the way, and thanks for asking.)
First, the two homers were both solo jobs. Second, Kansas City starter Jason Vargas did an effective job of scattering the Blue Jays hits, and didn’t walk anybody. In only two innings, the fifth and the seventh, did the Jays get more than one base hit, and I’ll talk about those in a moment.
The Royals, as they frequently do, were quick to cash in on opportunities. Of their five hits, one was a solo homer, one was a leadoff triple, of sorts, and one was a triple that followed a single, so four of their five hits were directly involved in the scoring. If you’re counting, only two of the Jays’ nine hits were involved in the scoring.
The problem with the Toronto hitters is the failure to produce in run-scoring opportunities, so obvious that it’s a given. Let’s leave aside the failure to come up with the two-out base hit, such as the first inning, when after Josh Donaldson hit a two-out double to left Justin Smoak hit the ball on the nose but right at Alec Gordon for the third out. That’s where luck comes in to a certain extent—your soft ones fall in, our hard ones get caught.
But then in the fifth, when the bottom of the order, Kevin Pillar and Darwin Barney, led off with base hits, and manager John Gibbons puts the bunt on, ya gotta figure something’s gonna happen. Sure: Luke Maile pops up the bunt attempt, and Jose Bautista hits into a double play.
Then in the seventh they bunched two hits again, a home run and a single, but in the wrong order, with Pillar hitting a solo homer followed by a Barney single. Bad luck? The fates hovering overhead, laughing behind their sleeves? KC karma stronger than TO karma?
In any case, the fact is that Toronto produced nine base hits and only two runs. This is not a prescription for success.
In the category of not missing the trees while being lost in the forest (that’s a hot mess of a proverbial mash-up), let’s note that, first, Marco Estrada pitched a really good game, and for the second game in a row, despite a second loss to Kansas City, gave the team, and the bullpen in particular, some much needed length.
Second, Kevin Pillar continued to swing the bat well and get some results, two for four with the homer.
Third, ditto Troy Tulowitzki at the plate, also two for four with the homer, and I see by the videos that he also made a great play at shortstop to end a threat, and he made it by diving for a ball to his right. Was he really not ready to come back when they activated him? Can his recent lassitude, if we can put it that way, be attributed to his physical condition? Is there some hope that he might pick up his play, and give his team a much-needed boost?
Only the die-hard fan can take such comforts from the fourth loss in a six-game road trip.
Guilty as charged.
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