Anybody who says all you need is a good night’s sleep is a liar.
The last pitch of Saturday night’s Cleveland-Toronto game was deposited far up into the right field seats by Francisco Lindor in the tenth inning to give Cleveland a 2-1 win over Toronto.
Sunday afternoon, after a quick and dreary Toronto first inning against Corey Kluber, the first three Cleveland hitters against Jay Happ put the ball in play safely, and Cleveland was ahead 1-0 before they had even made an out.
Good night’s sleep or not, the Blue Jays had entered a Sunday afternoon nightmare, fourteen strikeouts by Kluber in an embarrassingly easy and boring 8-1 Cleveland victory that sealed the home team sweep over the staggering visitors from north of the border, and likely convinced the last three playoff believers in Toronto that the jig was up for their favourite team.
I’m not combining the two weekend games in Cleveland into one report in order to be done with the whole dismal duty more quickly, though that would be a consideration, but because I missed the majority of Saturday night’s game. In adherence to my strict policy of not reporting what I haven’t seen, I’m covering only the end of that game, and then going on to Sunday though, truth be told, I’d rather not.
It’s not that I missed the first six innings of Saturday night’s game for a non-baseball related issue, but precisely because it was related to baseball, in a way that was very dear to the saddened heart of yer humble scribe.
Starting in 1989, and for most of the next decade, I was way too busy coaching baseball to follow the Blue Jays anywhere nearly as carefully as I do now. Yes, that includes the hallowed years of 1992 and 1993.
My second coaching career (our two sons were born ten and a half years apart, so I had two coaching careers) began with a house league junior T-Ball team in the Islington Minor Baseball League in Etobicoke in1989. As is often done at that level, two coaches were assigned (coerced, usually) to each team, and in most cases they would meet for the first time at the first team practice in the early spring. That first practice was the day I met GS.
The coaching partnership that started with those little rugrats in 1989 continued unbroken for the next seven years. GS was the finest man I ever knew. He was loyal, dependable, consistent, wise, and funny, with sparkling eyes and an impish grin. We complemented each other perfectly. I was the inspirer, the teacher/demonstrator, and had the final call. Putting it in terms of working on the field, I coached third and he coached first, if you get the point.
He was the detail man; he worked out the drills and the routines that enabled us to teach the game, which we did very successfully, I must say. He was also the one-on-one guy, who always recognized the need for some individual counselling before I did, and looked after it in a way that made the player feel like he had been treated not only fairly, but as an equal. Together, we took a group of players from a relatively poor and under-financed organization, and made them into a respectable and competitive team, year after year, until the distractions of the mid-teen years broke us up, as inevitably happens.
I cherished my time working with GS, and always intended, as he did with me, to keep in touch after our coaching days were over. As often happens, however, various directions in our lives pulled us apart, and over time we lost nearly all contact. It was a relationship best characterized by the thought, “I really should get in touch with GS one of these days.” But, mostly, we didn’t.
Until the Canada Day weekend, when I received a phone call from his wife, to tell me that her husband, an experienced long-distance cyclist, had been killed in a collision with a car only a few blocks from his home. This superbly-fit, universally loved seventy-year-old had been taken away in an instant, when I wasn’t looking. I was not only in shock over the news, I was also distraught over the fact that I had allowed the relationship to fade over the years, and now it was too late to repair the gap.
Saturday night, an hour before Marcus Stroman and Danny Salazar were to face off in Cleveland, a memorial gathering was scheduled to honour the life and achievements of my good friend GS. Of course I had to attend, and of course that took precedence over my Blue Jays’ watching duties. It was a bittersweet evening, with many people there from different facets of his life, not to mention his wife and adult children. It was nice to reconnect, but none of us would have chosen an occasion like this to do it.
I spent most of my time reminiscing with two of my former players, and I was pleased and honoured to be told by both of them that the life lessons, not to mention the baseball lessons, that GS and I had instilled in them, had sustained them into their mid-thirties. The life equivalents of such baseball traditions as always running on the field, wearing the uniform properly, and executing the rundown play correctly, had helped them to become the fine, responsible young adults that they are today.
So my first information about Saturday night’s game came from Jerry and Joe on the car radio as I drove away from the gathering. I learned that Cleveland was leading 1-0 in the sixth inning, that Danny Salazar had been nearly untouchable, and the only run came on a bobble of a double-play ball by Josh Donaldson at third.
By the time I got home, Michael Brantley was on third, courtesy of a double and a Stroman wild pitch, with only one out. By the time I got into the house and turned the game on, the inning was over and it was still 1-0. There’s no video of the second out, which was the crucial one, but it was a fly ball to centre by Jose Ramirez, and I have to assume it was too shallow to risk sending Brantley. Then Stroman got Carlos Santana to ground out to second and Brantley died at third.
Regardless of whether there was any chance of the Jays breaking through, either against Salazar or the back end of the Cleveland bullpen, the fact that Stroman was pitching into the seventh inning was huge for manager John Gibbons and his beleaguered bullpen.
Both pitchers continued their mastery in the seventh. Salazar retired the top of the Toronto order easily, Jose Bautista on a soft grounder to third, Russell Martin on a booming fly to left, and Josh Donaldson striking out. Stroman gave up a one-out walk to Yan Gomes, but there was no further damage, as he struck out the first and fourth hitters he faced.
Cleveland manager Terry Francona decided to close the books on Salazar after the seventh, despite the fact that he had only thrown 86 pitches over seven innings, giving up one hit, no runs, and no walks while striking out eight.
Obviously Francona must be having second thoughts about pulling his starter. In his defense, why would he be concerned about bringing in Andrew Miller to pitch the eighth and protect a 1-0 lead? How was he to know, how was anyone to know, that Justin Smoak, turned around to the right side against the left-handed Miller, would take a four-seamer out over the plate on a long and beautiful ride over the right-field fence, where it hit a railing and bounced sassily back unto the field, to tie the game?
After the Smoak shot, Miller retired the side, notching two strikeouts while giving up a base hit to Steve Pearce that came to nothing.
It probably would have taken a strait jacket to keep Marcus Stroman from coming back out for the eighth now that the score was knotted, and he almost got through it. He retired Lindor on a hard-hit grounder to short, but then walked Michael Brantley, bringing Edwin to the plate. After Edwin destroyed us Friday night, how piquant was it to have him come up against the Jays’ young right-hander, his erstwhile pal and cheerleader? Don’t know what’ll happen next time, but Stroman came out on top this time, inducing a mighty whiff on a high 1-2 slider. What a feat it would have been for him to finish off his night by retiring the tough Jose Ramirez for the third out, but it was not to be: Ramirez singled to left on Stroman’s 117th pitch, and that was the end of his strong night, seven and two thirds innings, one scratchy run on five hits with five walks and seven strikeouts.
Ryan Tepera came in and in another dramatic confrontation struck out Carlos Santana on a 3-2 pitch to end the inning.
There seems to be a new approach to using your closer in tie ball games. It’s become the fashion for the home team to use its closer in the top of the ninth of a tie game. The idea is to give your team the best possible chance to get to the bottom of the ninth still tied, since the advantage is with the home team in the tie game.
Accordingly, Cody Allen came in to face Darwin Barney leading off the ninth and committed the cardinal sin for a closer, walking the leadoff man, number nine in the lineup, no less. But first base coach Jim Lieper and Cleveland left fielder Michael Brantley teamed up to erase Allen’s mistake. Jose Bautista hit a fly ball fairly deep to left field that Brantley camped under. Lieper decided to challenge Brantley’s arm and have Barney move up to second on the catch, but Brantley fired it all the way in the air to Ramirez at second, in enough time for Ramirez to get the tag on Barney for the double play.
Russell Martin grounded out to the second baseman for the third out, and it was on to the bottom of the ninth, when Jays’ manager John Gibbons played the visiting team’s tied-game card, and brought in Joe Biagini, rather than his closer. Despite walking Yan Gomes with one out, Biagini sent it into extra innings, striking out Almonte and Zimmer in the process.
And so it was off to the tenth, and for anyone dreading a long extra-inning game, there was nothing to worry about here.
Not that the Jays didn’t give it a shot in the top of the tenth. Francona left Cody Allen in, which was a bit of a surprise. He got a ground ball for the first out, except that Francisco Lindor, of all people, booted it, allowing Donaldson to reach first. Then Allen walked Smoak on a 3-2 pitch, and things started to look promising. But Morales struck out, and Pearce, in the most crucial at bat, hit the ball right to Giovanny Urshela near the bag at third, and he was able to make the force on Donaldson for the second out.
At this point Francona decided that Allen had been extended far enough, at 31 pitches, and brought in Brian Shaw to face Kevin Pillar, whom he retired on an easy grounder to Santana at first.
Any hope the Jays had for another kick at the can only lasted as long as it took Danny Barnes to throw seven pitches to Lindor in the bottom of the tenth. Lindor crushed a 2-2 pitch from Barnes, and it was clearly the ball game right off the bat.
2-1 Cleveland, and a tough loss made tougher by the fact that it followed Friday night’s blowout, and wasted a fine performance by the only Jays’ starter who can be depended on to provide a quality start in this season of wasted opportunities and crippling injuries.
If we can’t win behind Stroman, when can we win?
Not on Sunday, it turns out. With the Toronto rotation in disarray, the next best chance for a start that could lead to a win would be behind Jay Happ, who happened to be Sunday’s starter. But when he was up against Corey Kluber, and he gave up four runs in the bottom of the first before he got a second out, what were you left with? A long and painful denouement, as if I had to tell you.
Kluber, despite Cleveland’s appearance in the World Series, flies a bit under the radar in terms of premier starters like Clayton Kershaw, Jake Arrieta, Chris Sale, and the Young Turks of Washington and the Mets. But all you have to do is look at his strikeouts and innings pitched to realize that he’s the real deal. Without overpowering speed, by the end of Sunday’s game, he’d struck out 149 in 108 and a third innings, which worked out to nearly 12.4 strikeouts per nine innings. How long has it been since any Toronto pitcher struck out 12 in a game?
But he started Sunday’s game with two balls beaten into the ground for outs by Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson, and a fly ball to left, opposite field, by Justin Smoak.
This took ten pitches, and the Clevelands were coming up for their hits before most of the crowd was settled in its seats.
If the fans were really late and missed the bottom of the first, they missed most of the fun, so long as they were supporters of the home team. After four pitches by Jay Happ, Cleveland had a run in, runners on first and second, nobody out, and Edwin standing in at the plate.
Carlos Santana singled to centre on a 1-0 pitch. Francisco Lindor bunted toward a vacant third with the shift on on the first pitch. Michael Brantley singled to centre on the first pitch to score Santana. This time Edwin was not the executioner, flying out to Pillar in centre as the runners held their ground. Probably with intent, Happ walked the dangerous Jose Ramirez on four pitches to load the bases, bringing Brandon Guyer to the plate, with the Jays obviously looking for a double play.
They got the double, but not the play, as Guyer cleared the bases with a bullet to the alley in left centre. Appropriately, it one-hopped the fence in the middle of a sign advertising something called “Blaster: Work it like a pro”*. With three not-so-bad runners on the bases, all of them rode home on the hit, and Kluber had four runs to play with. Happ retired Abraham Almonte and Yan Gomes to strand Guyer at second, but the damage . . . well, you know the rest . . .
*I looked around for “Blaster” and apparently it’s a marketing tool that you can buy to game the system and increase the ranking of your YouTube videos. Strange thing to advertise on the outfield fence of a ball park, methinks. How many baseball fans spend the rest of their time dreaming of YouTube viral-ity? (Viral-ness?)
Just in case Toronto had any thoughts of striking back right away against Kluber, he came out in the bottom of the second and struck out the side, Kendrys Morales, Steve Pearce, and Miguel Montero, on thirteen pitches.
And that was the ball game. So the Blue Jays return to Toronto with their tail feathers between their legs (do birds even do that?) after going 3-7 on a road trip where they needed an 8-2 to continue to entertain any thoughts of contending . . .
Wait, what? I’ve only covered an inning and a half of the game? You actually want more about this Toronto turkey fest, this nothing burger, in the immortal words of the Fascist mouthpieces in Washington?
Well, what can I do? I’ll try to find something interesting to write a bit about, but I’m not spending too much time on this. I’ve got better things to do with my time, like changing the furnace filters.
Let’s start with Jay Happ. The description of his first inning makes it sound like it was a pretty bad outing for him, and if you just look at the scoreboard, it was. But when you think about it, he’s a fly ball pitcher, and five of the seven runs he gave up came on the sort of elevated contact that he regularly gets, and may sometimes be solid, and sometimes not. The Guyer double in the first was one, and the Brantley home run after a Santana walk in the sixth was the other.
Which brings us to an important point: Happ held on through six innings, absorbing nine hits and seven runs, and while his inability to contain the Cleveland offence contributed to the Jays’ loss today, his survival through six innings gave the Toronto bullpen a much-needed break after the drubbing Friday night and the extra-inning game Saturday.
After Happ’s day was finished the Smith Brothers came in for Toronto and dispensed, not cough drops, but baseballs, to finish off the game. Joe Smith pitched the seventh, his first appearance since returning from the DL. He gave up a run on an Almonte double and a Gomes RBI single with two outs, but he got his three outs on strikeouts of Guyer and Urshela, and a late-swing foul fly by Ramirez.
Chris Smith, recently recalled from Buffalo for his second callup to the Jays, made his second appearance of the season and kept Cleveland off the board despite giving up a two-out double to Zimmer followed by a walk to Edwin, ending the inning by inducing a fly ball to centre by Ramirez on a full count. Chris Smith’s record is still perfect: two innings pitched in two appearances, with an ERA of 0.00.
Not much you can say about Corey Kluber. His line says it all, seven and two thirds innings, one run on five hits with two walks and fourteen strikeouts. He threw 120 pitches, a season high, but this wasn’t really out of line; in his last eight starts he’s thrown over 100 pitches, and in only one of these did he fail to go at least seven innings, the exception being 101 pitches over five innings in Detroit on July ninth.
So how did Toronto manage to score even one run off Kluber? Well, in the top of the third leadoff batter Kevin Pillar went up to the plate determined to put a swing on it if Kluber threw a strike, which he did. And which Pillar hit one hell of a long way out of the park to left for the Jays’ only run. At the time that made it 4-1 for Cleveland, and the evidence that Kluber was actually human might have spurred Toronto on to chip further into the Cleveland lead, but it didn’t. Toronto had a runner in scoring position in the fourth and in the sixth but were unable to cash him in.
A last note that should be mentioned. It may seem unfair to point out that for the second day in a row Josh Donaldson mishandled what could have been a crucial play. In the third inning, down 4-1, Happ gave up a single to Edwin and then retired Ramirez on a fly ball to left. Then Guyer hit a sharp grounder to third that Donaldson fielded cleanly but then pulled his throw to second and all hands were safe. Happ fanned Almonte, and Goins made a fine play on a sharp grounder by Gomes to end the inning, so there was no damage from the error, but after his bobble allowed the first run to score against Stroman on Saturday, you have to wonder: is he still suffering from an injury, or are his batting woes bleeding over onto the field?
So, as I was saying, we needed to have a great road trip, and we had a lousy one instead, and now the future seems clearer, if not very rosy.
Sorry, folks, I’m just the messenger here.
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