Baseball is a funny game. Oh, sorry, that line’s already taken, isn’t it? For the younger set out there, it’s the title of Joe Garagiola’s humourous, review of some of the funnier moments in his baseball career—to hear him tell it, they must have been jolly old times in the National League when he was playing. Published in 1960, just as the former veteran major league catcher was beginning to build a career in the baseball broadcast booth, the book helped established his on-mike persona as an easy-going, folksy guy just as happy telling a funny story as he was analyzing the play in front of him. Fans who have been with the Blue Jays since the beginning might recognize the style as similar to that of Early Wynn, the Hall of Fame pitcher who was Tom Cheek’s first radio partner on the Jays’ broadcasts. And, also for the younger set out there, I did not make up that name, all right?
I can recall listening to Garagiola and wishing that he would stop meandering and get to the point, any point. But when you think about it, it’s rather ironic that a lot of listeners found him pretty lame, and got impatient listening to him, yet we hadn’t even heard Harold Reynolds yet. How little we knew.
I’m thinking about the funny—peculiar—nature of baseball as I reflect on tonight’s competent 6-0 whitewashing of the Tigers by three very effective Jays’ pitchers, abetted by some timely hitting and, as so often the case, a very large statement from our Big Teddy, Edwin Encarnacion. Peculiar, because how many times this year have we sat chewing our guts out, waiting for that one big thing to happen that we desperately needed to help us pull out a win, and that mostly didn’t happen? And yet, tonight, though it was rajor-thin for six and a half innings, there was never the sense that this one might get away.
Jay Happ threw a lot of pitches in his five and two thirds innings tonight, but he was never really in much trouble, because he only walked one, and scattered the six hits he yielded to the extent that the Tigers only had two baserunners in an inning twice while he was on the mound. In the third he gave up a double to Jose Iglesias and a single to Miguel Cabrera, but Cabrera’s two-out hit came after Iglesias had blundered into a tag at third on a ground ball back to Happ by Cameron Maybin. In the sixth he gave up another hit to Cabrera leading off, got the next two batters, and was then lifted, at 109 pitches, after issuing his only walk to Maybin. Adding to his high pitch count but in a good way were nine strikeouts. Jesse Chavez came in and completed Happ’s line. He left the bases loaded, after yielding a base hit to the first batter he faced, James McCann, by getting Mike Aviles to ground into a force-out at second.
The Tigers countered Happ by giving the starting assignment to journeyman right-hander Mike Pelfrey, who came to them after several undistinguished years with the Twins. Prior to that, from 2008 to 2011 he had been a regular member of the New York Mets rotation, where he posted a .500 record with an average ERA of around 4.30, while throwing between 193 and 204 innings. I know I keep saying this, but it’s quite amazing how many teams in the Major League Baseball rely on very ordinary starting pitchers with very ordinary stats to carry so much of their rotational load. It almost seems as though the biggest qualification for a place in a rotation is the ability to accumulate innings on the mound, even if they’re not all, or even mostly, quality innings.
Though not possessing the ability to blow hitters away like Happ, Pelfrey’s performance tonight was quite comparable He also gave up 6 hits, but walked three, and threw 103 pitches in six full innings. He departed down 1-0 to the Jays, on a run that scored in the fifth as Josh Donaldson hit into a 5-4-3 double play, scoring Darwin Barney from third. Barney led off with a double to left, and was held at third on Zeke Carrera’s single to centre. With nobody out and runners on first and third, Pelfrey got the ground ball he needed, but it did put the Jays in the lead.
As in last night’s game, both starters kept their teams close and both departed leaving one of them with a one-run lead. For the second night in a row the game would be decided by the bullpens.
For a bullpen that has been maligned and distrusted in general for most of the season, save for the excellence of the closer, it has to be said that more recent outings would suggest that the relief corps is coming around and finding the ability to keep the offence within striking distance. Last night Brett Cecil got himself into trouble but minimized the damage in the seventh, and Jason Grilli and Roberto Osuna kept the Tigers off the board while the Jays mounted the winning rally. Tonight, Jesse Chavez stayed on for the seventh after bailing out his starter in the sixth, and retired the side in order. Bo Schultz then went six up, six down to finish off the game. So, all told, the Jays’ relievers set down ten Tigers in a row to close out the game after Chavez allowed the two-out single to the first batter he faced.
Also for the second night in a row it would be the Detroit bullpen that would crack. Though the run already allowed by Pelfrey proved the winner, hanging the loss on him, the failure of the Tigers to hold the Jays close had to contribute to the obvious brio with which both Chavez and Schultz took the mound.
Like the night before, Manager Brad Ausmus brought in the left-handed Kyle Ryan to turn Justin Smoak around. Like the night before, it didn’t work, as Smoak singled to centre leading off. Like the night before, Ausmus left the southpaw in to face the two right-handed hitters following Smoak, with an eye toward the left-handed-hitting Carrera, down there in the hole. Like the night before, damage was done before he got to Carrera, and then he walked the guy he was supposed to get, after yielding a run-scoring double to Kevin Pillar and getting Darwin Barney on a liner to first. Of course Ausmus pulled Ryan after the walk to Zeke, and the call went out to Bobby Parnell, who got the second out when Josh Donaldson hit an infield fly, but then gave up the clincher for the Jays, a three-run homer to Edwin Encarnacion. Parnell escaped further damage, though he did give up base hits to the Canadian Corps, Michael Saunders and Russell Martin, before retiring the side.
It had to feel pretty good, then, to Bo Schultz as he came in to start the eighth, now with a five-run lead to protect, rather than a one-run lead. As I reported above, Schultz was good for it, and the team shutout was preserved.
Just for good measure the home boys added a nice small-ball run from their bottom guys, who seem to work so well together, in the bottom of the eighth against their old teammate Mark Lowe, who has not exactly found the Elysian Fields in Detroit. After Lowe fanned Justin Smoak to lead off the inning, Kevin Pillar singled to left, and then he and Darwin Barney pulled off a textbook hit-and-run, sending Pillar to third, ready to score when Zeke Carrera followed with a sac fly. Nicely done!
Now up by six, Schultz sailed through the ninth and the game was in the bag.
So, how do you feel when every critical turning point in the game falls in your favour, especially when it results in a seventh straight win? Pretty darned good.
Tomorrow night it’s Aaron Sanchez for the Jays going against former Jay prospect Matt Boyd, one of the puzzle pieces given up to Detroit for David Price last year. Anyone up for eight straight?
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