One time, when we picked up my then-three-year-old grand-daughter to take her for a visit, she had it fixed in her head for some reason that was only clear to her that she had an urgent need for her own box of bandages. She announced this as soon as she got in the car, and when we kind of chuckled at the strange request, she became very indignant. No matter what we said, trying not to laugh at her, she kept saying in a most distressed tone, “But, but, I really, really, really, got to get some bandages!”
As I anticipated this afternoon’s concluding game of the series in Detroit, I found her insistent refrain running through my mind, with a few slight alterations, “But, but, we really, really, really got to win this ballgame!” After winning 12 of 16 before arriving in Detroit, and taking five series in a row, the consecutive losses to the Tigers, especially considering the manner in which they played out, had been a complete shock. First the 11-zip blowout that undressed Jay Happ in public, right out there on the mound, and then the careless waste of Aaron Sanchez’ gem in a loss that will still hurt long after the season ends. If possible, the last 48 hours have been the hardest stretch that true Blue fans have had to endure in this entire, entirely strange, season.
In times like this it’s good to be able to turn to a veteran, someone totally unflappable, to pull the fellas together and say, “We can do this.” And who on this team is more of a veteran, and more unflappable, than old Mr. Knucksie, R.A. Dickey. (I like that word, “unflappable”. It’s one of that strange class of words that exist only in the negation, and not in the declaration. What would “flappable” even mean?) He was indeed a reassuring sight out there warming up in the bullpen before the game, especially in respect of the fact that he has pitched exceptionally well in his last two outings, both against the slugging, slashing Red Sox, when he completed 12 innings, giving up only five hits and three earned runs. But it wouldn’t be easy. The Tigers have been on a roll, they had to be up after the wins the last two nights, and they had the intimidating Jordan Zimmerman going for them. Since arriving in Detroit this year from the Nationals, his won-loss record and his ERA, even after giving up seven earned runs in only four and two thirds innings and taking the loss today, stands at 8-3 and 3.30.
Of course pitching is only one side of the equation, isn’t it—a team can waste some awfully well-pitched ball games if they can’t put the ball in play at least a few times per game with runners in scoring position. So not only would Dickey have to pitch more effectively than Zimmerman, he would have to receive at least a modicum of run support to pull out this much-needed win.
Things looked pretty good for him even before he took the mound. With two outs and Josh Donaldson on first base with a single, Justin Smoak finally broke the Jays’ futility streak by hitting a home run to right off Zimmerman. Technically, of course, Smoak’s blast still didn’t break his team’s 0 for Detroit string of no hits with runners in scoring position, since Donaldson was on first when Smoak came to bat, and not in scoring positon. They would finally break the streak in the third, and we’ll get to that in a minute. In the meantime, we had the lead, and a certain sense of relief.
There’s always a bit of trepidation about holding a small lead over a good-hitting team when Dickey is pitching, though. The biggest chink in the armour of baseball’s best knuckleball pitcher is his tendency to give up home runs. It’s natural that if he is having trouble locating his butterflies early, he will have to lay one in there from time to time because he really needs a strike. There is an obvious risk to that, often early in the game, before he has found the grip and rhythm he needs for his out pitch to be effective. And so it was today. With Mike Aviles on first with a single, Dickey grooved one to cleanup hitter Nick Castellanos, and just like that the game was tied. Thus marked the beginning of a particularly scuffly, but also particularly gritty, performance by Dickey, which set the pattern for the Jays’ pitching staff to keep the Tigers off the board for the rest of the night.
In his second inning of work, Dickey had to rely on his own athleticism to stifle a potential rally. With one out, Andrew Romine singled to right, and hustled around to third on a single to centre by Jose Iglesias, a perfectly-executed hit-and-run. But Iglesias got careless, forgetting that Dickey is merciless with careless runners at first, and got himself picked off. Dickey then walked Ian Kinsler, perhaps wisely, on a three and two pitch, and then got Aviles to fly out to centre, to dodge the bullet.
Dickey cruised through the third and fourth, erasing a Castellanos single in the third with a double-play ball, and enticing three easy fly ball outs in the fourth. He held the Orioles from further damage in the fifth despite allowing two-out singles to Aviles and Miguel Cabrera, getting out of the inning when Castellanos, who always seemed to be at the plate, grounded out to Donaldson at third.
But Dickey’s long innings in the second and the fifth elevated his pitch count, and when he got himself into more trouble with one out in the sixth, he departed, leaving a leadoff J.D. Martinez single at third with one out, as Martinez had advanced to second on a wild pitch, and to third on a move-em-up right-side ground ball by Justin Upton for the first out. Manager John Gibbons called on Jesse Chavez to close the door, and in one of the more stirring moments for the bullpen this season, Chavez struck out two to strand Martinez.
Chavez came back out for the seventh, fanned his third straight, issued a one-out walk, and induced a double play to complete a very good one and two thirds innings of relief pitching. Drew Storen pitched over a walk and a hit batsman to blank the Orioles in the eighth, and Aaron Loup got two outs and Gavin Floyd one in a three-up, three-down ninth.
So the pitching side worked out great today. Dickey skated through crowds of baserunners to hold the Tigers to two runs, and the parade of relievers that followed all effectively stifled the Tigers for the first time in the series.
By the time Dickey departed in the sixth, he was the proud possessor of a 7-2 Blue Jays’ lead, thanks to two more outbursts featuring uncharacteristic run production that eventually finished Zimmeerman off after four and two thirds innings of work. In the third, Zimmerman made the mistake of walking number nine hitter Josh Thole to lead off the inning. Jose Bautista promptly moved him to third with a double, and both runners rode home on Josh Donaldson’s homer to left centre, which was the blow that actually broke the Jays’ streak of abandoning runners in scoring position. They had a chance for more when Smoak followed Donaldson with a double and moved to third on a Kevin Pillar single, but Zimmerman escaped further damage, benefitting from a weird double play. Ezequiel Carrera hit a grounder to first, and Miguel Cabrera went to second to start the double play, getting the force on Pillar. But Smoak somehow committed to trying to score as the play was being made at second, and was thrown out by Jose Iglesias.
Then in the fifth Kevin Pillar got yet another hit with a runner in scoring position, a miracle of riches, when his triple scored Josh Donaldson, who had tripled, and Edwin Encarnacion, who had walked. This extended the Jays’, and Dickey’s, lead to five, concluded the scoring for both sides, ended Zimmerman’s outing, and turned the game over to the Jays’ bullpen, the results of which risky move I have already described above.
Timely hitting by Donaldson, who ended up a double short of the cycle, hopes for which died in the on-deck circle in the ninth, and Pillar, combined with a solid pitching performance, gave the Jays the boost they needed to bring back one win out of three from Detroit to the friendly surroundings of the TV Dome. Maybe this win will be a start toward shortening the division lead the Orioles have been enjoying for most of the season. They face the Orange Birds in a four-game series at home starting tomorrow evening, Marcus Stroman against Tyler Wilson.
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