As I was saying, it’s not like it’s do-or-die time for the whole season yet, but it sure feels like it. I guess it’s how the schedule has been overloaded so far with games against divisional rivals. Add to that the fact that we have had so many close games already this season, and we all know exactly what has to change to start winning more of those close games, that it all makes for pretty tense times, even though it’s only early June.
(In case you’re not counting, I just looked back over the whole season to date, and of the 63 games the Jays have played, 19 of them have been decided by one run, and the Jays have only won seven.)
So after the Jays lost to the Orioles in their eighteenth one-run game last night, when the O’s broke a 5-5 tie in the top of the ninth for the win, tonight’s game took on special significance for the home side. Fortunately for our prospects tonight, we had Marco Estrada going for us, which has pretty well guaranteed a solid starting turn for the Jays for most of the season. On the other hand, because of the fact that Troy Tulowitzki remains on the disabled list, and Jose Bautista was forced to take a night off to deal with muscle tightness in his thigh, the team’s offence, not very reliable at the best of times, was a bit more undermanned than usual.
Through the first four innings, this combination of positive and negative factors worked very much in favour of the Jays. Estrada had a great start, setting down nine in a row before issuing two walks in the fourth, then fanning American League home-run leader Mark Trumbo for his fifth strikeout in the four innings. Meanwhile, the Jays broke on top with a run in the first, ending the suspense early as to whether they would get any hits at all with runners in scoring position, though they would end up only 1 for 3 in that respect for the inning. Orioles’ starter Kevin Gausman, who has great stuff, contributed to his own difficulties to make the run unearned.
When he’s inserted into the leadoff spot for Bautista, Ezequiel Carrera brings a different dimension to the position. He dropped down a nice bunt toward third that Gausman double-clutched on, giving him an infield single. Then Carrera’s threat to run was enough to unsettle the pitcher, and he threw wildly to first trying to hold him close. The ball careened down the line, and Carrera raced around to third, whence Josh Donaldson promptly delivered him with a single to right. With the Jays obviously looking to shake things up a bit, Donaldson promptly stole second, but died there when Gausman, finding his stuff, impressively fanned Edwin Encarnacion and Michael Saunders to strand Donaldson in scoring position.
Unfortunately the Jays wasted two leadoff baserunners in the second, in a frustrating lapse back into station-to-station baseball and the hitting doldrums. Devon Travis came to the plate following a four-pitch walk to Russell Martin and a single to right by Kevin Pillar. With Travis hitting below .150 since his return to the lineup, it was obviously a bunt situation. But not to Manager John Gibbons. He had Travis swing away, he was out on the infield fly rule, and the momentum of the inning was broken. Darwin Barney then grounded one to the shortstop, which would have scored Martin from third except that the runners hadn’t moved up because Gibbie didn’t bunt. So it became a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning, and the score remained 1-0.
After a clean third for both pitchers, and after Estrada stranded the two walks in the fourth, Michael Saunders led off the Jays’ half of the fourth with a solo home run to double the Jays’ lead. That was all they got in the inning, but there was a little more small ball to be had. After the Saunders dinger, Gausman walked Justin Smoak, and with nobody out Russell Martin laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt, but then Kevin Pillar and Devon Travis flied out to limit the damage. Um, it’s great to see a successful sac bunt, but where was it in the second?
As the Orioles came to bat in the fifth, it was a familiar script so far: a little run support for Estrada, not much, but enough, because once again he’d held the opposing team hitless through four, the two walks in the fourth being the only two baserunners allowed so far. But this time we didn’t have to wait long to see the no-hitter broken up, as the worm began to turn on Estrada. He got Matt Wieters on a groundout to first to open the inning making it 13 out of 15 retired with no hits, but that was it. Jonathan Schoop turned on an 0-2 pitch and drilled it over the fence in left centre to cut the lead in half. The bottom of the order, Nelson Reimold and Ryan Flaherty, singled to left, and Reimold moved to third on a deep fly to centre by Adam Jones. But Estrada fanned Hyun Soo Kim to leave Reimold at third and preserve his slim lead.
He wasn’t so lucky in the sixth, though, when he coughed up the lead, and was only able to wiggle off the hook for the loss when the Jays for once came right back and tied it up. It was quick in the sixth: Chris Davis followed a leadoff walk to Manny Machado with a sudden and decisive first-pitch thunderbolt to right centre, and just like that the Orioles were in the lead. Estrada induced Mark Trumbo to pop out to Russell Martin, who made a great athletic catch in foul territory, but then walked Matt Wieters before again buckling down to fan the last two hitters he would face, Schoop and Reimold. At this point he had only given up four hits, but two of them left the park, and the fact that he had walked four and fanned eight meant that his pitch count, at 106, was too high to continue.
Just as it looked like the game was going to be turned over to the lock-down guys in the Baltimore bullpen, the Jays tied it up in the bottom of the sixth. Russell Martin, who is having more and more effective at-bats every game, singled to score Justin Smoak, who was on second with a double. Though Gausman would hang on for one more out in the seventh, the fact that the game was tied at the end of six meant that the two bullpens would battle it out on a more equal footing.
On this night, the Jays’ pen was fully up to the task. Jesse Chavez pitched the seventh and eighth, issuing only one walk, while getting five ground balls and a popup. Roberto Osuna pitched the ninth, and must have thought he was going to get a save, because he got a weak grounder and two strikeouts on 13 pitches. And Drew Storen pitched his best inning of the year in the tenth, breezing through the top of the Orioles’ order on six pitches.
In the meantime, the Orioles managed to keep the Jays off the board until the tenth, but it was a lot more scrambly on their end, as the Jays continued to miss opportunities to close out the game with runners in scoring position. In the seventh Mychal Givens came in to retire Donaldson and Encarnacion with Darwin Barney at second. In the eighth he got Devon Travis to ground out with Russell Martin on third. Only in the ninth did Brad Brach keep the home team off the bases.
When you add these last four outs with runners in scoring position to one in the first, two in the second, one in the fourth, and one in the sixth, you get nine failures to deliver runners in scoring position. If just one of those nine chances had been converted, the game wouldn’t have ended up in the hands of Storen and Encarnacion in the tenth.
Oh, yeah, Encarnacion. When he led off in the tenth, Brach, who had breezed in the ninth, had only given up one home run all year. But after he went full count on Mr. Parrot leading off the bottom of the tenth, he went to what has become the tried-and-true out pitch for Encarnacion, down and away. But this time Edwin stayed with it and hit it where it was pitched, driving it over the right field fence for the win.
So it was a happy ending for the good guys. Estrada, as always, pitched well enough to win, the bullpen backed him up heroically for four innings, and the offence, as always, didn’t give him the support he needed, until, crucially, they did, to tie the game as he was making his exit. And Edwin Encarnacion yet again provided the margin for victory in a very satisfying 10-inning win. The series, not “crucial”, but pretty important nonetheless, is tied at one, and we give the ball to Jay Happ Saturday afternoon, who will go up against Michael Wright. On paper it would appear that the Jays have the advantage.
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