I have an idea: let’s talk about whether or not the Blue Jays should limit Aaron Sanchez’ innings on the mound this season.
I have an even better idea: let’s never raise that subject again. Note: this means you, idiotic radio call-in guy who no more than two days ago was rambling on about how “fantastic” it would be for the Jays to have Sanchez and Osuna linked in the bullpen for the playoffs.
Now, where were we? Oh, yeah, the playoffs: Hey, we made it!
With Toronto’s spine-tinglingly tight 2-1 season-closing win against the Big Bad Red Sox and their ace David Price this afternoon, the Blue Jays played their way into the top American League Wild Card slot. (Let’s not forget to give a nod to lowly Atlanta for coming up big and sealing Detroit’s fate, as they landed just outside the magic circle.) Toronto will now host Baltimore on Tuesday evening at the TV Dome in the Big Smoke.
Conflicting emotions: Oh, joy! Oh, no! Here’s what I’m going to do at 8:00 Tuesday night while I’m waiting for Marcus Stroman or Francisco Liriano to throw the first pitch to Adam Jones: I’m going to chew two 81-milligram aspirin, and put 911 on speed dial. So far my heart’s been up to every challenge I’ve had to face in life (knock on wood), but a sudden-death (note the eery terminology), one-and-done, winner plays on, loser goes home, wild card play-in game? Best not to take any chances!
Leaving aside the fact that it really would have been nice if we had been sitting on a five-game lead in the division going into game 162 of this long season, it’s hard to imagine a more fitting and perfect climax to regular-season play for 2016 than today’s matchup between Aaron Sanchez and the Toronto Blue Jays, and David Price and the Boston Red Sox.
Love him, tolerate him, or wish him godspeed to anywhere except the home team dugout in Toronto (I don’t include hate him here, because who could really hate the lovable goof?), ya gotta hand it to John Gibbons, ably advised, no doubt, by pitching coach Pete Walker. They could not have handled the rotation any better than to come into this game with Aaron Sanchez on the hill.
The first goal for 2016 for Aaron Sanchez was to determine if he really is a major league top-of-rotation pitcher. Check. The second goal was to ensure to the best of anybody’s ability that his arm would still be strong at the end of the season. Check again. The first two having been accomplished, the third goal was to have him lined up to pitch the most important game of the season. Check, check, and double-check.
Gibbie and Walker utilized the six-man rotation, the off-days, and the judicious skipping or pushing back of certain starts to bring us to this point in the concluding weekend of the season: that Aaron Sanchez, already having established himself as one of the most dominant pitchers in the league, should be available on normal rest to pitch either a wild-card game, game one of a league division series, or, worst case scenario, the last game of the year, if it were needed to cement a playoff spot.
Still needing one win or one Detroit loss to make the Wild Card game, scenario number three, pitch Sanchez in the final game if it is meaningful, came into play. There is an old axiom known to all good kids’ baseball coaches, who play most of their seasons in playoff-type conditions: You have to win the game you’re in. If you make the semi-finals of a tournament, you start your ace there, and let the final play out as it will. It truly is the case of “go big or go home”.
Gibbie went big today, for obvious reasons. So did Manager John Farrell, for perhaps slightly less compelling reasons. The Sox clinched the division last Wednesday. The LDS begins next Thursday. That’s eight days for the manager to align his rotation to get the best possible setup for the playoff round. In the meantime, there was the matter of playing for home field advantage throughout the American League playoffs, a matter of obvious importance to Boston, given the advantages bestowed on the home team by Fenway Park. After yesterday’s games were completed, the Sox still had a chance of securing home field advantage over Cleveland in the first round.
The importance Farrell assigned to this game is seen by his starting lineup, with not one regular missing. It’s also seen in the fact that David Price was on the mound, although with a pitch limitation that Farrell alluded to before the game, without identifying the maximum number. The interesting thing about having Price start this game, so much less significant than game one of the LCS, is that by default the assignment to start the playoff round goes to Rick Porcello, and that’s clearly the way Farrell has planned it. That elicits a big “hmmm” from me, as I think, “so the Red Sox are paying 217 million dollars over seven years to their number two starter??”
For four innings Sanchez and Price traded zeros, but whereas Price managed the Jays, working around base-runners, Sanchez was dominant. Price gave up three hits, walked three, and struck out three, throwing 68 pitches in the process. Sanchez walked one, struck out four, and faced one over the minimum twelve batters, throwing 56 pitches.
The thing to know about lightning strikes is that you just don’t know about lightning strikes. Never know when they’re gonna come, or where they’re gonna hit. So, no, David Price wasn’t throwing a no-hitter like Sanchez was, but as the top of the fifth progressed, he was cruising. Kevin Pillar swung late and hit a short fly to right. Zeke Carrera fanned. With two out, Devon Travis came to the plate. He had been sitting on ten home runs ever since August sixth. But not after this at bat, as a Green Monster shot went for number eleven, and the Jays—and Sanchez—had a one-run lead. Josh Donaldson flew out to left to end the inning.
In the bottom of the fifth Sanchez continued to roll, making up for the slight hiccup of nicking Jackie Bradley with a pitch with two outs by freezing Sandy Leon with one of his signature awesome curves for the third out.
We learned when the Sox came out for the top of the sixth what Price’s limitation was, because he was out of the game, at five innings and 80 pitches. He’d certainly pitched well enough, but very differently from the David Price who pitched for us last year: one run, four hits, three walks, only four strikeouts. The only thing the same was the ridiculous amount of time he took to serve up each pitch.
Heath Hembree threw the sixth for Boston and retired the Jays on 13 pitches while giving up a two-out single to Russell Martin. Robbie Ross pitched the seventh, and managed to strand a one-out double to right by Kevin Pillar while otherwise shutting down the Blue Jays, with the help of Matt Barnes, who got the last out by retiring
Devon Travis on a fly ball to centre.
Meanwhile, Sanchez had another quick inning in the bottom of the sixth, issuing a leadoff walk to Andrew Benintendi, but getting Dustin Pedroia to ground into a double play. Travis Holt flew out to centre, and he was through six with no hits on just 80 pitches.
Sanchez’ no-hitter and shutout bid lasted another two outs into the seventh. Mookie Betts smacked a liner right at Josh Donaldson, and David Ortiz lofted a short fly to centre before Hanley Ramirez wrecked both the no-no and the whitewash with a shot to the foul pole in left.
Boston Manager John Farrell brought in the Sox’ most significant trade deadline bullpen acquisition, Brad Ziegler, for the eighth inning. In three prior appearances against the Jays, he’d been very effective twice, and given up a run in the third. But today Toronto was on a mission, to wrap up that wild card slot. Josh Donaldson started them off with a rush, with a “Fenway single” a hard shot off the wall that might have gone out elsewhere, but rebounded hard enough that Donaldson was held to a single. Edwin Encarnacion drew a walk on a 3-2 count, bringing Jose Bautista to the plate, but Bautista grounded sharply to the third baseman Brock Holt right at the bag, who turned it into a 5-3 double play, erasing Donaldson as Encarnacion moved to second.
That brought Russell Martin to the plate with two outs and Edwin in scoring position. Martin hit a soft grounder, again to Holt at third, and Holt couldn’t make the play on it. Meanwhile, Edwin moved up to third behind him. The biggest lack for the Blue Jays in the last month or so has been the failure to cash runners from third base, either with one out or two. The sac fly, the ground ball up the middle, the two-out base hit, have all been as rare as, as rare as . . . tea party invites in Toronto for Yordana Ventura. (What, you wouldn’t like to have tea with a class guy like that??)
But it’s October, and so far we’re one for October, and looking to make it two for October. Troy Tulowitzki came to the plate and Ziegler’s approach to Tulo was sinkers low and inside. He missed with the first two, way too low and way too inside. The third one he threw low and inside, but in the strike zone. Big mistake. Tulo lined it into centre field, Edwin trotted home, and the Jays had the lead. Only 2-1, and they had to protect it through the eighth and ninth, but still, they had the lead. John Farrell brought in Drew Pomerantz to fan Michael Saunders ending the inning.
At seven innings and 97 pitches, Aaron Sanchez had done his job (one run, two hits, two walks, one hit batsman, and six strikeouts) , and it was time to call to the bullpen and cross some fingers. Gibbie wanted to turn Sandy Leon around, so the first in for the Jays was Brett Cecil. Of course Farrell pinch-hit Chris Young for Leon, and Young hit a single to right. The Jays’ manager left Cecil in for the left-handed-hitting rookie Andrew Benintendi. Good call, because Benintendi tried twice and failed to bunt Young to second, and then took a curve ball low on the inside corner, according to the plate umpire, for strike three. Unfortunately, Young stole second on the pitch.
With Dustin Pedroia and Brock Holt coming up, Joe Biagini came in and extricated his team from the jam. The dangerous Pedroia grounded out to third, while Young had to hold second, and then, in the most crucial at bat of the game to that point, Biagini fanned Holt on a low slider on the outside corner, leaving Young at second.
Pomerantz kept the Jays from adding insurance in the ninth, though he allowed Zeke Carrera to reach base on his own fielding error on a comebacker. But Travis flied out to right and Donaldson lined out to centre, and it was last call for the Bosox, down 2-1. Cue the nail-biting music (again).
After two innings and 26 pitches yesterday for the win, Roberto Osuna was ready to answer the call again. Given the workload for him recently, it shouldn’t be surprising when the young closer doesn’t manage a shutdown inning for the save. More often than not, though, as today, he manages to work out of his own jams, a testament to his sang-froid, so remarkable in a twenty-one-year-old.
Fortunately for Osuna, and for our nerves, he quickly secured the first two outs before wavering. Facing the meat of the order, Osuna got Mookie Betts to ground out to shortstop on a 2-2 pitch. David Ortiz, in his last regular-season at-bat at Fenway (unless he changes his mind and messes everybody up!), dribbled one in front of the plate that Russell Martin pounced on; Ortiz was an easy out at first, and left the field to thunderous adoration on the part of the Sox faithful.
Ah, but then Hanley Ramirez worked a walk on a 3-2 pitch. Zander Bogaerts lined a single to centre, moving Ramirez to second. This brought Jackie Bradley to the plate, Bradley, who has really struggled since the All-Star break. And on an 0-1 pitch he completed his regular season as it had been going, by grounding out to Josh Donaldson to end the game.
Suddenly, the rag-tag September Blue Jays had turned into the tight and taut October Jays, winning two tense one-run games bearding the Red Sox in their own lair. They had secured their spot in Tuesday’s Wild Card Game in Toronto against the Orioles, and they had done it on their own hook.
Suddenly, thanks to good pitching, perfect defence, and just enough timely hitting, Toronto had turned the forecast for October from gloomy and foreboding to sunny and warm. And they would be going into the fearsome sudden-death format on a positive roll, with every hope that the wheels would continue to turn on Tuesday.
Beyond Baltimore await the Texas Rangers, and we know what that means for Toronto!
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