We certainly expected a pitcher’s duel this afternoon in the rubber match of Toronto’s series with the Mariners in Seattle. But who expected to see a game in which the Jays were brought back from the brink in the top of the ninth by a dramatic home run off the bat of Jose Bautista? And who expected to see a game that was decided in the bottom of the twelfth, with R.A. Dickey on the mound in relief, Ryan Goins playing first base, and Josh Donaldson being the key to victory, but not in a good way?
The pitching matchup was a classic indeed, but by the time Aaron Sanchez had finished after six innings and Felix Hernandez after seven, little had been resolved, and there was no clear winner emerging from the duel. Yes, Hernandez went out with a one-run lead, but with three innings to go for the Blue Jays to equalize, it was hardly secure.
“King” Felix Hernandez is, at the relatively young age of thirty, not the same dominant pitcher we have known in the past, at least not at this point in this season. By way of comparison, David Price is about six months older than Hernandez. While I may still question whether Price is able to provide the value the Red Sox were looking for, considering the price they paid for him, there is no question that Price is still well able to dominate, and still pitches with enough power to generate the same strikeout totals in the past. (In fact, one positive outcome of the sad fact that the Sox will probably take the division is that we will not have to face them in a wild card game. I would not want to go into a sudden-death game facing Price.)
Hernandez, on the other hand, is now relying almost exclusively on breaking balls. He’s not breaking 92 on his four-seamer fast ball. While his record for the year (16-11 and an ERA of 3.79) is representative of a typical number one starter, a look at his last seven games will show that while he is pitching with success, the King’s crown has slipped a little. He’s won four and lost two, but with an ERA of 4.25. Revealingly, he has averaged exactly six innings a game, and given up a hit an inning with a WHIP of 1.42. Most striking is that he has struck out 28 in these seven starts, an average of only four strikeouts per start. This is mediocre output that’s not worthy of the Felix Hernandez we have known.
It’s kind of sad, in fact, to see the yellow-clad denizens of the King’s Court, down in the left field corner, all wearing their King Felix t-shirts, holding their big yellow “K” cards to wave when he chalks up another strikeout. Pretty hard to get excited about waving your “K” card only four times a game. From the Mariners’ standpoint, it’s even sadder to note, as the camera pans around the stands, that the King’s Court is the only place in the ball park not dominated by waves of Blue Jay blue. The Vancouverites were out in full force again, ready to cheer their heroes on to a sweep.
As for Aaron Sanchez, this was a start that had been projected for him when the end-of-the-season “Save Aaron’s Arm” programme went into effect. It would be interesting to see whether the extra rest and the targeting of a particular opponent would turn out well for the young right-hander and the Jays’ brain trust, or whether the disruption to his routine might prove more of a detriment than a boon.
Through his first three innings, Hernandez held the Jays to a hit and a walk, with two strikeouts, but at the cost of 53 pitches for the three innings. Limited as they were, he faced his toughest moments in the fourth and fifth innings. In the fourth a lucky carom off Hernandez himself preserved his slim lead. Josh Donaldson led off with one of only two hard-hit balls that Toronto generated against Hernandez, hitting a double to right. Edwin Encarnacion followed with a ground smash up the middle that 99 times out of 100 would have gone through for a single, scoring Donaldson, but the ball caromed off Hernandez and right to second baseman Robinson Cano, who threw out Edwin while Josh moved to third. With one out, first Jose Bautista and then Russell Martin hit balls right at third baseman Kyle Seager, who was able to check Josh at third and throw Bautista out, then throw Martin out to end the inning.
In the fifith the threat was reduced to a moment, a moment waiting to see if Seth Smith in right field would run down a drive hit over his head by Kevin Pillar with Justin Smoak on first after a two-out walk. He did, and the inning was over. It was a great running catch, by a fielder who may have been positioned too shallow on Pillar, and hats off to Smith.
In the sixth and seventh innings, the only hitter to reach against Hernandez was Edwin, with a two-out walk in the sixth. In the seventh he gained strength and breezed to the finish line on nine pitches, getting two ground balls and a popup from the Jays’ four, five, and six hitters. The King finished with the line of seven innings, no runs, two hits, three walks, four strikeouts, on 112 pitches.
Aaron Sanchez’ first inning against the M’s showed him at his best, and, frankly, the most dominant he has looked since the rotation juggling began. (I’m not commenting one way or the other on the wisdom of the rotation change, just observing what should be clear to anyone who can see, that he’s not had as good command since the regime changed.) He popped up Norichika Aoki, who looked like the batboy facing Sanchez, and then fanned Seth Smith and Robinson Cano, taking 13 pitches to retire the side. It took him 16 pitches to get through the second, when he yielded his first hit, a two-out, weak, opposite-field looper to left by Adam Lind, before fanning Leonys Martin to end the inning.
The Mariners scored the only run that mattered until the ninth (duh! It was the only run, period, until the ninth!) off Sanchez in the third. It went as an earned run, but it hardly resulted from a solid Seattle attack on the big young right-hander.
The only hard-hit ball in the inning was an opposite-field double lined to right by the Mariners’ backup catcher, leading off the inning. Jesus Sucre (pronounced “Sucré) has been an occasional catcher for the Mariners since 2013, amassing only 231 at-bats in four years, and only 19 plate appearances this year.
I considered naming Sucre to my All-Time Great Baseball Names Team, obviously under the English version of his name, inverted in proper alphabetical form. You’ve got it, “Sweet Jesus”. However, I’m not sure if he’s an appropriate addition, given his marginal career, and the fact that we have to transform his name to make it work. I do have another spot in mind for him, however: Starting catcher on Bud Abbott’s famous silly-nickname team, the basis of the “Who’s on First” routine. I can just hear it:
Costello: What’s the name of the catcher?
Abbott: Sweet Jesus.
Costello: I just asked you a question. How come you’re swearing at me? What’s the name of the catcher?
Abbott: Sweet Jesus.
Costello: I ask you the name of the catcher and you tell me Sweet Jesus.
Abbott: That’s right.
Costello: Sweet Jesus, the catcher.
Abbott: That’s right. The catcher.
Costello: The name of the catcher is . . .
Abbott: Sweet Jesus.
Costello: What would your mother say if she heard you talking like that?
Anyway, with Sucre on second, Sanchez fanned Ketel Marte for the first out. This brought Nori Aoki, notorious slap hitter, to the plate. He blooped one out over second that fell just in front of a charging Kevin Pillar. Pillar, probably torn over trying to cut Sucre down at the plate, bobbled the ball, and not only missed the chance to throw out the catcher, but was charged with an error for a weak throw to the cutoff that allowed Aoki to reach second while Sucre scored.
This was the Mariners’ only run until they scored the winner in the twelfth, but Sanchez struggled to finish off the inning, and ended up expending a precious 32 pitches to do it. He’d thrown 29 over the first two, but came out of the third at 61, pretty well guaranteeing that he wouldn’t go seven. With Aoki on second, he walked
Smith to set up the double play, and then got the ground ball that he wanted from Cano, a sharply hit bouncer right at Donaldson. But Josh bobbled the ball, had to let the play at second go, and threw Cano out at first. Sanchez then walked Nelson Cruz (semi-intentionally?) to load the bases before retiring Kyle Seager on an easy grounder back to the pitcher.
Sanchez cruised through the fourth, fifth, and sixth innings, giving up only one hit, a base hit to that same Sweet Jesus, who went again to right field for a single in the fourth. Sanchez returned to his mastery in his last inning, retiring the side on two strikeouts and a comebacker to the mound. He departed with a line of six innings, one tainted if earned run, only four hits, three walks, and five strikeouts on 103 pitches.
With the two starters out of the game, the question of the night was “Whither the bullpens?” The answer to the question was “plugging the hole”, right where they were supposed to be. Seattle used five relievers over 5 innings. The Jays used nine over six innings. The Seattle relievers gave up one run. The Jays’ relievers did not give up an earned run, and only saw one scored against them. Unfortunately, Seattle went into this rondelay with a one-run lead, and the tainted run off the Jays’ ninth reliever decided the game.
Joaquin Benoit as usual came out for the seventh for Toronto and allowed one base-runner but held Seattle at bay. With one out, Sweet Jesus picked up his third hit, a blooper that dropped in front of Pillar in centre. Manager Scott Servais opted for a pinch-runner, Shawn O’Malley, taking Jesus out of the game, to the gratitude of Jays’ fans everywhere. Who knew Jesus could be such a tough out? However, O’Malley never advanced as Benoit struck out Ketel Marte, and Nori Aoki was retired on a grounder to short. Tulo’s throw pulled Justin Smoak off the bag but he made a nice leaping catch and sweep tag to get Aoki.
In the eighth the Jays were unable to take advantage of two walks, thanks to pinch-runner Dalton Pompey being thrown out trying to steal second. Brett Cecil started the bottom of the eighth to pitch to the two left-handed hitters first up for the Mariners. He “got” both, catching Ben Gamel looking, but hitting Robbie Cano. Steve Grilli came in to do his thing and fanned Cruz and Seager to take the Jays to the top of the ninth.
Does it seem to you that good things happen offensively for the Jays after Grilli ends the eighth with a punch-out? The emotional boost didn’t particularly help Edwin, who struck out to lead off the inning. Pitching for the M’s was Edwin Diaz, their lanky young closer who has done a good job, completing 16 of 17 save opportunities since taking over as closer. By this time, it was somewhere around 3:30 in the afternoon Pacific Time, and the shadows heading across the field left the mound in brilliant sunlight and the batter’s boxes in complete shade. In fact, when Edwin swung and missed at the first pitch from Diaz he shook his head and raised his hands, clearly indicating that he hadn’t seen the pitch he’d missed.
Which makes it all the more remarkable that, having worked the count to full against Diaz, and fouling off a couple, Bautista made good contact on a ball he could pull, and drove it down the line and into the seats to tie the game, inspiring an orgy of frenzy from the largely Blue Jays’ crowd still hanging on in the ball park. Jose skipped sideways down the line towards first before picking up his home run trot half way to the bag. Much has been made of this new version of “showboating”, but in reality Bautista was only trying to follow the flight of the ball as it resisted slicing foul. Batters have done this since time immemorial, or at least since Carleton Fisk.
Interestingly, Manager John Gibbons brought Joe Biagini in for the bottom of the ninth, rather than going to Roberto Osuna in a tie game. This would suggest that he had high hopes of taking the lead in the top of the tenth now that Seattle’s closer was out of the game, and that he wanted to save Osuna to close in the tenth. It also attested to Gibbie’s well-earned faith in Biagini, who has done everything asked of him this season. This time he didn’t quite save Osuna from pitching in the ninth, but he did get two outs, so that Osuna could still pitch in the tenth. Biagini got Adam Lind, the former Jay who had only one soft single to show for the series here, to ground out to Travis on the first pitch. Then he gave up a single and stolen base to Leonys Martin, whose ninth-inning heroics had rattled Osuna’s cage on Monday. Gibbie left Biagini in to fan Mike Zunino, and then brought Osuna to face Ketel Marte. Servais countered with Dae-Ho Lee. The Jays didn’t show much concern when Martin stole third, considering that he was the winning run, but Osuna fanned the overmatched Lee on three pitches to strand Martin and take it to extra innings.
Gibbie’s hope that Osuna would close out the game came close to fruition, but there were no cigars today. Toronto had much the better chances in the tenth and eleventh, but they weren’t able to push a run across, causing the ominous thunderclouds to gather. It seems like the deeper you go into extra innings on enemy ground, the closer you come to the lightning strike you’re dreading. My kingdom for a three-run homer in the top of the tenth!
Even though Dae-Ho Lee struck out to end the ninth, his insertion for Ketel Marte turned out to be a brilliant, if lucky, move for Seattle. With the starting shortstop out of the game, Servais inserted Mike Freeman in the lineup for the top of the tenth. Seattle got burned once again by playing their opposite-field outfielders too shallow, as Michael Saunders led off the inning by pounding a double over the head of Guillermo Heredia’s head in left, and was replaced on the bases by Melvin Upton. Ryan Goins, inserted at first base after Smoak was lifted for the runner in the eighth, laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt on the first pitch, and the lead run was at third with one out. This brought Kevin Pillar to the plate for the second pivotal at-bat in the game, prior to the walkoff for the Mariners in the twelfth. Unlike Bautista’s homer in the ninth, this one didn’t work to Toronto’s advantage.
There have been a couple of pieces lately decrying the lack of production from the bottom of the Jays’ order, pointing to the relatively weak contributions of Melvin Upton, Michael Saunders, Zeke Carrera, Darwin Barney/Ryan Goins, and Pillar. Although it’s hard to argue with this evaluation in general, I find it hard to lump Carrera and Pillar in with the rest. Carrera has proven again and again that stats and overt run production don’t tell the whole story, and that when you need someone to bring the intangibles to the fore, he’s the guy. And I don’t know what Kevin Pillar these guys are watching. He’s been stuck with the “wild swinger” label for a couple of years now, and though his on-base percentage is on the low side, he has regularly shown the ability to fight off pitches and change his approach in key situations, especially since his return from the DL.
And it was Kevin Pillar this afternoon who took one ball from reliever Evan Scribner, and then fouled off six pitches before getting the one he wanted and hitting a rope past the diving new shortstop Freeman, to drive in . . . er, no, Freeman made a spectacular, game-saving snag of Pillar’s shot, Upton was frozen at third, Devon Travis (top of the order; just sayin’) struck out, and the game was still tied.
Both teams tiptoed through baserunners and walks in the eleventh, Tom Wilhelmsen allowing two on in the top of the inning before Nick Vincent came in to retire the side. Danny Barnes retired Nelson Cruz, Aaron Loup walked two and got a popup,
Ryan Tepera wild-pitched the runners to second and third, walked Zunino to load the bases and then recorded the out at first as Freeman, who couldn’t do it on both sides of the ball, hit a ground ball to Edwin Encarnacion.
Vincent stayed on for the M’s in the twelfth. He got two quick outs, then gave up an opposite field single to Goins before retiring Pillar on a fly ball to right.
This brings us to the bottom of the twelfth and the end of the road. After using eight relievers, Gibbie rolled the dice and brought in R.A. Dickey, who has been available in the bullpen in favour of Francisco Liriano since the rotation was cut back to five starters. Before you start boo-hooing about Dickey, know that this loss was not his fault, though he got to wear it. Dickey had been given ample time to warm up, and even brought his catcher, Josh Thole, into the game.
Dickey quickly ran up an 0-2 count on Heredia leading off, then got him to bounce an easy one to third after the count ran to 1-2. Josh Donaldson came in, rushed the throw, and fired it out of play. Heredia was on second after an excruciating E5 throw. Ben Gamel fouled off a bunt attempt, laid off a knuckler in the dirt, and then dropped down an okay sac attempt just to the first-base side of the plate. Goins, whom Gibbie has only used a couple of teams in late innings at first, raced in, picked it, and made a perfect throw to third. Donaldson caught it and put the tag on Heredia, who would have been DOA, except that as Josh swiped the tag on him, the ball flew out of his glove and bounced away. Heredia was safe, Gamel was on, and we had missed our second clear shot at getting the first out. This brought Robbie Cano, who had done little damage to us so far in the series, to the plate, and it was too much to hope for that Dickey could stop him from driving in the winning run.
Cano put an ordinary swing on an ordinary 2-1 knuckler, and lofted a lazy fly ball slicing toward left, an easy catch for Upton, and just deep enough to score the speedy Heredia from third with the game-winner.
So what started as a bang-up pitchers’ duel ended up turning on a sac fly hit by a struggling superstar off a knuckleball-throwing starter after a guy playing his fourth infield position saw his perfect throw to third muffed by an MVP third baseman letting a base-runner who got on because of an error by that same MVP third baseman arrive safely at third with nobody out.
Josh Donaldson has won plenty of games for us since his arrival in Toronto. The law of averages says that sooner or later he would have to lose one for us, and he did today. Still, I can’t help wishing the game were still going on, in the way of the theoretical endless ball game. Still, the Jays come home with a 4-3 record on the road, having regained a good bit of their self-respect, and kept themselves firmly in the hunt for October, even if it’s a very scary October ahead.
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