T.S. Eliot might have been a great poet, but he didn’t know beans about baseball. Tonight, after the brilliant promise of last night’s confident disposal of the Orioles, the Blue Jays had to learn the bitter lesson that sometimes the game ends not with a whimper, but a bang.
Though, truth be told, when Toronto had to face Zach Britton down a run in the bottom of the ninth, there was a fair amount of whimpering going on.
By now the September formula for the Blue Jays seems pretty well set in stone: get a great start from whomever, scratch out a couple of runs, blow multiple chances to score lots of runs, turn a slim lead over to the bullpen, and the bullpen closes it out. Or not. And, if not, don’t even think about mounting a comeback.
Francisco Liriano had every reason to be delirious to learn that at what must have been exactly 3:59 p.m. on the August first trade deadline, the Blue Jays had acquired him from the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates, so good these last few years, were going nowhere, while the Jays had been in contention for the American League East lead for almost the entire season. He would be reunited with Russell Martin, with whom he had his best year of his career in 2013. Most of all, he would have a chance to turn around what had become a dreadful season for him. When he came over, his won-loss record was 6-ll, his ERA was 5.46, his opponents’ batting average was .264, and his WHIP was 1.63 (the gold-standard WHIP is 1.00 or less).
Well, his joy upon arriving has been fulfilled in spades, with one small exception. Looking at the same numbers, with Toronto he has gone 2-2 with an ERA of 2.92, and opponents’ batting average of 2.22, and a WHIP of 1.46, but only 1.01 for five appearances in September. So what’s the exception? Despite pitching so well, he has only two wins in 8 quality starts. WHY CAN’T THE BLUE JAYS SCORE RUNS FOR HIM?
Okay, if you haven’t been paying attention very closely, this is a trick question, because lately the Jays aren’t scoring runs for any of their starting pitchers. Yet down the stretch (I wouldn’t call it a stretch run, that’s for sure!), in four September starts he has won one, lost one, and had two no decisions. Arguably, he has been their strongest starter in the last three weeks. Before tonight he had pitched 18.1 innings in three starts after a brief stint in the bullpen, and given up four earned runs. That’s four.
Tonight was the best yet for the veteran lefty. He scattered six hits over 6.1 innings of shutout ball, walking but one and striking out ten. He set the first nine down in order, allowed his first two hits in the fourth inning but struck out the side. He allowed the Orioles to load the bases in the sixth on a single by Jay Hardy, a walk to Jonathan Schoop, and a two-out infield single by Adam Jones to load ’em up, the only time an Oriole runner touched third on him his entire start, but struck out the side, including Chris Davis who took a wicked high curve ball for strike three to end the inning. He gave up two hits to the first three batters in the seventh, and that was when Gibbie pulled the plug on his brilliant night, at 104 pitches.
Brett Cecil had one of his best clutch appearances of the season to close out the seventh, fanning Nolan Reimold and getting Adam Jones to ground out to short, where Troy Tulowitzki made another ho-hum amazing play, gliding to his right, circling the ball, and launching a rocket to first while pivoting in the air. I challenge you to run to your right, leap into the air, and throw back across your body, without having any solid base, like the earth, to plant against. Go ahead, try it.
Chris Tillman, who has been Baltimore’s number one starter this year, going 16-6 with an ERA of 3.84 going into tonight’s game, has been struggling with some injury issues in the second half of the year, with one brief stint on the disabled list, and having more than one start pushed back because he was experiencing arm issues.
After the Jays chipped away with runs in the first and second, both on sacrifice flies, he settled down and pitched a respectable game, not really matching the performance of Liriano, but good enough all the same, and good enough to win with—what else?–a little support. He went five and two thirds innings, gave up 2 runs, one of them unearned, on six hits, while walking three and striking out two, on 92 pitches.
Tillman is more lunch-bucket gritty than lights-out dominant, but it was a good thing for the Jays that they nicked him early, because he was able to work his way out of multiple base-runners for the rest of his stint.
Tillman had only himself to blame for the first Jays’ run. It always strikes me as a bit strange when a pitcher’s record isn’t harmed by an unearned run that derives from his own fielding misadventures. Leading off the game again with Devon Travis still on the shelf, Zeke Carrera hit a weak dribbler between Tillman and Chris Davis at first, and found himself one out later at third ready to score on Edwin Encarnacion’s sacrifice fly. Tillman trotted over, picked up Carrera’s grounder, and, aware of Zeke flying down the line, shovelled it underhand to Davis at first with his momentum going toward the bag. Unfortunately for both pitcher and fielder, the throw hit Davis in the worst possible spot, right in his chest. Joking aside, Davis had his glove stretched out and down, and the throw was harder than either realized, and a little high, and it handcuffed him before he could react.
Carrera was safe on the Davis error (justice here? It was not a good throw.) Then Tillman tried to pick him off and threw the ball away, moving Zeke around to third.
Edwin cashed him with a deep shot to centre that hung up for Adam Jones, and Tillman had handed Toronto one of the most unearned runs ever for the lead.
The Jays’ second run was more honourably earned, if you will, but didn’t count for any more than the tainted first one. Ya takes what ya gets, eh? With one out Troy Tulowitzki ripped a double to left for the Jays’ first hit. Michael Saunders followed with an opposite-field base hit to left, through the massive hole in the shift. Coach Luis Rivera elected to play it safe and hold Tulo at third. Kevin Pillar, who seems to do his best work with his back to the wall, swatted a 1-2 pitch to Mark Trumbo in right for the sacrifice fly that scored Tulo with the Jays’ second run.
Then started the familiar squandering. In the third they wasted a double by Jose Bautista. Carrera led off with a single to centre, then had second base stolen when his somewhat late slide took him beyond the bag and he was tagged out. Josh Donaldson followed with a double to right that would have scored Carrera even from from first, but he was in the dugout, and just not available to do his thing.
In the fourth Tulo led off by smashing a low liner right at Schoop, at shortstop in the shift, but it blasted right through him for a base hit. He was erased when Saunders hit into a double play. In the fifth inning, Tillman was saved by Nolan Reimold’s great sliding catch of a low liner off Encarnacion’s bat for the third out, with Donaldson aboard after forcing Carrera at second.
In the sixth, Tillman’s last, he walked the first two hitters, Bautista and Martin, and then was rescued again by Reimold, who charged in to make a nice grab on Tulo’s testy short fly to left. Bautista, running on instinct, thought the ball was going to drop, and was easily trapped off second for the double play. Not wanting to tempt the fates any longer, manager Buck Showalter came out and got his starter. Lefty Donnie Hart came in to retire Tulo on a popup to Mannie Machado at third.
With Tillman gone after six and Liriano out for Cecil in the top of the seventh, Hart stayed in to face the Jays’ in the bottom of the seventh, and it was time to see if the Jays could cushion their lead, and/or their bullpen could contain the Orioles.
Well, the sad fact is that we didn’t score any more, and after sixteen innings of Jays’ pitchers keeping the ball in the yard against the biggest homer-hitting team in baseball, something was bound to give. Unfortunately, “something” turned out to be Jason Grilli and Roberto Osuna.
Hart stayed on to retire the side in the order for Baltimore in the seventh. Cecil matched up with Chris Davis in the top of the eighth, and fanned the increasingly frustrated slugger with a bowdacious 3-2 curve ball. Then it was Grilli time, but summer’s over, and the only meat that got cooked was the grillmaster himself. He started just fine, getting Mannie Machado to ground out to short on his first pitch. I must say that so far in this series, in contrast with the havoc he has wreaked upon us in the past, Machado has been looking decidedly mortal for a supposed MVP contender.
Then Mark Trumbo strode to the plate, ready to strike the first crack of doom in the Jays’ delicate glass palace. For all his league-leading 46 homers as he stepped to the plate tonight, Trumbo hadn’t hit one out against Toronto. I was starting to think his vaunted power was more urban legend than reality. But no. Wave bye-bye as the ball sails into the 200 level above the Toronto bullpen. Pedro Alvarez followed with a double to centre, but Matt Wieters flied out to Carrera in left, and the Orioles had crept a little closer, and finally gotten on the board.
The Orioles intimidating workhorse Mychal Givens came in to try to shut the Jays down in the eighth, and for once had no idea where his thunderbolts were going. Five batters later, this is where we stood, Donaldson on third hit by pitch, Russell Martin on second, hit by pitch, Tulo on first, with a five-pitch walk. Two outs. Melvin Upton at the plate. Counter-intuitively, Manager Buck Showalter brought in the lefty, Brian Duensing. Four pitches later, the Orioles were headed off the field, while Upton stood in shock at the plate. The aristocratic-looking plate umpire, Lance Barksdale, who dropped by the park to ump while he was waiting to be cast as the lead in yet another Noel Coward play, had apparently had second thoughts about some of what he had taken away from Givens, and decided to recompense the Orioles for their pain by ringing up Upton on a pitch that was laughably low and inside.
Here’s where you see there’s some truth in saying that won-loss records are meaningless. As we were saying yesterday, Kevin Gausman was clearly Baltimore’s second best starter all year, and threw really well right from the beginning of the year, and yet it took six decisions before he got a win, because of lack of run support. You already know from the title, and because the whole world already knows, that the Orioles hit another one out in the top of the ninth to take this one from Toronto. I’ll give the gory details in a moment, but I mention it here because Brian Deunsing, who got one out in the eighth for the Orioles, and benefited from an egregiously bad call to secure that strikeout, only threw four pitches. Yet, because he was still the “pitcher of record” in the top of the ninth, he received credit for the win. Don’t you just love it?
So with no breathing room for the relievers, Roberto Osuna was summoned to try to hold the precarious one-run margin in the top of the ninth. He started out well enough, freezing J.J. Hardy with a 2-2 fast ball for the first out. Then he gave up a single to Jonathan Schoop, who seems to be closing his eyes and hoping when he swings these days. This time the baseball gods were listening. Michael Bourn, who couldn’t crack the Blue Jays’ roster last spring, ran for Schoop. Due up was Nolan Reimold, who figured to be an easy mark for Osuna. First, though, Bourn swiped second. Reimold was called back, and the left-handed-hitting Hyun Soo Kim was sent up to hit for him.
Now Kim, the “rookie” from the Korean League, was hitting .303, with only 5 homers and 20 RBIs. Everybody in the world was worried about him dumping a single to left or rolling one up the middle to score Bourn. And I for one wasn’t surprised at all that he got the count to two and two and then did the famous oriental “bat flick” to foul off three great pitches in a row. Then Osuna threw one in the dirt to go three and two. Then he brought one up, just a little into the zone, but inside. Didn’t Kim go down and get it, and whack it to right, where it carried, and carried, and sailed into the ecstatic Baltimore bullpen for a two-run homer and a Baltimore lead.
Adam Jones followed with a second infield hit to third in the game, and Chris Davis ended the inning by pounding into another one of those shift-produced 4-5-3 double plays, with Donaldson doing the honours at the pivot.
To go back to Eliot, the Baltimore effort tonight ended, not with one bang, but with two, but the Jays’ night certainly came to an end with a whimper, because they had to face Cy Young candidate Zach Britton going for his 47th save in 47 tries. Britton went through the Jays like a hot knife through butter, as all the Jays could offer were two punchouts and a weak ground ball.
This last home series of the year, which started so well last night, took on a shocking new turn with Baltimore’s last-minute win tonight, and not only the standings, but shirt collars everywhere, are a little tighter as we look to Saturday.
Leave a Reply