If the Blue Jays don’t brace up at Fenway this weekend, it will likely be the end of the line for Manager John Gibbons. I have been at times this season highly critical of Gibbie, and I’m not convinced that he ever was the right fit for this club, even the first time around, but he seems a decent guy in many respects, and I don’t wish him ill.
But if the season ends for Toronto Sunday, and if he is, as many have projected, shown the door, the epitaph on the tombstone of his Toronto managerial career should read, “I’m not worried about the hitting”–John Gibbons, some time in April, 2016. And some time in May. And some time in June. You get the picture.
Tonight, with the division title long since ceded to Boston, with Detroit and even Seattle nipping at the heels of both the Blue Jays and the Orioles for a wild card spot, the series rubber match with Baltimore at the TV Dome approached carrying the air of a Doomsday scenario for both teams, but more particularly for Toronto. For the Blue Jays finish up against the Red Sox, who still have money in the game, namely, the drive for home-field advantage against Cleveland, while the Orioles travel to New York to play the Yankees, who are playing out the string and running auditions of their rookies for next year.
Meanwhile, in a most annoying quirk of the schedulers, the hard-charging Tigers find themselves in nice warm Atlanta, playing the Braves, who may escape tying with Cincinnati and San Diego for the worst record in the National League, but only by virtue of playing (and losing) one fewer game.
In short, for the Blue Jays, finishing the season with three games in Boston, which may have looked like a delightful postscript to a great season when the schedule was released last year, now looks alarmingly like the dock for crossing the River Styx, and the traitorous Boston manager John Farrell, approaching in his rowboat in the guise of Charon, looks ready, nay, eager, to conduct us to the very portals of Hades.
But first there’s the matter of the TV Dome regular season ender with the Orioles, who find themselves in the same boat as the Blue Jays, only less so. I said all along that Boston, not Baltimore, was the real threat to the Blue Jays this season. While I may have been vindicated on the Boston bit, it could be about to hit me with a vengeance that Baltimore has defied my dismissal and hung in there till the end.
If Hyun Soo Kim hadn’t homered off Roberto Osuna last night in the ninth inning to give Baltimore a stunning come-from-behind win, we would be approaching this game in a different light. But Osuna threw the pitch, Kim jerked it, the Baltimore bullpen danced a jig, and here we are.
The pitching matchup should definitely favour Toronto, and in this 2016 season of topsy-turviness, that’s always a bad thing. Marcus Stroman has been getting stronger by the outing since mid-season, and Ubaldo Jiminez is, well, Ubaldo Jiminez. I never did quite get the “bringer of rain” thing, since it’s no virtue to hit the ball high, but if Josh Donaldson is the bringer of rain, then Ubaldo Jimenez is the flinger of popcorn. That’s a pretty bad joke, but the anticipation of facing Jimenez’ soft stuff is no joke indeed.
For a Jays’ lineup that has tied itself in knots lately trying to generate some runs, hitting against Jimenez today turned out to be the worst possible scenario they could have faced. He pitched six and two thirds innings, gave up no runs, on one hit, walked three, and struck out five. What’s more, he took 116 pitches and forever and a day to do it. At least that’s what it felt like while we were waiting for Toronto hitters to make hard contact, which never happened.
The Jays had Jiminez in trouble in the first inning—sort of—and couldn’t generate any runs, and that was basically it for them. Zeke Carrera cheered our hearts by lining a single to left on a 3-2 pitch leading off. (Devon Travis returned to the lineup today, but Gibbie likes the energy that Carrera brings to the top of the order. So do I. So Carrera started in left, and Saunders in right, the latter assignment one that I don’t see, any more than I see Michael Bourn in right. You’re supposed to have an arm in right.) We felt even better when Carrera stole second while Josh Donaldson was drawing a walk. On an 0-1 count Edwin Encarnacion flied out to Michael Bourn, he of the sketchy arm, in right, and Carrera advanced to third. Jose Bautista struck out on three pitches, and Russell Martin at least spent some time at the plate, working the count to 3 and 2 before grounding out to short.
And that was it, folks. Jiminez walked Travis in the third, Carrera bunted him to second, and there he stayed. He walked Edwin Encarnacion in the sixth with two outs, and Bautista made our hearts flutter by getting most of a first-pitch fast ball, but it died on the warning track for the third out. Even when Showalter took him out in the seventh, Jiminez had gotten the first two outs of the inning. Showalter pulled him for a lefty to match up with or take Michael Saunders out of the game. Gibbie countered with Melvin Upton, who, all together now, grounded out to short.
The utterly dispirited Jays mustered one hit in each inning of Brad Brach’s relief turn, but no more. They never threatened. Kevin Pillar led off the eighth with a single, but Travis was caught looking (fourth caught looking for the Jays in the game) and Carrera grounded into a double play. Donaldson was caught looking to lead off the ninth, number five, Edwin stirred the crowd a bit with a line double into the left field corner and advanced to third on a balk, but Bautista fanned and Russell Martin, all together now, grounded out to short to end the game.
Even though he gave up four earned runs, Marcus Stroman pitched well enough to win most games, that is most games in which the hitters remember to bring their bats to the ball park. He had to work his way out of mild trouble in the first, though there wasn’t much concern because most of the contact was soft. Devon Travis came in and made a nice pickup of Adam Jones’ slow roller for the first out. Hyun Soo Kim (Him!) hit an opposite-field single to left. Mannie Machado flied out to right. Mark Trumbo singled to centre, but Matt Wieters broke his bat hitting a soft looper to Travis at second.
Stroman breezed the second but yielded a run in the third. The Orioles were helped by an ill-advised dive in right centre by Michael Saunders that misfired and turned a Jay Hardy single into a double. Was the ball catchable? Maybe by Kevin Pillar. Was the ball blockable? Definitely. Hardy advanced to third on a Jones grounder to first. Our friend Kim conveniently walked, and Mannie Machado hit a deep sacrifice fly to centre that scored Hardy. Trumbo hit a grounder that deflected off Stroman to Travis for the third out.
To break it down and exonerate Stroman: if Hardy’s on first maybe they turn two on Jones’ grounder. Or maybe he advances with Jones out at first. Maybe he advances to third on Machado’s fly ball. But he dies there when Trumbo grounds out. Little things, but a one-run lead for Baltimore.
In the fourth the O’s picked up their second run off Stroman, and this absolutely could have been avoided. Matt Wieters led off the inning by grounding out to first. Remember that, it’s important. Chris Davis and Jonathan Schoop singled, Davis going to third on Schoop’s hit. Michael Bourn hit a hard ground ball right at Josh Donaldson, who picked it cleanly, a perfect double-play ball, because there was one out, remember? But Josh threw high—really high—to second. Schoop was out, but of course there was no relay to first. In the meantime Chris Davis scored on what ended up being a fielder’s choice. Stroman ended the inning by slipping a four-seam fastball up in the zone past J.J. Hardy, but the lead was now 2-0, a huge mountain to climb considering that Jimenez might as well have been throwing his puffballs with a howitzer for all the ability of the Jays’ hitters to make decent contact with them.
Now here’s a thing I want to mention about the scoring rules. They do not allow the scorekeeper to assume the completion of a double play, so because Donaldson made an out on the play there was no error assigned. Likewise, no matter how unfair it seems, with no error assigned the run has to be earned. Sucks.
Thanks to his low pitch count, Stroman stayed around long enough to pick up another couple of earned runs against him. Notice here the irony that with the Jays unable to buy a run whatever the currency, the Orioles on this day were just casually able to throw up a couple of extras, making it even harder for the Jays to come back.
In the seventh inning it looked like Stroman was going to be able to profit from a base-running gaffe by Michael Bourn, until Kim (Him!) messed things up with a two-out RBI single. Bourn had walked and stolen second, but couldn’t move up on a grounder by Hardy to short, then he failed to tag up when Jones hit a deep but catchable fly ball to centre field. But you can depend on good old Kim to mess up your manure wagon just as you’re ready to return to the barn. He pulled a base hit into right to extend the lead to 3-0.
In the eighth they chipped away at Stroman again, and finally pushed him from the game, still only having thrown 97 pitches. With the outfield almost on the warning track, the leadoff batter, Mark Trumbo dumped a soft single into left centre, and never stopped until he had hustled the hit into a double. Once again we saw a double hit with a shattered bat, but this one didn’t bang off the wall, like the hit by Texeira in the Yankee series on the weekend. Matt Wieters knocked Trumbo in with a single to centre, and also, finally, knocked the hard-done-by Stroman out of the game. Wieters had to stay rooted to first as Aaron Loup came in to fan Chris Davis, and then Ryan Tepera came in to blow away Schoop and Bourn.
If there’s one thing you can’t say about this game it’s that the pitching let the team down. Two of the four runs off Stroman were tainted, and Loup and Tepera were bang on to pick him up in their short appearances.
There’s nothing worse than being shut out in a crucial late-season game, except being shut out in a crucial late-inning game by a guy who couldn’t break a pane of glass with a discus. If we by some odd quirk end up facing Baltimore again, may it not be with Jiminez on the mound for them. Maybe our guys would figure him out next time. Probably not.
It’s off to Boston now for the all-David-Ortiz all the time festival, to face a team that’s won the division, is loose, hot, believes in its destiny, and still has home field advantage in their ALDS to settle. Sheesh, wake me when it’s over.
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