Chris Colabello made an unassisted double play. Prince Fielder stood like a deer in headlights between third base and home, waiting to get tagged. Marcus Stroman threw 22 pitches before his team recorded an out. Two balls hit Toronto Blue Jays gloves and then hit the turf.
After the top of the first in Game 2, you had to figure this one couldn’t get any crazier. Well, you were really wrong.
The 14-inning, 6-4 victory that put the Texas Rangers up 2-0 in this ALCS series was a nearly five hour-long affair that featured a bench-clearing verbal brawl and a whole lot of booing over the strike zone and made for the longest post-season appearance in franchise history.
This one really had it all. The five key takeaways:
Donaldson seems quite alright
A few minutes before the first pitch, Josh Donaldson danced and hopped and walked his way to third base. He bopped his head to Drake lyrics. He chatted up one umpire, gave a salute to another, and hugged Rangers third base coach Tony Beasley.
If you were watching to see whether his head was really OK after that knee he took in Game 1, after the concussion tests he took both Thursday and Friday, Donaldson seemed to be saying, right there, he felt pretty good.
And if you didn’t notice that, you noticed on his first at-bat: Down 0-2 in the count, he battled back to 3-2 against Rangers ace Cole Hamels, and then sent a laser over the centre field wall.
Twelve innings later, Donaldson hit a near-walkoff-bomb, a couple feet to the wrong side of the left field foul pole. And then he chirped Rangers pitcher Keone Kela. If you can read lips, well…
(Donaldson wisely left it at this, after the game: “It was a couple things, but we’ll just leave it at that.”)
Dancing, a homer and chirping. Yeah, the MVP candidate seemed to be feeling like himself. On a day of bad news for the Blue Jays, that was the best news.
It’s a tear
Now for the worst news: Toronto’s best reliever is done. Brett Cecil suffered what manager John Gibbons called “a pretty significant tear” to his left calf muscle.
There goes one of only two left-handers in the bullpen. There goes the most consistent guy in the bullpen, who went more than 30 straight appearances to finish off the regular season without giving up an earned run. There goes your best option to shut down a bunch of strong lefty bats in the Rangers lineup. There goes the guy Gibbons said he was going to “overwork” during this playoff run.
That’s terrible news for Toronto.
Vic Carapazza the talk of the town
Nobody in Canada was booed more on Friday than home plate umpire Vic Carapazza, who heard it from fans over the course of nearly five hours. That’s quite a stretch.
Talk of Carapazza drew some of the best material from players, too. Kevin Pillar: “Are you trying to get me in trouble,” the Jays centre fielder said, when asked if he had issues with Carapazza’s strike zone. “I need someone’s advice. Are you trying to throw me under the bus or do you want my opinion? I don’t think my opinion is best suited for this many people.”
And catcher Russell Martin: “If it was a regular season game, there’s a pretty good chance I’m getting thrown out of that game. But, you know, circumstances. Gotta stay in the game.”
If the Blue Jays didn’t come out and say what they really thought, some moments in the game did the talking for them. Cameras caught Gibbons shaking his head after a ball was called on what was shown to be an Aaron Sanchez strike. Edwin Encarnacion struck out in the 11th and put his hand on his hip.
And when Troy Tulowitzki struck out in the bottom of the 14th on a ball that was inside, he walked away and said a bunch of words you can’t say in front of children.
Odor does it again, crushes the Colabello story
A day after he spurred much of the Rangers offence, Rougned Odor was again the thorn in the Blue Jays’ side. He got on base twice and scored both times on close calls at the plate.
The closest call came on what would be the winning run, in the top of the 14th, when a tag was reviewed on Odor at second base. He survived that one, and just beat the ball home for a second time.
Nobody’s given the Blue Jays as much grief as Odor, in the No. 7 spot in the Rangers order.
And had Odor not done what he did, had the Blue Jays won Friday, a big story would have been the fine play of Colabello. Not only did he accomplish an unassisted double play in the first that kept the Rangers to two runs off four straight hits, but he also crushed a double in the second to cash Tulowitzki, and he stood on the base pumping his arms to get this amped crowd more amped. He then scored on a Martin single.
In the 12th, Colabello opened the frame with a single that you figured might be the beginning of the end of extra innings. But it wasn’t. Odor put an end to extras a couple innings later.
Live or die on Sunday
This is the most obvious takeaway from Toronto’s Game 2 loss: It’s now a must-win situation on Sunday in Arlington.
If you walked out of the Rogers Centre on Friday, there was a lot of pessimism in the air among fans. And for good reason: three straight wins is no easy feat.
We turn to the Blue Jays’ Canadian-born catcher for some optimism: “I told the guys, we just need to get on that 11-game winning streak and we’ll be fine,” Martin said. “We’ve done it before. It’s a good time to start when we get to Texas.”