TORONTO – The cruelty of baseball is such that it can be like playing chess with pieces that don’t always do what they’re supposed to. Sometimes, even when the board is arranged perfectly, things just don’t go to plan.
The Toronto Blue Jays can certainly attest, and that’s why their season is on the brink. Game 3 of the American League Championship Series set up for a breakout Monday night when the drone that diced up Trevor Bauer’s pinky forced the right-hander from the game after just four batters, blood leaking from his finger. That left Johnny Wholestaff to take on Marcus Stroman, and, well, that matchup tilted fairly heavily in the home side’s favour.
Only it didn’t, because sometimes baseball doesn’t play out the way it should, and Dan Otero, Jeff Manship, Zach McAllister, Bryan Shaw, Cody Allen and the Grim Reaper of Relief himself, Andrew Miller, outduelled Stroman in a 4-2 victory that put Cleveland up 3-0 in the best-of-seven series.
Not even a return home to a raucous crowd of 49,507, a batting order that moved Jose Bautista to the leadoff spot and a stream of low-leverage relievers could ignite a painfully dormant lineup.
“We don’t have any choice – it’s either you win or you go home and I don’t want to go home, and I don’t think anybody in this clubhouse wants to go home yet,” said catcher Russell Martin, who added later: “Maybe we’re just saving it for Games 4, 5, 6 and 7. I hope so. We’ve got another one tomorrow. It’s not over.”
Only Aaron Sanchez – starting Game 4 against Corey Kluber on short rest for the first time in the big-leagues because of Bauer’s early departure – stands between the Blue Jays and the end. And once that end comes, the onset of the big-picture questions facing the franchise with the pending free agencies of Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista will immediately hit.
Turbulent times loom.
Until they arrive, all they can do is scratch and claw and try to find some way to resuscitate an offence that pummelled the Texas Rangers in the American League Division Series but has been limited to three runs on 17 hits against Cleveland.
The Blue Jays will try to join the 2004 Boston Red Sox as the only teams to erase a 3-0 post-season series deficit, but every move Cleveland manager Terry Francona makes right now glitters, and nothing they swing at is gold.
“That wasn’t the way we drew it up,” said Francona. “But about our bullpen – that’s one of the most amazing jobs I’ve ever seen. I mean, starting with Otero to Manship to McAllister to Shaw, if anybody has a hiccup we probably lose. And they all made pitches, and against some really good hitters.”
There certainly has never been a more bizarre lead-up and opening to a post-season game in Blue Jays history. Monday’s news cycle was dominated by Bautista’s comments Sunday about his slump and low-hanging fruit analysis of his “circumstances” comment, an allusion to coping with borderline strike calls. Meanwhile the Ontario Superior Court listened to arguments on whether the use of Cleveland’s “Indians” nickname and “Chief Wahoo” on the game’s broadcast should be banned because they violate Canadian human rights law. The motion was rejected three hours before first pitch.
Then there was enough uncertainty surrounding Bauer, who sliced his right pinky for 10 stitches Thursday working on a drone, that Francona outlined two different pitching scenarios for Game 4 depending on how his right-hander fared.
The contingency plan became reality in the first inning after a two-out walk to Troy Tulowitzki and Blue Jays manager John Gibbons pointed home-plate umpire Brian Gorman to the mound, where Bauer’s finger was dripping blood like a leaky faucet.
That led to his removal from the game under Major League Baseball’s foreign-substance rule, with Otero kicking off the parade of Cleveland relievers.
“(Major League Baseball) brought up the injury (during a pre-game meeting) and told both teams if it starts bleeding at all he’s got to come out of the game,” explained Gibbons. “We kept getting calls that he was bleeding pretty good, and I think it was. They stepped up, their bullpen. They’ve got some different weapons over there, different style of pitching.
“And they came through for them, that’s for sure.”
The string of peculiar events turned social media into snark city, housing the hot-takes-iest of hot takes.
Through it all, Cleveland kept ballin’.
Carlos Santana walked on five pitches against an over-amped Marcus Stroman to open the game and scored two outs later when Napoli’s smash to right-centre field popped in and out of the webbing of a running Bautista’s glove.
A Michael Saunders solo shot off Otero in the second inning tied things up but Stroman gave that run back in the fourth when Napoli got him again with a mighty wallop to centre field.
“I felt good,” said Stroman. “Command was a little off, but I was up. I wasn’t necessarily in the certain areas of the plate where I normally am. I made mistakes in certain counts where I don’t normally make mistakes on certain pitches. And I got beat.”
The Blue Jays tied it 2-2 when Ezequiel Carrera opened the fifth against Manship with a triple and promptly scored on Ryan Goins’ groundout.
“I tried to create something,” Carrera said through interpreter Josue Peley. “It’s been obvious hasn’t been like it used to be but we’re confident we’re going to come here (Tuesday) and make the adjustment and try to win a ballgame.”
Again Stroman couldn’t hold the score, Jason Kipnis opening the sixth with a solo shot to put Cleveland up 3-2. A one-out walk to Napoli ended Stroman’s night and the hard-hitting first baseman – acquired by the Blue Jays from the Angels in the Vernon Wells deal but flipped to Texas four days later for Frank Francisco – advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Jose Ramirez’s bloop single for a 4-2 lead.
“They’re sitting over there with a 3-0 lead because they are getting the timely hits. It’s been very competitive all three games, they just seem to be able to come up with the big hit when they need it,” said Kevin Pillar. “We’ve got to figure out a way to get to their starting pitching early, get a lead and play from ahead for once.”
The Blue Jays tried to put together a rally in the seventh when Pillar singled, stole second and Bautista walked with two outs, but left-fielder Coco Crisp made a sliding grab on a Josh Donaldson liner to steal at least a single.
“Personally I’m not having very good at-bats but I’m seeing it throughout our lineup,” said Martin. “Guys are taking tough pitches and hitting the ball pretty well. Donaldson’s having great at-bats. Eddy (Encarnacion) is getting his swing off as well. But we’re going to have to do it as a unit. We’re going to have to all chip in at some point and find a way to get some runs on the board.”
In the ninth, pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro led off with a single off Miller, who proceeded to do the Blue Jays what the drone did to Bauer’s finger. He struck out both Pillar and pinch-hitter Melvin Upton Jr. – his 11th and 12th K’s of the series – before Darwin Barney bounced out to end it.
“We’ve had our backs up against the wall before, last year as well,” said Saunders. “We’re going to draw on that experience and come back for Game 4.”
At this point, that’s all that guaranteed for the Blue Jays, no matter how the pieces are aligned.