The Blue Jays and Orioles worked deep into the night in a great pitchers’ duel, with the home side coming out on top 1-0 in 13 innings.
Aaron Loup, the Jays’ sixth pitcher of the night, threw a hitless 12th, but didn’t record an out in the 13th, as a leadoff infield single by Manny Machado was cashed by Jonathan Schoop’s gap double to right-centre. Jimmy Yacabonis, who stranded a Josh Donaldson walk in the top of the 13th thanks to a fantastic diving catch by left-fielder Trey Mancini on a Steve Pearce shot over his head, picked up his first major-league win.
It was the third time the Orioles have walked the Blue Jays off this season.
Here are three things that stood out to me about the Jays’ 73rd loss:
A VERY BIAGENOUS BEGINNING – Joe Biagini had the best start of his career Friday night, and left with nothing to show for it.
The tall righty, making his second start since returning from triple-A Buffalo, pitched in and out of trouble for the first three innings before settling in and cruising through seven shutout frames.
Biagini gave up singles to the first two batters he faced, but pitched out of the first inning by striking out Jonathan Schoop and Adam Jones, then getting a ground ball from Trey Mancini. He allowed an infield single and a walk in the second, but rung up Tim Beckham to get out of it.
In the third, Biagini again allowed back-to-back leadoff singles, but that was it. He retired the next 15 batters he faced and, for the icing on the cake, the last five were by strikeout. Biagini struck out a career-high 10 hitters, tied his career high by pitching seven innings, and went over the 100-pitch mark for just the second time.
This was much more than the Blue Jays hoped to see when they decided to give Biagini a good run as a starting pitcher, and a massive improvement over his last outing when he gave up five runs on nine hits to the Twins, walking three and failing to make it out of the fourth inning. By the time the night was over, though, Biagini’s previous start was a distant memory.
HOLY FIRST IMPRESSIONS, BATMAN – John Gibbons wasted no time getting his first look at Teoscar Hernandez, the prize in the trade deadline deal with the Houston Astros for Francisco Liriano. Gibbons put Hernandez in the starting line-up in right field and batted him eighth.
Hernandez had a fine first game as a Blue Jay, but was completely overshadowed by fellow September call-up Carlos Ramirez.
Ramirez, a six-foot-five righty who converted from the outfield to pitching just three years ago, tore it up at two levels this season, throwing a combined 37.2 innings at double-A and triple-A and not allowing a single earned run.
The 26-year-old came out of the Blue Jays bullpen to start the 10th inning against the top of the Orioles line-up and struck out the first major-league hitter he ever faced, Tim Beckham, on three pitches. He struck out the next hitter, Machado, as well, then got Schoop to ground out to shortstop.
Ramirez came back out for the 11th and threw another perfect frame, getting a pop-up and a ground ball, then throwing Orioles left-handed slugger Chris Davis an absolutely filthy backdoor slider to even the count after falling behind on an errant fastball before getting him to fly out.
It was a major-league debut that left Blue Jays watchers wiping the drool off their chins.
Hernandez wasn’t too bad himself, hustling a line drive to right-centre into a one-out double in the fifth inning and winding up 1-for-4 with a walk. Defensively, he didn’t touch the ball until the eighth, when he hauled in a can of corn pop-up from Joey Rickard to end the frame. He was tested in a big way in the bottom of the ninth, misreading a two-out fly ball by Welington Castillo with the winning run on second. Hernandez overcame his bad break, circled back, and ran the ball down with a leaping grab on the warning track to keep the game going.
Richard Urena got into the game as well, making his major-league debut by coming into play shortstop in the bottom of the ninth, after Ryan Goins had been pinch-hit for in the top of the frame. The 21-year-old came to the plate for the first time in the 12th inning and, on the 10th pitch of the at-bat, sliced a double to the opposite field, short-hopping the wall.
UMP SHOW, NON-BLUE JAYS EDITION – The home side had to play this game short-handed, as Orioles’ centre-fielder Adam Jones was ejected by the quick trigger of home plate umpire Pat Hoberg in the very first inning.
Schoop struck out looking with Jones on deck, on a pitch he thought was inside (it wasn’t), so Jones was already primed as he fouled off a first-pitch fastball from Biagini.
Jones took the 0-1 delivery, which he thought was low, but Hoberg called it a strike (it was), and Jones didn’t like that at all. He swung and missed at a high fastball on the next pitch, striking out, and complained about the strike two call all the way back to the Baltimore dugout. He continued telling Hoberg what he thought of the call from inside the dugout, and the man in blue finally had enough and ejected him.
It was a change for a Blue Jays observer, seeing an opposing player get tossed by an umpire with a hair-trigger, but it was just as bad. Ejecting a player from a game – especially a star player and especially in the very first inning – is a big deal, and it should require a transgression a lot more major than yelling at the umpire from inside the dugout, where the player can’t be seen by the fans and can barely be heard.
Granted, there were only 16,627 in attendance in Oriole Park at Camden Yards, but the vast majority of them were there to root on their Orioles and, I’ll wager, Adam Jones is the favourite player of a whole bunch of them. Regardless, there wasn’t a single fan there who paid to see Pat Hoberg work the plate. These ump shows are getting more frequent, and remaining just as ridiculous.
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