ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – A 15th consecutive season of 200 innings is in sight for Mark Buehrle, and it’s possible the Toronto Blue Jays, currently with TBA as a starter for Sunday’s finale, will send him back out to accomplish a feat only four other pitchers have ever achieved.
The veteran left-hander pulled within two frames of the plateau Friday night, delivering 6.2 innings of strong work in an 8-4 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays that ended a two-game losing streak and cut their magic number for the American League’s best record to two.
Buehrle entered the night with 191.1 innings over 30 starts this season, and at 103 pitches with two out in the seventh after hitting Brandon Guyer for the third time – a personal high for him, a big-league record matcher for the centre-fielder – was just about at the end of his rope.
"They kept getting slower and slower as the game went along," he said of pitches.
With Mikie Mahtook – 3-for-6 with three homers, one of them a three-run drive in the fifth inning, in his career versus Buehrle – due up John Gibbons came to get him despite an 8-4 lead. The manager made the point before the game that decisions are made with the head, not the heart, and after two games with B squads following Wednesday’s clinch of the American League East, winning was the priority.
"He’s had a tremendous career," said Gibbons. "It’s an honour for me to have a chance to manage these three years here. He’s been one of the best in baseball year after year, just durability, wins, he’s doing everything right. I had some goosebumps when I was taking the ball from him because he’s a special guy. But his career speaks for itself."
Asked later why he had goosebumps this time, Gibbons replied: "It could possibly be his last start ever as a Blue Jay."
That’s worth keeping in mind with the Blue Jays (93-67) set to begin post-season roster deliberations Saturday. At 15-7 with a 3.82 earned-run average, Buehrle has absolutely been instrumental in getting the Blue Jays to this point, and quite frankly without him in June and July, they might not be here now.
But despite his experience, guts, guile and savvy, at the moment he’s not one of the Blue Jays’ top four starters, and once you factor in the way he’s been grinding with shoulder soreness for the past month and change, he’s in tough to crack the playoff roster.
There’s no room for sentiment here. Even coming back Sunday is no gimme, especially if the game still means something for the Blue Jays in holding off the Kansas City Royals (93-67) for the AL’s best record, and he doesn’t bounce back well on really, really short rest.
"If the game comes down to mattering for having the best overall record, that’s their decision," said Buehrle. "But if it doesn’t matter and I can go out there and throw slower than I ever have before in my life, then I might lobby for it. I don’t know. We’ll see how I feel (Saturday) and again on Sunday."
Helping him reach the 15-win mark for the first time since 2008 was another big night for the Blue Jays offence, which included Troy Tulowitzki in his return from the cracked left shoulder blade he suffered Sept. 12. He went 2-for-5 with a double and run scored.
"That play where I had to reach my arm up on the ball that went off my glove, got a few groundballs early, got some swing and misses, barrelled some balls up, overall I got to test it out real well," said Tulowitzki. "Sometimes you go through a game with not much feedback, but I did pretty much everything."
Erasmo Ramirez held them to Kevin Pillar’s RBI groundout in the second through the first five frames, but after Mahtook’s drive put the Rays up 4-3, they responded in the sixth on an RBI double by Pillar, two-run triple from Ryan Goins and sacrifice fly from Ben Revere.
They added on in the seventh when Edwin Encarnacion smashed a 93 mph fastball from Andrew Bellatti off a wall 20 feet above the centre-field fence for No. 38, Chris Colabello ripped a Tropicana-Field-only triple off the B-Ring catwalk and scored on Russell Martin’s 23rd homer of the year.
Pillar, putting the finishing touches on what deserves to be a Gold-Glove season, added another highlight to his lengthy reel in the bottom of the seventh with another full Superman leap through the air to snag Luke Maille’s liner to the gap.
"We were playing to win, we were playing for home-field advantage, but we were also playing for Buehrle and just trying to get outs for him," said Pillar, adding later: "This guy has worked so hard, this guy has played for so long, he is probably not going out there 100 per cent, he has a lot of innings under his belt, he’s getting a little older. For him to just go out there and man up and do what he did, it’s inspiring what he’s able to do. He came so close (to reaching 200) and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him back on the mound."
Ryan Goins threw his arms up in the air as Pillar landed with the ball while the Blue Jays dugout erupted.
"When you can awe people in a big-league field, you know you’re doing something special," said Tulowitzki. "Kev can do that on a daily basis. He’s one of the best defensive players in this game. … You look in the other dugout and they’re just in disbelief. You see the guys on our team, you see our bullpen tipping their caps, everybody acknowledges and knows what a special play it was."
Pillar’s catch was so spectacular, Buehrle had to cover the smile on his face with his glove.
"I love it when we’re at home and the ball gets put in play in centre field and you can hear the crowd," said Buehrle. "They anticipate something good’s going to happen whether he’s standing up or not. This guy’s unbelievable. He gets good reads on it. It’s funny looking back at early in the year, he was playing left field. He was kind of the fourth outfielder and got thrown in there because of (Michael) Saunders’ injury. Baseball’s a crazy game, and you’ve got to take advantage of it when you have the opportunity."
After Guyer – who didn’t make any attempt to get out of the way the three pitches that hit him – was struck for the third time and Gibbons came to the mound, Buehrle walked off the mound, tipped his cap to the large gathering of Blue Jays fans in the sections around the visitors dugout and pointed to his family in the crowd.
"Everybody came in for the last series," he said. "They’re up there cheering the whole game for me, and I like to recognize my wife and kids and family and brothers and just people that are here. It’s a good feeling."
With free agency, perhaps even retirement looming, this might have been Buehrle’s last start, or at least full one, for the Blue Jays. One more trip to the mound, to get the two innings he needs to join Cy Young, Warren Spahn, Don Sutton and Gaylord Perry, would provide a more fitting end if this is it.