TORONTO, Ont. – There was a long time in the early part of this century that Derek Jeter and Jose Reyes were the absolute toast of New York City.
Jeter, the Yankee captain, was a part of four World Series championship teams in his first five seasons in the big leagues. Reyes, the flashy young Mets shortstop, ran rampant all over the field, won a batting title, and was an all-star five times.
Two of the game’s best, playing in the same area code.
They no longer both play their home games in the Big Apple, but they were in the same area code again Tuesday night as the Blue Jays and Yankees continued their three-game series. Both Jeter and Reyes stood out in the Blue Jays walk-off win, but mostly for the wrong reasons.
Two mistakes by Jeter led to three Blue Jays runs in the bottom of the sixth, but in the top of the seventh Reyes returned the favour with a throwing error that allowed the Yankees to tie the game and put Jays’ fans hearts in their throats for a time.
Reyes’ error was his second of the game. He was low with a throw to first on a Jeter grounder in the first inning, allowing his opposite number to reach. He made up for that on the next play, though, with a gorgeous double-play turn on Mark Teixeira off a nice feed from Munenori Kawasaki.
His error in the seventh was far more costly. With Yankees at second and third, two out and the Blue Jays leading by a pair, Teixeira hit a ground ball into the hole between second and third. Reyes picked it up on his backhand and, with plenty of time to throw out the slow-moving Teixeira, rushed the throw. Not only did it bounce past Edwin Encarnacion at first, Encarnacion had to lean back into the baseline to try to haul it in, resulting in a scary-looking collision. Teixeira’s elbow met Encarnacion’s head, leaving the Blue Jays’ slugger motionless on the Rogers Centre turf for a few minutes. Surprisingly, Double-E was able to shake it off and stay in the game with only a fat lip.
Two runs scored on that Reyes throwing error, tying the game.
Reyes has already committed nine errors this season, the same number he made all of last year. Of those nine errors, six of them have been as a result of bad throws, which is really odd because Reyes’ greatest weapon on defence is his cannon of an arm. Too often, though, we see him rush throws when he doesn’t need to — he’ll short-arm throws while flat-footed or just plain not put enough on a throw, leaving Encarnacion or Adam Lind to try to pick a tough short-hop.
The real strength of Reyes, of course, is his bat. After being retired in his first two at-bats, Reyes was riding an 0-for-19 slump, but he busted out of it with a bloop single in the fifth. He then tasted sweet redemption by leading off the bottom of the ninth with a loud double and coming around to score the winning run on Yangervis Solarte’s throwing error off a Melky Cabrera bunt.
As for Jeter, both of his mistakes came between the ears, which was shocking to see from a player who thinks the game as well as the future Hall of Famer usually does.
In the fifth inning, the Blue Jays had runners at first and second and two out with Encarnacion at the plate. The defensive shift was in full effect for Encarnacion, with Teixeira playing almost midway between first and second, allowing Reyes to take a huge leadoff at first. Encarnacion hit a ground ball into the hole at short, fielded by Jeter. But instead of throwing to first immediately to take care of the hitter and end the inning, Jeter first looked to second base to try for the force on Reyes, who was already there having been allowed to take that huge lead. Jeter then turned and pumped towards third, but saw no chance to get Munenori Kawasaki, so he finally let a throw go to first which was just late. That allowed Colby Rasmus to come to the plate and drill a single off the wall that cleared the bases.
Only two runs would have scored on the Rasmus hit, though, had it not been for another Jeter brain cramp. Rasmus pulled up between first and second with two runs having scored and Encarnacion rounding third, getting caught in a rundown. Jeter had the ball and had Rasmus dead to rights, but instead of flipping the ball to Teixeira at first for the easy tag, he tried to chase Colby back to the bag and Rasmus simply outran Jeter as Encarnacion scored the Blue Jays’ sixth run.
Jeter homered to lead off the top of the sixth, but it only cut the Blue Jays’ lead to 6-1, so slim redemption there. He had a chance to make a difference in a tie game in the ninth with a runner on first and nobody out, hitting a rope up the middle, but Casey Janssen managed to corral it for an out.
Two superstar shortstops make big mistakes, and only one gets to go from goat to hero. The Blue Jays are awfully happy it was Reyes.