TORONTO — Russell Martin showed up for work Sunday morning nursing a big cup of coffee with a generous dollop of honey dripped in, as is his normal habit for a day game at Rogers Centre. A little pick-me-up.
The Toronto Blue Jays, as has been well documented, could use one. Or maybe some shots of something stiffer all around.
The Blue Jays dropped their second of three games to the Boston Red Sox 11-8 in front of a full house at Rogers Centre and as has been too often the case lately, their pitching – starters, relievers, all of them – let them down as a touchdown and a two-point conversion weren’t enough for Toronto against the Big Red Sox hitting machine.
In the middle of it all, as always, was Martin, whose role as the Blue Jays’ bedrock piece will be ever more valuable as what appears to bedlam disguised as baseball unfolds over the next few weeks, Sunday afternoon just the latest example.
The carnage laid waste to nine Blue Jays hurlers, but Martin was still presenting a brave face.
“You can’t tell Russell’s mood day-to-day,” said Marcus Stroman, who will start for the Blue Jays Tuesday night against the Tampa Bay Rays, the second of another three-game series at home that starts Monday night. “Win or lose, four hits, no hits. He’s an even-keeled guy. The pennant race isn’t going to scare him at all, he’s been through the ringer.”
The Blue Jays are in the ringer, getting stretched and squeezed and all manner in between, their fans getting twisted right along with them. A big reason — as was in evidence again on Sunday — is their pitching. Heading into Aaron Sanchez’s start Sunday, the Jays’ ERA since August 5th and the introduction of the six-man (sort of) rotation is 4.17, compared with 3.72 up to that point.
Sanchez has continued to be a bright spot when not resting in Dunedin, but troubled by an emerging blister on the middle finger of his pitching hand, he only seemed to give up hard-hit balls to Boston before being pulled after 3.2 innings, having given up six runs in a rare poor outing for the young right-hander.
Whether the Jays pitching quality is more reflected by what’s happened lately or what happened prior will likely dictate their ultimate fate in an AL East race that has no room for error.
Was the Blue Jays’ early season pitching success the real thing or some kind of mirage that is being exposed down the stretch?
Jays manager John Gibbons is keeping the faith.
“Really what happened this weekend is we ran into a team that hits, that is tough to shut down, but we have the guys who are capable of that, no doubt in my mind,” Gibbons said. “We’ve just hit a little bump in the road.”
Martin has made a career out of getting the most out of a staff and smoothing out those bumps. As Sportsnet producer Chris Black pointed out on Twitter, in 11 years as an MLB starter with four teams in two leagues, Russell has never had a staff that didn’t outperform the league average; only once caught a staff with an ERA as low as seventh and nine times has called games for staffs with an ERA fifth or better, including this season’s Blue Jays who remain second in the American League, recent scuffles aside.
The hope is that Martin can somehow help the Blue Jays staff rediscover some of its early season mojo even as time feels like it’s slipping away on them.
“I don’t think I have a secret, other than when I’m out there on the field I compete,” said Martin, who is nursing a balky knee but still chases down every foul ball, including ones that have him somersaulting into dugouts with some regularity. “It’s a team game and defence plays a big part of it, but really it’s those guys on the mound who are getting the job done, trying to execute pitches and make pitches.
“My goal, what helps me, is I think I have the ability, when they make their quality pitches that are just on the border or the edge of the zone, I tend to get those calls for them, instead of knocking them out of the zone, like some guys do.”
According to Statcorner.com’s catcher report, so far this season Martin is second in the American League in the black art of pitch framing – the ability to earn extra strike calls and ultimately save runs, a big reason Martin commanded the five-year, $82-million contract the Blue Jays gave him in free agency prior to the 2015 season.
But that can only take you so far.
Like the sign at the hairdresser that says, “This is a comb, madam, not a magic wand,” Martin can’t put his fingers down, waggle them and make everything better.
Someone has to take the ball and start putting some solid innings together before handing it to the next guy who does the same thing.
Sandwiching one quality start by J.A. Happ Saturday with surrendering 24 runs in the two other games of a pivotal weekend series lies beyond anything Martin can fix on his own.
But he can at least make everything seem all right, or not quite so bad.
“It’s not a coincidence,” Jays reliever Jason Grilli said of Martin’s long track record of success with pitching staffs. Grilli saw it first-hand in Pittsburgh and was thrilled to be throwing to Martin again upon arriving in Toronto. “I’ve felt the most confident and comfortable in my career working with him. Good relationships are always about communication and I feel like we’ve been on the same page as long as I’ve worked with him and I know for a fact that other guys feel the same way.
“There is no panic. He’s the leader on the field.”
Trailing the division leaders by two games with 19 to play is no time to panic, even if it feels like times are getting more desperate.
He believes in his staff and believes in himself. Is Martin worried about the Jays’ pitching struggles?
“No, no, because that’s how baseball is,” he said. “You try to stay as consistent as you can but there are going to be ups and there are going to be downs through a long season. The key is if you’re going well, ride the wave. If you’re not going well, you want to make sure you do anything you can to stop the bleeding.”
“Whenever your pitchers are doing well, it is rewarding,” he says. “It’s not something I brag or boast about but when they’re feeling good, I feel good and you need good pitching to win.”
Martin will do his part, his track record has proven that. But if the pitching staff he oversees doesn’t find a groove soon, the Jays and their fans will need something more than a little pick-me-up and the temptation for Martin may be to top his coffee up with something a lot stronger than a dollop of honey.