BOSTON – To say the Toronto Blue Jays’ season hung in the balance might be stretching it, but not by much.
With Mookie Betts on second base and Hanley Ramirez at first base, the Boston Red Sox were a single away from tying the Blue Jays, a double away from taking the lead. Intent on avoiding a fourth consecutive loss, John Gibbons had a decision to make.
The Blue Jays manager could stick with Jason Grilli, who had allowed both Betts and Ramirez to reach, tempt fate by bringing Brett Cecil in to face lefty masher Chris Young, or ask his 21-year-old closer to record six outs for just the second time this year.
Gibbons called on Osuna, who delivered six huge outs for a Blue Jays team that can now clinch the top American League wild card spot with a win over the Red Sox Sunday. For a while, though, the game appeared to be headed in a different direction entirely.
After Osuna induced a 4-6-3 double-play against pinch hitter Brock Holt, Russell Martin called for a cutter against Jackie Bradley Jr., Osuna started his motion, decided he’d prefer to throw a different pitch, and stopped, resulting in a balk. Betts, who had advanced to third on the double play, scored and just like that the Blue Jays bullpen had blown a save for the fourth time in six days.
“I was wondering about the baseball gods.” Gibbons acknowledged.
He wasn’t alone. Starter J.A. Happ was yelling at the TV in the visitors’ clubhouse while Kevin Pillar was praying to those same baseball gods in centre field.
But Osuna escaped and a Michael Saunders walk then sparked a rally against Craig Kimbrel, suggesting that the baseball gods have not abandoned the Blue Jays entirely. That set up a second inning of work for the right-hander, who shut the Red Sox down in order.
“Osuna’s done a great job all year long,” Saunders said. “The guy doesn’t panic … he’s only 21, but he pitches mature beyond his years and he came out when we needed him most.”
“I was aggressive,” Osuna said. “I wanted to win, knowing that my last outings didn’t go too well. I was hungry and I wanted to show the team that I was confident.”
Osuna said before the game that he’d be prepared to pitch multiple innings if needed, not that that was plan A for the Blue Jays. In recent weeks Osuna has carried a heavy workload that’s included three sets of back-to-back outings and pushed his innings total past 70.
In today’s game teams ask closers for two-inning saves extremely rarely. In that sense, Gibbons deserves credit for bringing in his best reliever at a time that the leverage was highest. MLB teams have played more than 2,400 games this year and yet there have only been five occasions where pitchers have collected six-out saves in high-leverage spots (Ryan Madson, Brad Brach, Alex Colome, Raisel Iglesias and Jeanmar Gomez picked up those five saves).
While Osuna didn’t technically pick up a save Saturday, he provided the Blue Jays with the result they needed.
As Gibbons said, “that’s big, that’s real big.”
Considering Osuna had blown two saves this week, the outing helps restore some momentum for him and for the Blue Jays’ bullpen in general. Now in control of their own destiny, the Blue Jays are one win away from advancing.
“We don’t worry about other teams, we worry about us,” Osuna said. ”It was a good win today. I wanted to show that they can count on me any time.”
And if they need a few big outs tomorrow, would Osuna be ready for an encore?
“Absolutely.”
