OAKLAND, Calif. – The first game back from the all-star break may quite understandably not be the most clean and crisp of contests. While the down time is a chance for players to rest and recover, skills sharpened by the everyday grind can quickly dull. Routine is easily disrupted.
Perhaps that helps explain the mess that was the Toronto Blue Jays’ 8-7 loss to the Oakland Athletics on Friday night. Front and centre on that front was Marcus Stroman, who failed to hold leads of 3-2 and 7-3 in a rollback of his recent gains on the mound, as he failed to survive the fifth. A couple of sub-optimal defensive plays didn’t help, but five of the seven runs he allowed came with two outs.
"It’s unacceptable, I just didn’t get the job done," said Stroman. "The guys did an unbelievable job scoring runs and putting our team in a position to win. I just didn’t come through."
The winning run also scored with two out in the seventh as Josh Reddick beat an excellent Kevin Pillar throw home by mere inches. Brett Cecil allowed a walk and consecutive singles with two outs to let the damage happen. Reddick was initially called out, but the decision was overturned on replay.
"When you slow it down, you saw it, you could see that he was safe," said Russell Martin, who put down a perfect tag. "In real time, it was bang-bang. Perfect throw from Kevin. But when you look at the replay, right away I was like, ‘Damn, he’s safe.’"
So, not the best night for the Blue Jays before an announced crowd of 19,192 at Oakland Coliseum.
"You score seven runs you should win, normally," lamented manager John Gibbons. "How many runs did they score with two outs, nobody on base? Stro’s in the fifth, he’s got two outs and a three-run lead, bam, bam. Same thing happened with Cece, get the first two outs, walk, hit, game over.
"We didn’t pitch particularly well."
The Athletics weren’t much better, but they didn’t let Blue Jays put them away, especially in the pivotal fifth, when Reddick kept the inning alive with a possibly catchable single to right that Ezequiel Carrera played perhaps too conservatively before Khris Davis mashed a hanging slider from Stroman over the wall in centre. Stephen Vogt followed by crushing a two-seamer to a similar spot.
Those homers tied the game 7-7 and ended Stroman’s night after 4.2 innings, having allowed seven runs, six earned, on nine hits and a walk with five strikeouts.
"Early in the game he was ball one on everybody," said Gibbons, "and then it just looked like a lot of balls in the middle of the plate."
Stroman held the Kansas City Royals to two runs on three hits over eight innings in his last outing, as an adjustment to his windup that eliminated a glove pump to his chin seemed to have helped him get back down in the zone. His slider had also sharpened but there was regression on both fronts Friday, as he was up in the zone, and hanging sliders accounted for two of the three homers he allowed, as Reddick banged a hanger in the third.
"I just didn’t have a good feel for (the slider) today," said Stroman. "It was just kind of spinning at some points. It was hard to kind of stay on top of."
As for whether the changes to his delivery were a factor, Stroman said, "not at all. It has nothing to do with it, to be honest. I just didn’t get the job done."
The Blue Jays offence took control of this one in the fourth off Daniel Mengden as Pillar and Devon Travis delivered consecutive RBI singles, Carrera counted another one with a run-scoring groundout and Josh Donaldson ripped another RBI single for a 7-3 edge.
But the bats went dry from there, notably in the fifth, when the Blue Jays had men on the corners with one out but Liam Hendricks escaped unscathed as Justin Smoak chased for strike three before Kevin Pillar hit into a fielder’s choice.
The Athletics started chipping away in the fourth as after Semien was called out on a controversial check swing, Yonder Alonso took a dodge third strike called, argued with home-plate umpire Mark Wegner and was ejected, as was manager Bob Melvin. Vogt, who opened the inning with a single, advanced to second on a passed ball after the arguing was over, scored when Jake Smolinksi snuck a single up the middle, cutting the Blue Jays lead to 7-4.
Typically such a lead should be safe. This one wasn’t.
"That’s a ballgame we think we should have won," said Gibbons.
They didn’t, and it’s the way they didn’t that made for a rough return to the second half.