TORONTO, Ont. — It was a rare Monday matinee at the ballpark, which translated to a not-so-rare loss for the home side, much to the dismay of the crowd of just over 36,000 that came to see it — plenty of them kids bused in from their various summer camps.
Here are three things that stood out to me about the loss that kept the Blue Jays from a series split:
HAPP-Y TO SEE YOU AGAIN
The Blue Jays were pleasantly surprised by the work they received from J.A. Happ in the early part of the season, when it could be argued that he was the best they had in their rotation as his teammates struggled out of the gate. Happ carried a staff-leading 3.98 ERA into the May 7 start in which he was hit in the head by a Desmond Jennings line drive, and three months (to the day) later came back with a shaky outing in Seattle.
There wasn’t much shaky about Happ on Monday afternoon, though. The tall lefty gave up a home run to the first batter he faced, but that was about it. Happ threw seven innings of three-hit ball, retiring 14 straight Oakland hitters at one point, and 17 of 18.
After throwing 44 pitches over the first two innings, he was able to settle in and needed just 72 pitches over the next five frames, which allowed him to get through seven. Unfortunately, his teammates couldn’t get anything done against a slightly more dominant A’s starter, Dan Straily, and Happ left the game in a position to take the loss. The Blue Jays took him off the hook by tying the game in the bottom of the eighth.
ALBERTO GIVETH AND ALBERTO TAKETH AWAY
How did the Blue Jays tie the game in the eighth? Well, first they drove Straily from the game with back-to-back one-out hits by Jose Reyes and Maicer Izturis — the second a beautifully executed hit-and-run single through the hole vacated by the shortstop going over to cover second on Reyes’ steal attempt.
Ryan Cook came in to try to bail Straily out with the lead intact and coaxed a textbook double play ball to third off the bat of Jose Bautista, but Alberto Callaspo completely whiffed on it, allowing Reyes to score the tying run.
Callaspo, who came over from the Angels in a deadline day deal, had been brought to Oakland to be Eric Sogard’s platoon-mate at second base, giving the A’s a little more oomph against left-handed pitching. He had spent the entire season at third with the Halos, and was back there Monday in order to get regular third-sacker Josh Donaldson off the turf for a day.
He butchered the grounder that would have ended the eighth with the A’s leading 1-0, but he made up for it almost immediately.
In the top of the ninth, Callaspo came to the plate against Casey Janssen with the bases loaded, one out and the game still tied, Josh Reddick having just been intentionally walked. The switch-hitter stroked a two-run double to right, cashing the eventual winning runs. Callaspo had also doubled in a pair to break a tie on Sunday afternoon, that coming in the eighth inning off of Darren Oliver.
CASEY COLLAPSE?
The Blue Jays bullpen has been a great strength throughout the season, with Janssen standing at the head of the class despite an all-star first half from both Brett Cecil and Steve Delabar.
Janssen came up huge Friday night, shutting down an Oakland rally in the ninth after a Reddick homer brought the A’s back within one, but he wasn’t up to the task on Monday.
Summoned to work the top of the ninth in a tie game — since once a game is tied after the eighth at home there can no longer be a save opportunity for the home side — Janssen had his worst outing of the season and wound up taking his first loss.
It started with a single up the middle by Donaldson, then after Yoenis Cespedes popped up foul, pinch-hitter Brandon Moss sliced a double to right which precipitated the intentional pass to Reddick that loaded the bases for Callaspo.
After Callaspo’s heroics, there was an RBI single through a drawn-in infield by Stephen Vogt and a fly ball to medium-depth centre by Sogard that scored a fourth run before Mickey Storey came in to strike out Chris Young, finally ending the inning.
Janssen had given up only 10 earned runs in 40 appearances all season going into the game, and while his numbers in save situations (1.96 ERA, 0.783 WHIP) were much better than his numbers in non-save situations (3.14 ERA, 1.047 WHIP), he’d been called on to pitch nine times previous in tie games and had allowed just a run on four hits (no walks) in eight innings of work for an ERA of 1.25 with a WHIP of 0.50.
While his numbers since Canada Day don’t look good (6.35 ERA, 1.676 WHIP), they’re badly skewed by two outings — Monday’s, and a rough third of an inning against the Tigers back on July 4 in which he allowed a couple of runs while “getting some work in” in an 11-1 loss. Take out those two and the ERA drops to 1.74, the WHIP to 1.065 over that span.
Nothing to worry about, and if anyone deserves the benefit of the doubt, it’s Casey Janssen.