TORONTO – The frequency with which the Toronto Blue Jays have gone without a hit through the first five innings of a game this season is troubling. Even if it’s simply the result of small-sample-size randomness, five times in 15 games is, like, a lot.
At least when it happened to them Saturday, you could understand why. Reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell is ridiculous. His fastball topped out at 97.2 m.p.h. His curveball came in as slow as 77.5 m.p.h. He can routinely beat big-league hitters in the strike zone, as evidenced by the 19 whiffs he generated among 82 pitches.
So that was some good comedy, then, before the game from Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo when he claimed he knew of a Snell weakness for his hitters to exploit. All they managed to do with it was work a Justin Smoak walk in the fourth inning and a Luke Maile single in the sixth – on a 95.3 m.p.h. fastball laced into left field.
He was featuring legitimate no-hit stuff.
“I could give him all kinds of compliments,” Montoyo said afterwards. “He’s just one of the best pitchers in baseball.”
Chaz Roe, on the other hand, was not and in concert with a couple of pivotal defensive plays among some miscues and strong relief work after Alen Hanson played a Mike Zunino bloop into a leadoff triple in the eighth, the Blue Jays pulled out a 3-1 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s two-run double off Roe in the seventh – cashing in a Smoak single and one-out Randal Grichuk double – was the decisive blow, setting the stage for the team’s augmented post-game clubhouse party, now with a smoke machine and disco lights complementing a pulsating mix of music.
“The light fixtures are new,” said Clay Buchholz, impressive over six innings in his Blue Jays debut. “In Arizona, we had a smoke machine and disco ball. This probably outdoes it.”
Buchholz had been nearly as stingy as Snell in finessing his way through five innings of shutout baseball until relenting in the sixth, when an Austin Meadows single brought home a Willy Adames double.
The right-hander, using six different pitches among his 69 offerings, allowed only six hits over those six innings, with no walks and two strikeouts despite topping out at 89.6 m.p.h. on his fastball.
“That’s the best lineup I’ve ever seen from Tampa,” said Buchholz. “To come out with a win against that club right now is good thing for sure.”
Said Maile: “It’s a pleasure to catch for him, you can tell (his stuff) is special. I wasn’t around back when he was throwing 95, or whatever, I just give him so much credit for whatever he did last year in making that adjustment into being a pitch-first, throw second guy. It’s remarkable and it’s a testament to why he’s been able to stick around as long as he has.”
Still, if not for some strong defence, it all would have gone for naught.
In the sixth, with one run already in and Meadows at third, Ji-Man Choi hit a chopper to Smoak with the infield in, and the first baseman fired a relay home. Maile then chased down Meadows, recording the out on what was a tag-tackle just before the runner touched third base.
“I’ve always been taught in a rundown the first thing you want to see his numbers, you want to turn him around and get him running and when he does that you make a throw,” said Maile. “I was going at 80 per cent speed and he didn’t turn around yet and by the time he did, I had enough momentum and throw was going to be too short anyway, so I tagged him.”
The next inning, a Gurriel throwing error allowed Avisail Garcia to reach and take second before a Maile throwing error on the same play granted him third base with one out. Kevin Kiermaier followed with a fly ball to left but a Teoscar Hernandez dart home beat a tagging Garcia.
“Everybody knows he hits the ball to left field a lot, sometimes weak fly balls to the line,” Hernandez said of Kiermaier. “I got prepared for it, I got the fly ball and threw the guy out.”
As if that wasn’t enough living dangerously, Hanson unwisely dove in an attempt to snag Zunino’s bloop in right, the ball evading him and allowing the batter to reach third. Joe Biagini bore down to strike out Adames and Tommy Pham around a Meadows walk, and then lefty Tim Mayza came on to sit down Daniel Robertson and end the frame.
That played big in the bottom half when a two-out single by Hernandez brought home Maile and gave Ken Giles some insurance to work with in the ninth.
In total the Blue Jays finished with five hits, one for each of the five times they’ve been no hit through five innings. After losing the first four, they managed to survive Snell and win the fifth, celebrating it afterwards.
“When you win it’s supposed to be fun,” said Maile. “It’s not easy to win in the big-leagues. It’s really, really hard. So when you do have the opportunity to win a game and somebody plays really well, you want to honour that, appreciate it, have fun with it and cherish it. That’s what we’re doing.”
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