TORONTO – The bottom of the ninth started out exactly as the Toronto Blue Jays had planned on Sunday, with closer Ken Giles inducing a routine flyout to centre from Kevin Kiermaier before a clinical three-pitch strikeout of Manuel Margot. With a two-run lead and the bottom of the order due, a heartening series win was all but officially in the books.
Only it wasn’t. The game unravelled shockingly fast, with Giles leaving due to elbow soreness, a defensive miscue at first base allowing the tying run to score and, after the Blue Jays reclaimed the lead, Shun Yamaguchi failing to lock it down in a 6-5, 10-inning loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
The jarring chain of events left manager Charlie Montoyo unhappy about “nit-pick” questions because “everybody is looking for stuff,” and defending his team, which he felt “played great” in a tightly contested series against a defending American League wild card winner.
This is how it went down.
With two outs in the ninth and nothing seemingly amiss, pinch-hitter Joey Wendle doubled on a bite-less slider to start a rally. Giles then lost the zone against Willy Adames, with only a generous called second strike from home-plate umpire Vic Carapazza allowing the count to get full before a not-even-close walk.
Next came a four-pitch walk to Yoshi Tsutsugo that was even more erratic, with Giles looking increasingly uncomfortable in his mechanics, laying in sliders and max-efforting his way through messy fastballs.
Was he hurt? Out ran pitching coach Pete Walker to check because Montoyo said Giles “didn’t look right.”
“But he got the first two outs and then he lost the strike zone,” Montoyo said. “He didn’t look right but he’s done that before and gotten the last outs.”
So Giles remained, as relievers Brian Moran and Shun Yamaguchi warmed in the bullpen.
Under the circumstances, even 60 per cent of Giles was still the better option, and teams ride or die with their best. Up came Ji-Man Choi, who saw three-straight sliders — one for a strike — before Giles threw a fastball that missed high and inside. He grimaced worryingly right after.
Asked what Giles told Walker on the mound beforehand, Montoyo replied: “If he’s hurt, he’s got to less us know. And he said he was fine. So that’s why he stayed in the game. He’s our closer and he’s been outstanding.”
Giles was expected to travel with the Blue Jays to Washington and undergo an MRI there to determine what’s happening inside his right elbow. He twice missed time with elbow issues last season, part of the reason why a trade with the New York Yankees just before the deadline fell apart.
“That’s the first time he’s complained since we’ve been back,” Montoyo said when asked if the current soreness was related. “So we’ll see.”
Back on the field, the lefty Moran took over and delivered Ball 4 to Choi, bringing in a run that cut the Blue Jays’ lead to 4-3. That brought up Brandon Lowe, who beat a 1-1 fastball into the ground toward the 3-4 hole.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr., playing first base for just the second time, dove to his right rather than running to the bag as he should have, because Biggio was within range with the Blue Jays in the shift. Moran, who as a lefty falls off to the third-base side of the bag, didn’t break fast enough to cover. Lowe beat him by a half-step. Tie game.
“He was still late getting there,” Montoyo said of Moran. “It was a close play, so if he goes from the beginning, he beats the play. And then Vladdy dove for the ball, of course, and then there was nobody at first, but if Moran goes from the beginning, you have the third out …
“I don’t want to take anything away from what the guy did, he got the ground ball for the last out,” Montoyo added. “He just got there late.”
Moran retired Yandy Diaz to end the frame and send the game into extra innings, and the Blue Jays took advantage of the new tiebreaker rules, pinch-running Santiago Espinal for Danny Jansen at second base. The rookie stole third, replay overturning an incorrect out call as Espinal slid cleverly around the tag, and he scored moments later on a Lourdes Gurriel Jr. sacrifice fly.
But Yamaguchi, with 118 career saves in Japan, struggled in his big-league debut. He issued a nine-pitch walk to Jose Martinez before Kiermaier ripped a game-winning triple. Though his stuff looked firmer than at any point during summer camp, Yamaguchi couldn’t get to his weapon splitter, throwing only one that missed badly.
“There’s no problem with my splitter right now,” Yamaguchi said. “But as I was throwing in the bullpen, my four-seamer and cut fastball had much better command so that’s what I went with and I just left it up to Reese (McGuire), I wasn’t going to shake what he was giving me.”
And so, the Blue Jays headed north having lost two of three when two more wins were on the table. Giles will miss some time, Randal Grichuk (right SI joint) is day-to-day and Anthony Bass will likely be the team’s closer in the interim, as the perils of asking too much from pitchers after a quickie buildup became evident.
“That’s one of the reasons why it’s tough in 60 games to use guys back-to-back – they’re just not stretched out that way,” Montoyo said. “(Giles) had a day off, but we’ll see how he feels. Hopefully it’s not that bad. We’ll find out.”
The same goes for how the Blue Jays react to this loss.
“You know what’s funny? Everybody is asking me all kinds of stuff, we went from all of baseball talking about us, two out of three, playing great – I mean I was right there at the entrance telling people, man, great, we’re competing with one of the best top five teams in baseball, those guys right there,” Montoyo said, interrupting a line of questioning. “All of a sudden you lose games like this, now everybody is looking for stuff. We played great. We played great. We just didn’t finish it. Three good games. We couldn’t get the last three outs there. We stole a base, we took a lead again, and then they came back.
“That’s a good team over there. But I’m proud of my team. We were right there. Three good games against one of the best teams in baseball. So you can nit-pick. Everybody can say here and there, I thought we played great. I think we outplayed them. But they’re that good, so they beat us two out of three.”
He’s not wrong. The Blue Jays did play a good series against a good team. Sometimes, though, the difference is in the details. If Giles doesn’t try to power his way through whatever he was feeling. If Guerrero doesn’t dive for the ball and heads straight to the bag. If Moran breaks quickly.
Nit-picking? Sometimes it’s the difference between a moral victory and an actual victory.
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