TORONTO—Sometimes it doesn’t matter: pitch counts, innings. State of the bullpen … the best-laid plans. Grand strategies … philosophy. Whatever.
Sometimes, as Chris Sale said, it simply comes down to this: "When it’s your night, it’s your night."
Thing is, the Boston Red Sox ace wasn’t talking about his own performance: a career-high tying 15 strikeouts and no walks, only the eighth time in Red Sox’s history that a pitcher has rung up those numbers – four by Pedro Martinez, three by Roger Clemens. No, on this particular occasion Sale was talking about Luke Maile, the Toronto Blue Jays walk-off hero.
Yep.
It was that kind of night.
Red Sox’s first-year manager Alex Cora hasn’t completely escaped the scrutiny of some of the game’s other new age managers, but because he cut his teeth on A.J. Hinch’s Houston Astros staff he’s given a benefit of the doubt not given to managers who have come down from the broadcast booth (the New York Yankees Aaron Boone) or Mars (the Philadelphia Phillies Gabe Kapler).
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Among the reasons Cora was hired was his communications skills – in both English and Spanish – and his ability to mesh new-age math and old school, family, baseball pedigree. Those around the team will tell you he has made a positive impact, particularly in taking a club that took a lot of strikes last season and turning them into an offensive machine.
There is a freedom in the manner in which this team plays not often on display under John Farrell. True, Cora has had the usual Red Sox nonsense with which he’s had to deal – drama queen David Price and his carpal tunnel stuff that has him vowing to lay off video games – and losing two of three games in the Bronx to the Yankees never goes over well. He was criticized for the use of his bench, in particular, but that’s seldom a trip-wire in the American League East.
Cora has also talked about wanting to scale back Sale’s workload, so it was natural that he would be asked Friday about allowing his ace to go nine innings, the longest outing of the season. Bullpen concerns? "Ah, honestly, that’s part of it," Cora responded, "but mostly it was him. That was impressive. His fastball got a lot of life in the third inning after he found it and that slider … that was the best of the season. There was really very little stress on him."
Indeed, Sale had 39 pitches through two innings before retiring the side on grounders in the third and striking out the side in the fourth. He retired 20 of the final 22 batters he faced, with Maile’s first home run of the season in the seventh the only damaging blow.
The game was lost in the bullpen, and that must surely be a source of comfort to Blue Jays manager John Gibbons, who spent all spring hearing how that was the weakness of his team. Cora wanted to stay away from closer Craig Kimbrel who was up only briefly once in the game. It was Brian Johnson who was tagged with the loss.
"We weren’t going to Craig after back to back in New York unless it was a save situation," said Cora. "If we use him in a tie game and don’t score and take him out, we lose him for the next few days.
"We had Granderson there in the 11th and (Richard) Urena behind the catcher (Maile). The walk killed (Johnson), to be honest. You have to attack Granderson there. He didn’t and paid the price."
Added Johnson: "The walk is what it is. I thought (Granderson) would chase. He didn’t."
Sale, for his part, was pleased to receive the added leash from Cora. Once he found his release point in the third, he became a metronome.
"It was the best slider I’ve had," he said. "I was able to set up guys with it and put them away with it and when you can do that, you just kind of lean on a pitch and throw it as often as you can.
"I walk off the field every inning and when (Cora) is waiting for me at the top step, I know that’s it. He was sitting down whenever I came into the dugout. So, I kept walking.
"I felt good; this felt good," Sale added. "It’s kind of what we’ve built up for."
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Cora had kudos for the Blue Jays bullpen.
"That kid at the end kept us off-balance," Cora said of Blue Jays reliever and winner San Gaviglio. "We got some counts at the end and couldn’t do much with them. They’ve been throwing the ball well and mixing it up. I heard Gibby say that even without Osuna they were OK with their guys. They showed it."
Look, it’s only May but only a blind optimist would suggest the American League East isn’t going to come down to the Yankees or Red Sox both going to the post-season, leaving table scraps for teams like the Blue Jays. Let’s just say it right now, the Blue Jays are one of maybe three or four teams angling for a one-game wild-card meeting either in the Bronx or at Fenway Park. That’s it. That’s all. And who knows? Maybe then it will be their night once again. The randomness of competition always offer us that hope.
Always.
Luke Maile, for pete’s sake. Who the hell saw that coming?
