Triple play the latest indignity for Blue Jays in loss to Tigers

Detroit Tigers third baseman Jeimer Candelario (46) is congratulated by Tigers relief pitcher Drew VerHagen (54) after starting a triple-play against the Toronto Blue Jays during sixth inning AL baseball action in Toronto on Friday, September 8, 2017. (Nathan Denette/CP)

TORONTO — Of the many indignities the Toronto Blue Jays had experienced through 140 games of baseball this season, hitting into a triple play was not one of them. On Friday night, in game No. 141, that changed.

It was the sixth inning and the Blue Jays were down two, but things were looking promising with runners on first and second, none out. Kevin Pillar was at the plate, and he took a first pitch ball to tilt the count in his favour.

But he swung at the next pitch, a 93-m.p.h. sinker on the plate from Detroit Tigers reliever Drew VerHagen, and scorched it directly at third baseman Jeimer Candelario, who dropped to a knee and made a great pick on a ball with an exit velocity of 106-m.p.h.

The rest was elementary, as Candelario stepped on third before sending the ball around the horn, making it only the ninth time in 40 years of Blue Jays baseball that the club has hit into a triple play.

“Right off the bat you’re thinking, ‘OK, maybe that ball’s down in the corner and we’re sitting on a big inning,’” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “But [Candelario] made a hell of a play. You don’t expect to get off a guy like Pillar. He can run. That was a big part of the game, no doubt.”

So, cross that one off your bingo cards and finish your drinks because this miserable Blue Jays season has now officially seen it all. It’s also seen another loss, this time 5-4 to the Tigers, as the Blue Jays dropped to 64-77. Toronto will need to go 17-4 between now and the end of the season to merely finish with a .500 record.

From the department of good news (a rather quiet division of Blue Jays land this season), Marcus Stroman made the start Friday on normal rest after getting smoked in the pitching elbow by a 108-m.p.h. Mark Trumbo laser in his most recent outing. Stroman immediately left that game and was questionable to make his Friday start until about 24 hours prior.

“My arm felt OK,” Stroman said before thanking each member of Toronto’s training staff by name. “It was tough in between starts to get me back out there, but [the Blue Jays trainers] were essential and crucial to get me back out there and I’m extremely thankful for them.

“There was a lot of swelling and a lot of tightness in there. But they did everything in their power and they got me to where I could go out there and perform, so hat’s off to them.”

Things were going pretty well for Stroman through 2.2 innings, as he retired the first eight batters he faced on only 27 pitches. But Stroman’s ninth out would take 26 more, as the third inning spiralled away from him.

It began when Tigers No. 9 hitter Dixon Macahado drove a double into right-centre, before Ian Kinsler hit a single and Candelario walked on four pitches, as Stroman quickly worked himself into a two-out, bases-loaded jam.

Nick Castellanos was next, and he ambushed a first-pitch two-seamer on the plate, crushing it 405 feet over the centre-field wall to give the Tigers a very quick four runs.

“Castellanos is a great hitter,” Stroman said. “He did exactly what he should have done with that pitch. It was a sinker that just kind of leaked back over. And he made it hurt.”

And it didn’t end there, as a John Hicks fly ball was lost in the twilight sky and Mikie Mahtook hit an infield single to push Hicks to third and extend the inning. Stroman struck out the next batter, James McCann, with a slider to end the madness, but he threw 31 pitches in the inning as Detroit brought nine batters to the plate.

“[Stroman’s] stuff was really, really good. He got off to a great start. It’s that one inning that just bit him,” Gibbons said. “That’s one of the mysteries of the game sometimes.”

Despite his rough go in the third, Stroman did well to put his start back on the rails, retiring nine of the next 10 batters he faced as he got through six innings for the 20th time this season. At 94 pitches on the night, Stroman didn’t return for the seventh. But the fact he made the start at all, and pitched well around his third-inning blip, has to be encouraging for both Stroman and his team.

Stroman has now thrown 178.1 innings on the season, and will have four more starts (assuming normal rest) to reach 200 innings pitched for the second season in a row.

“My goal was to get back out there. I never want to miss starts,” Stroman said. “So, I did everything I can in my power to get back out there. And we got it done.

“I was a little bad in that third. But other than that, I felt pretty good out there. I’m just thankful for how it played out and thankful for everyone around who helped get me back out there.”

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Meanwhile, a Blue Jays lineup that lost Josh Donaldson (illness) before first pitch and Steve Pearce (back tightness) after the first inning struggled to break through against Tigers starter Buck Farmer, who entered the night with a 7.18 ERA. Farmer held Toronto to only a hit through 4.2 innings, before Richard Urena mustered a two-out single in the fifth.

That brought up Teoscar Hernandez, who lofted the first pitch he saw into shallow centre field. Hernandez’s ball had a hit probability of only four per cent, but Mahtook misplayed it completely, turning what should have been the third out of the inning into a run-scoring double.

Jose Bautista, who walked and doubled in his first two at-bats, was next, but he never took the bat off his shoulder as Hernandez was promptly picked off at second to end the inning.

But Bautista reached on a dropped third strike to lead off the sixth ahead of a Justin Smoak single. Kendrys Morales followed with a single of his own to cash Bautista and put the Blue Jays in business with two on and none out. But that’s when the Tigers turned their first triple play since Aug. 1, 2001.

Ian Kinsler hit a two-out solo shot off Danny Barnes in the seventh to extend Detroit’s lead, before Richard Urena and Jose Bautista swatted solo shots of their own in the eighth to bring the Blue Jays within one. But that was as close as Toronto would get.

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