BLOWN IN THE WINDY CITY
Gaffes by Osuna, Lopez cost Jays the game in terrible 10th
CHICAGO — For the thousands of Blue Jays fans who made the journey here to see their team in a rare visit to an historic baseball shrine, the memories will be many.
For the struggling team they came to support, the Sunday afternoon disaster at Wrigley Field will be difficult to forget.
Where do you start with the spectacular collapse in the bottom of the 10th that allowed the World Series champion Cubs to score three runs and walk it off with a 6-5 win and a three-game series sweep?
How about with the words of manager John Gibbons, who has seen plenty of bad baseball from his 59-65 club this season, but was left almost speechless in the carnage of the latest defeat.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like it,” Gibbons said in his office outside the cramped quarters of the visitor’s clubhouse. “We played hard to get to that point and I don’t even know how to react, to be honest with you.”
There are plenty of reactions, of course.
Anger. Frustration. And a feeling of futility as allstar closer Roberto Osuna and struggling catcher Raffy Lopez let this one get away.
The final bullet came on a bases-loaded single by Alex Avila, much to the delight of the Cubs fans who have become rather spoiled of late.
With the defeat, the Jays fell five games out of the second American League wildcard spot, were swept in a series of three games or more for the third time this season and it may soon be time to stop looking at the standings.
The fatal 10th was a disaster from the start for Osuna, who recorded his eighth blown save, tied for the most in the majors.
By the time the inning was done, he had been charged with a pair of wild pitches that Lopez wasn’t able to corral, which allowed runners to advance. There were also two hits, a hit batsman and a head-shaking three earned runs to send the Jays to what may have been their most gutting defeat in a season that has seen more than a few.
“You’re just in awe. You can’t believe those things are happening,” said Jays starting pitcher Marco Estrada, who went six solid innings, allowing three earned runs. “The game was over, you know. We played our butts of today and we had it. Unfortunately it all fell apart.”
Gibbons was in awe as well, though privately he’d likely use another term for it. When Osuna was bumbling his way through the terrible 10th, he visited his normally clutch closer for what he said was the first time.
And certainly, by the look of it, the manager wasn’t discussing the merits of Chicago deep dish over thin crust.
“I had some things for him,” Gibbons said without further elaboration, but you can guess it had to do with throwing fastballs at the plate rather than other offerings in the dirt.
Though the Jays have an off-day on Monday in Tampa before facing the Rays in a three-game series beginning on Tuesday, this one will be tough to shake.
And it will also be difficult to retain any sort of optimism as the chances of making it to the post season for a third consecutive year essentially fizzled with the three tough losses.
“We need to go on a run,” Estrada said. “It’s getting close to the end and we have to make up some ground. It’s unfortunate this happened today. We really needed this. Every game (in the series) was close. We were in each game and none of them went our way.
“It’s tough to take with that loss, the way things happened.”
The collapse was made
that much tougher because of the way the Jays fought their way back, first from a 3-1 lead, then getting a big lift when reliever Ryan Tepera dug in to escape a jam in the bottom of the ninth to force extra innings.
To their credit, the Jays came out in the 10th determined to take advantage of the opportunity.
After a Josh Donaldson single, Kevin Pillar continued his hot play this series with a sharply struck single to right that brought home the go-ahead run. The Jays even added an insurance marker when both Ryan Goins and Nori Aoki walked to make the score 5-3. Thousands of Jays fans became confident they weren’t going to leave Wrigley empty-handed.
The way this season has gone, they should have known better, of course.
After Cubs leadoff hitter Kyle Schwarber struck out swinging on a pitch in the dirt, Lopez couldn’t handle it and the batter took first. A Ben Zobrist single advanced him to third and then, with Anthony Rizzo batting, Osuna delivered another wild pitch to score Schwarber and advance Zobrist to second.
Thanks to Osuna hitting Jason Heyward, the bases eventually were loaded for Avila, who ripped the dramatic, game-winning single to ignite some more Wrigley bedlam.
A Jays team that came to Chicago’s North Side yard for the first time since 2005, played the Cubs tough throughout the series but left with nothing of value.
“You look at the position we’re in, every win is vital to us,” Gibbons said. “We were in a position to win — those are the games you’ve got to close out. You’ve got to win those, we can’t afford those, we’ve run into a few of those lately.”