Lengthy loss to Red Sox was no ordinary game.
Sunday’s series finale was nearly four hours with plenty to offer
Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3: 105 minutes. Stairway to Heaven: 8 minutes. Drum solo from Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida:” 21⁄ minutes. But it felt longer.
2 In terms of long, longer, longest ball games, Sunday’s 11-8 Blue Jays loss to the Red Sox wasn’t even a franchise record for nine innings at 226 minutes.
But it felt longer.
Especially so when it turned out all for nada. Despite a Troy Tulowitzki grand salami. Despite a pair of jacks by Edwin Encarnacion.
Eighteen pitchers left their fingerprints on this sucker.
By 5:45 p.m. at the Rogers Centre, when Tulowitzki lined out to Mookie Betts in right field ending the weekend series — Toronto twice surrendering the lead — everybody was exhausted.
Two games back of division-leading Boston, again.
“A slugfest,” said manager John Gibbons, who by the final out had been ejected from this affair for arguing a bizarre umpire reversal on a ninthinning Russell Martin where-did-it-go? ball into the distant right field corner. Fair, no wait, foul. “Confirmed” foul upon review out of New York. Return to your places, all. Strikeout for Martin on the do-over.
“We battled back to take the lead a couple of times and gave it right back,” said Gibbons. “That’s what’s tough. But you know what? Two teams battling it out. That’s probably an entertaining game to watch. Not from our angle.”
And yet. And yet.
The situation doesn’t feel as dire as it did after the Jays slipped two games behind Boston in Friday night’s 13-3 monstrosity. Although realistically the club has fewer games remaining — 20 — to snap out of the funk that has seen them drop three consecutive series for the first time since July 2015.
Not quite as frustrating, Gibbons agreed, because at least Toronto’s offence came alive with a dinger spasm.
“Yeah, hopefully that’s the start of something.
“It was great to see us coming back after we fell behind because we’ve been searching for those outbursts with the bats. We just weren’t able to shut them down at some key times. It needs to be the start of something, that’s for sure.”
A whole lotta queerness crammed into those three hours and 46 minutes, studded with a trio of errors (combined), not counting some wildly off-line throws from the outfield.
A bit of fret about the blister that arose on Aaron Sanchez’s middle finger in a starting assignment that lasted a mere 32⁄ innings. Not his
3 loss, however — that was recorded to Bo Schultz, who came out of the ’pen with Toronto clinging to an 8-7 margin and gave up two hits, both runners scoring on the David Ortiz tattoo homer off a Joaquin Benoit changeup — first four-sacker allowed by Benoit as a Jay and his first blown save.
But let’s back up a bit, to the run that Boston didn’t plate in the fifth frame, because most fans in that sold-out audience of 47,816 had probably never witnessed, in person, anyone trying to steal home. And that shocking episode was the last hurrah for Toronto, up 8-6.
Lefty Aaron Loup on the mound, replacing Joe Biagini, who’d just given up a home run to Hanley Ramirez, which scuttled Gibbons’ hopes that the Rule 5 pickup would be good for a couple of frames, segue to the late innings relief order.
Brock Holt is standing on third, having reached the hot corner on Biagini’s failed pickoff move at first — throwing error — followed by a hit batter. As a southpaw, Loup has his back to the runner. With Loup coming set, Holt amazingly breaks for home. And suddenly Loup is getting an earful from his infielders: STEP OFF! STEP OFF!
“I’d looked at him and thought, ‘He’s not going anywhere. Then I glanced back over and he was halfway down the baseline.
“I thought, ‘He’s trying to steal home right now.’ ” Still sounding incredulous. “They caught me off-guard but I was kind of puzzled. I didn’t really know what was going on either, didn’t have a chance to really process it before it all got out of hand.”
Kept his composure, though. Unleashed a near-strike to Martin, perfect throw, perfect catch, as the backstopper put down the tag, Holt out on his audacious scoot.
“At that point, it’s just making a throw to the plate and trying not to screw up,” Loup explained afterwards. “You make that throw all year long, pitching off the mound. Getting there when you don’t have to try to throw a strike is a little bit easier.”
Huge emotional pump for the Jays. Translating into … nothing much when all was said and done. Wasting a splendid acquittal from Tulowitzki — his third career grand slam — and Encarnacion, crushing his 38th and 39th homers on the season.
Not to worry, Tulowitzki assured later.
“It’s tough to lose two out of three but we battled, (Saturday) and today. It was obviously a better performance by us. Gutsy. Just didn’t go our way.
“There’s still a lot of time left. We still play these guys.’’ Final series of the regular season campaign is at Fenway. “A lot of things can happen. We’ve been jockeying for position the whole year. We would have liked to win the series but unfortunately we didn’t. We move on.”
Toronto had its big innings; so did Boston, to be expected from a team leading the majors in runs. The Jays’ phalanx of relievers deployed couldn’t hold them off.
“It’ll be all right,” Tulowitzki continued. “It’s a veteran lineup. You go through some good times, some bad times. Two good teams. I think you take that out of it. They’re good over there, we’re good. They know that and we know that. It’s going to come down to the end. It’s going to be exciting.”
Fasten your seatbelts and enjoy the ride.