SOMETIMES YOU CATCH A BREAK
Rays castoff Luke Maile was available and the Blue Jays needed a hand in a hurry . . . now he’s seeing regular duty behind the plate with Russell Martin out.
There’s something unusual in the relationship between Blue Jays left-hander Francisco Liriano and catcher Russ Martin.
On Wednesday, with Martin on the disabled list, Liriano failed to record an out in the third inning with Luke Maile behind the plate, allowing seven runs in an eventual 8-7 Blue Jays win.
With Martin as his catcher this year, the veteran lefty has a 2.77 ERA in 26 innings. Without him in two starts, it’s 46.29. Jarrod Saltalamacchia handled his first start at Tropicana Field, in which he failed to escape the first inning.
This special Martin-Liriano relationship extends back to Pittsburgh in 2013-14, when Martin was with the Pirates. For his career, Liriano has a 2.92 ERA with Martin behind the plate, more than a full run better among those who have caught 100plus of Liriano’s innings. Francisco Cervelli is second with a 3.96 ERA.
“He’s hard to catch,” manager John Gibbons explained. “Russ is so good with the low ball. Liri lives down. He bounces a lot of balls. He gets a lot of strikeouts on balls in the dirt. Russ is so good at that low pitch. He gets strikes on that borderline. But Luke’s got good hands. I love everything he does back there. He’s a good pickup.”
Maile is a solid defensive catcher, throwing out a key runner attempting to steal in the sixth inning on Wednesday. But trying to duplicate the head-scratching success that Martin has had in handling Liriano is not easy.
The Indians began the game with a walk, a single and a double, scoring twice before an out was recorded. They notched five more in the third with Liriano unable to retire a batter.
“(On Tuesday) during the game, Russ was sitting with Maile on the bench,” Gibbons said. “I’m sure Russ has talked to him about different guys, what they do in certain situations. Liriano’s a prime example. He likes to go to that breaking ball when he’s out of whack, or when he needs a strike. So that’s gotta help.”
Pitching coach Pete Walker visited the mound after a walk to Edwin Encarnacion in the third and, while returning to the dugout, quietly said something about the strike zone to plate umpire Vic Carapazza. At that point Walker, the most respectful man in the dugout, was not so quietly ejected.
It’s an oddity — or not — that the last five Carapazza ejections over the past two seasons have all been Jays: Walker, Gibbons two days ago, and Encarnacion, Gibbons and Martin on July 1, 2016 in a 19-inning game vs. the Indians.
It’s been a baseball roller coaster over the past six months for 26year-old Maile. The Kentucky native entered last December believing he and Curt Casali would be battling it out at spring training for the Tampa Bay starting job. But then the Rays signed Wilson Ramos from the Nationals.
Tampa added Jesus Sucre in February and Derek Norris in March to fill in while an injured Ramos became healthy. Maile went from a possible No. 1 to being designated for assignment, scooped up by the Jays for Triple-A Buffalo on April 6.
After a brief stint with the Bisons, Maile was called to the majors to replace the disappointing Saltalamacchia. Finally, on Monday, Martin was placed on the DL with worrisome left shoulder weakness and suddenly Maile became the main man behind the plate. He spoke of his ups and downs
“I feel like that type of stuff happens to everybody at some point in their career,” Maile said. “When it happened, it was obviously a tough situation. Getting designated was probably the last thing I thought was going to happen, but again, that’s how this game tends to work sometimes.
“I was definitely hoping somebody would claim me . . . I was fortunate enough to get with the Blue Jays and fortunate enough to get up fairly quickly.”
Maile believes he’s starting games not merely to fill time and space until Martin returns. He has a quiet confidence that he has something different and important to contribute to the Jays’ cause in his own way.
“I say the word replace, but that’s pretty much impossible,” Maile said of playing for Martin. “Just like you’re not going to really replace a (Josh) Donaldson or a (Troy Tulowitzki) and the list goes on. But it’s a good opportunity for a lot of guys — I don’t want to say to hold down the fort, because that kind of makes it sound like you’re selling yourself short a little bit — to get everyday playing time and maybe give the team a spark. If it’s the type of thing where we can get back to near .500 in the near future and then we get our guys back, it could be a fun year.”
He will start for a while, but Maile knows how difficult it is to produce when you play only once or twice a week. He will never use that as an excuse for failure at the plate.
“When you’re in the batter’s box, it’s not going to say on your baseball card that you hit .200 but you didn’t have everyday playing time,” Maile observed. “It’s an at-bat. We’re all professionals here.
“I try and see every at-bat as an opportunity. If you’re not playing every day just look at it like I’m going to give the team a spark today, whether it’s moving a runner, getting a bunt down …”
The Jays’ spark has to come from somewhere until the return of the injured players. On Wednesday, Gibbons used his 32nd different batting order in 34 games.