Biagini, bullpen, Bautista lift Jays past Brewers
For much of the current season, the Jays’ middle relievers have alternated between being described as muchmaligned and underrated. On Tuesday night at Miller Park, in a 4-3 victory over the Brewers, it was the right-handed duo of Danny Barnes and Ryan Tepera who made their mark at a time when the Jays looked in danger of blowing what had once been a four-run lead.
Every win is much-needed.
With the lead down to one run and runners on second and third with one out in the fifth inning, the rookie Barnes entered to face the dangerous Ryan Braun.
He struck out the former National League MVP on a high fastball on a full count, then fanned Travis Shaw. Barnes earned his first career win with 11/3 shutout innings.
In the seventh it was Tepera’s turn, tossing a shutout inning and extending his current streak to 171⁄ frames without
3 allowing a run, the second-longest active streak behind Alex Wood of the Dodgers. Tepera handed off to the back-end pair of setup man Joe Smith and closer Roberto Osuna, who notched save No. 7 of the season. The Jays’ relievers tossed 42⁄ shutout
3 innings, striking out eight Brewers, and have now logged 1682⁄ in total, more
3 than any other bullpen in the AL.
The Jays have not fared well overall in interleague play in 2017, including a pair of losses to the Brewers in April.
The Jays improved to 3-7 vs. the NL, while the AL as a whole is 16 games above .500
They are 3-7 vs. the NL after Tuesday’s win, even though the AL as a whole was 16 games above .500.
The Jays evened their record at 3-3 on a seven-game road trip to Atlanta (1-1), Baltimore (1-2) and Milwaukee, with a matinee finale Wednesday.
The Jays opened the scoring in the second inning, notching a pair of runs against right-hander Jimmy Nelson. The Jays loaded the bases with nobody out before Ryan Goins lined a single over shortstop, cashing Devon Travis from third.
Then pitcher Joe Biagini, in just his second career plate appearance, tapped a slow bouncer out towards shortstop and beat out the double play, driving in his first career run and tying Marcus Stroman for the team lead by a pitcher. He had dropped down a sacrifice bunt in Atlanta in his first appearance with a bat in his hands.
Biagini was helped out by another teammate doing something unfamiliar in the second inning. Jose Bautista, making his first start at third base since April 14, 2013, glided to his left on a Manny Pina ground ball and fired to the outfield side of the bag at second base, starting an awkward looking double play that ended the inning. Bautista was making his 373rd appearance at third base. After going 2-for-3, he is batting .252 with 55 homers at the hot corner.
In addition to Bautista at third base, the Jays have used four others to start in the absence of injured Josh Donaldson, who according to manager John Gibbons may be back as early as this coming weekend against the Rangers. Gibbons had spoken to Bautista on Sunday in Baltimore about the possibility. Chris Coghlan has not been a good option in his short time with the Jays and Darwin Barney was feeling the effects of a tight hamstring, so imagination was required.
“We’ve been tossing some things around lately,” Gibbons said. “Cogh’s a natural outfielder. Bautista has been over there a couple of times and played good. We’ll just have fun with it. I think Jose likes it too, a little change of pace.”
Bautista was involved in the Jays taking a four-run lead in the fifth inning. He lined a two-out single to left field, followed by a long linedrive blast off the batter’s eye in straightaway centre field by Kendrys Morales, his eighth homer of the season. His previous at-bat against Nelson, he had slammed one that was caught at the base of the wall in centre field. His 170 career homers rank third among active switch-hitters behind Carlos Beltran of the Astros and Victor Martinez of the Tigers.
But in the moments after the Jays celebrated the long ball by Morales, the Brewers bounced back with some NL ball, scoring three runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it a one-run game and drive Biagini from the game.
After allowing singles to the first three batters, scoring the first run of the inning, Jonathan Villar singled home a pair, then stole second. Eric Thames walked, and the Brewers executed a double steal, but Barnes came on to quell the rally.
Biagini may have been victimized by the same factors that hamper AL pitchers working in NL ballparks. He was forced to run out a ground ball hard in the second and then remained on the bases. The sprint is not the usual running style of pitchers. So even if it did not weaken Biagini in the second, it may have affected him when he seemed to run out of gas in the fifth, two outs shy of qualifying for the win.
In a personal highlight for Jays’ rookie outfielder Anthony Alford pinch-hit for Barnes and slammed a line-drive double off the centre-field fence for his first career hit. The ball was rolled out of play.