Pitching staff still work in progress
Long after the game was over, Jason Grilli was still sitting alone, staring into his locker. Seeing what, in his mind’s eye? One long ball after another sailing over the wall. Two . . . three . . . four.
A historic debacle it had been, first time in franchise history a Blue Jays reliever had surrendered a quartet of home runs in one inning.
Not history as Grilli would want to make it. Although by then, in the eighth frame of a 7-0 loss to the Yankees Saturday afternoon at the Rogers Centre, it hardly mattered except as a statistical exclamation mark.
Grilli chose not to speak with reporters. What was there to say, anyway? Except what the 40-year-old has stated previously during this unkind season: That his career has been declared premature- ly kaput before, that he’s risen from the ashes more than once, most recently as a phoenix ascending from the scrap heap in Atlanta to the bullpen in Toronto.
But it was a ghastly thing to watch, if only in the context of small picture baseball, not big picture life.
In the aftermath, starter Joe Biagini — who ate the loss despite giving up only one earned run through seven — saw Grilli in the weight room and gave the veteran a man-hug. Because that’s Biagini, as affectionate as a St. Bernard. And Grilli is the Big Daddy of the ’pen, the elder statesman who sets the mood — even if lately he’s been relegated to mopup work in blowouts either way — and whom all the relievers respect.
“You can tell he’s as mentally tough as anybody and has been through it all,” said Biagini. “Everybody knows what he’s done in his career. Somebody like me would not handle it as well, just because of sheer experience. Somebody like me, I’m not going to give him any advice or anything like that.”
It was perhaps an awkward situation, between these two men. Biagini, making his sixth career start because the starting rotation has been a DL mess, likely has few, maybe zero, starts left if Aaron Sanchez is fit to take back his job, his right middle finger issues clearing up. He could resume throwing on the side Sunday.
Francisco Liriano was restored to the order Friday night. And urgency in the bullpen, especially worn out as they’ve been with heavy workloads in recent weeks, pretty much demands that Biagini be returned whence he came.
Unless the Jays think way outside the box and funnel Sanchez into the ’pen instead, at least for a while, where he could be summoned to throw nothing but heat for a couple of innings, keep the pitch count down, give his digit even more time to recover. Liriano has been simply too wild to trust in a high leverage situation out of the bullpen.
John Gibbons’ limited options were on stark display Saturday because of weary relief corps arms. That meant hanging tough with Grilli, nobody even up and throwing until the third jack was slammed by Starlin Castro.
“I don’t hang anybody out to dry,” the skipper stated sternly, not liking one bit how the question had been posed to him.
A touchy matter, deciding whether to give a flailing pitcher the hook or stick by him. Not that it was an empathetic call at all, continuing to ride Grilli in his moment of utter fiasco. “Our guys down in the ’pen are running on fumes right now. We really can’t keep this pace up. Especially when you’ve got seven guys down there.”
Seven because of no Biagini, who’d been stalwart relieving in the seventh and eighth bridge innings.
Gibbons and Grilli have both been around the game a long time. Any decent manager would want to rescue an imploding moundsman from such horror. But Gibbons’ hands were tied, with 16-plus innings out of the relief cadre in the previous four games and the littleused J.P. Howell warming up in a hurry.
“It’s hard,” he admitted. “Simply because I like the guy so much, everybody does. In normal circumstances where there’s a few guys that can pitch, he probably doesn’t stay in there that long. Everybody feels for that.
“Grilli’s had some great moments here, some big innings for us. It’s just one of those days, the ball was flying, they got some pretty good swings off him. That’s never easy for a manager or a coach to sit there because you know what’s inside the guy, you know what the guy’s made of — it’s team all the way.”
And, as Gibbons noted, “it happened quick too.”
Toronto was already trailing 3-0, late innings, no sense the Jays had any rally in them — 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position over the last two games — when Grilli took the bump. First batter he faced, Brett Gardner, took him yard. Then, with two out, Matt Holliday, Castro and Didi Gregorius followed HR suit. Three of those round-trippers came off sliders with no snap, Grilli’s Achilles.
Toronto, Sisyphus-like, keeps pushing that boulder up the hill, not once this season cresting the .500 summit, four times now within one game of the mark before, as on Saturday, rolling back. Third shutout on the season, all at home.
In this engagement, the Jays failed yet again to make a winner out of Biagini (1-4), who gave up only three hits through seven, his longest start, throwing a career-high 100 pitches. The big right-hander has received precious little run support — only 11 runs scored by his ’mates in six games.
“I’m not ready to play the victim quite yet,” Biagini said when asked if he’s been the victim of rotten luck.
It was an error by Troy Tulowitzki — double bobble on a hopper, not bad luck — which got the potent Yankees rolling in the third. Toronto gave them an extra out and a base, actually, when No. 9 hitter Rob Refsnyder took his E-base, then stole second, two runs scoring on subsequent back-to-back doubles, both unearned.
“There was a little bit of frustrash, as Jason Grilli often says,” mused Biagini later, displeased in particular with that second double to Aaron Judge, a cutter that didn’t.
“I’ve been a little frustrated with that because last year it was one of my go-to pitches.’’
Biagini kept the game close but the Jays managed just three hits — tying their season-low — off New York rookie starter Jordan Montgomery and nothing off their bullpen.
Apart from a miserable six-run inning in Atlanta May 17, Biagini has been a sturdy starter for Toronto in their injury distress.
Yet he might not pass that way again.
“I understand the makeup of this team. Everybody wants Aaron Sanchez to come back. I do too. Because he looks really cute in his jersey. He’s also really good at throwing baseballs.
“I’m just really appreciative of the opportunity to go hang around that mound every once in a while, in whatever capacity.”