Weekend sweep no sentimental journey
At first, the theme of the thing seemed to be J.A. Happ racking up strikeouts at a prancing pace, whiffing five of six batters through two innings.
Which would dovetail nicely with the lanky lefty likely making his final start as a Blue Jay at the Rogers Centre and a fine one with the trade deadline looming.
The long goodbye is frankly getting a tad tiresome and we’re running out of words for it.
Then came a 36-pitch fifth — shades of Boston in Happ’s last non all-star appearance, when the roof suddenly caved in en route to his third consecutive loss — and a defensive play not made when Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s wide throw to first pulled Justin Smoak off the bag.
So now, and as the Sunday afternoon game against Baltimore unfolded with further defensive seizures — hesitancy on easy double-play balls, a goofy collision between Gurriel and Aledmys Diaz, fellow Cubans so it couldn’t have been a communication issue — the developing motif was skewing toward Toronto pitchers having to make extra outs because of clumsiness behind them, which really has been a theme all season long.
But don’t count your theorems before they’re hatched. A brace of two-run jacks in the eighth and the Jays had rallied from 4-1 down to 5-4 up, which is as it ended as Toronto swept the weekend series against the pitifully awful Orioles: W to John Axford, save to Tyler Clippard, who didn’t blow it this time.
We’re still thinking, though, that manager John Gibbons should have let Happ face at least one batter in the sixth, allowing the veteran two-time Jay to be saluted by the crowd as he left the field. Meanie Gibbons wasn’t having any of that sentimental goop.
“Do I know that?” he retorted to the probability that Happ will not pass this way again as a Jay in 2018.
“What happens if the next guy goes out there and hits a home run, or gets on base, reliever comes on and he (Happ) sucks up the L in a loss. Then I’m the bad guy. I get blamed for not taking him out.”
Seriously, in the big picture, what would a loss have mattered?
Guess there’s no schmaltz in baseball. As if.
No crystal ball in any case in which Gibbons would have seen Joe Biagini almost immediately serving up a home run to Jonathan Schoop, Baltimore nudging ahead 2-1, stretching their lead to 4-1 on the smashup behind Axford and a play not made — is there an echo in here? — by Yangervis Solarte when Mark Trumbo overran the bag at third.
The skipper’s job, for as long as he continues to hold it, is to win games, even with Toronto 221⁄ 2 games behind American League-leading Boston, 13 games out of a wild card. The season grinds on.
“I get what you’re saying,” Gibbons granted, softening up. “I don’t know how much longer he’s going to be around. He’s been pitching very well lately and doesn’t have anything to show for it. Whatever is going to happen, I’m sure we’ll find out in the next couple of weeks.”
Before the July 31 deadline. After the Jays head out on the road.
“So I’ll try to find another way to get him recognized. I’ll say some good words for him on camera.”
In any event, nine strikeouts for Happ over five innings, no walks while giving up just one run, joining Justin Verlander as the only pitchers this year with four games of nine-plus Ks and zero walks.
Gather ’round reporters, as the 35-year-old once again fielded questions about his imminent future.
“I’m not letting myself go there.’’ Meaning the emotional crevice of a Rogers Centre swan-song. “I’m just going to wait and see. It’s a tough place to be mentally. I’m trying to just avoid those what-ifs right now.’’ That hovers, however. “It’s a weird thing. In some aspects I want the next week to go quick. And then I might look back and maybe not feel that way.”
In this outing, even in that fifth, Happ was pounding the zone, his changeup particularly effective, eliciting lots of swings and misses. But a lot of pitches expended — 102 — in the process and then he began falling behind batters. So another heavy workload for the bullpen and the starting rotation still distorted for the next series, the Twins in town.
Marco Estrada will throw a rehab game in Double-A New Hampshire on Monday and Luis Santos probably gets the start here versus Minnesota.
Gibbons: “The next day, who knows?”
While Happ exited with his usual low-key attitude, the same could not be said for Baltimore starter Andrew Cashner, who: a) could clearly not believe it when Buck Sho- walter shuffled out with the hook and two out in the sixth; and b) glared knives at his manager before departing sullenly, jawing all the way to the dugout.
The Baltimore ’pen collapsed, a three-run lead disappearing post-haste in the eighth.
Brad Brach, also rumoured to be on the trade block, hung a slider that Randal Grichuk hammered 416 feet — the ball screamed off his bat at 108 m.p.h. — onto the facing of the third deck in left field for two runs, enlivening the crowd under a steamy closed dome.
“I felt like we were taking good at-bats and putting good swings on the ball,” said Grichuk, who’s been home-run sparking in the past month. Lashed a double too. “I definitely like where we’re at coming off the break.”
With Devon Travis pinchrunning for Smoak (infield single, Baltimore bitten by the shift), Solarte greeted Tanner Scott by practically coming out of his cleats on a belt-high 3-and-1 fastball that ended up in Toronto’s bullpen, his teamleading 17th home run capping the rally.
Solarte also has figured into trade speculation.
“To be honest, without any disrespect, I don’t pay attention to that.”
Doesn’t want to go anywhere, he claims. Doesn’t want to see Happ moved on either.
“When you get an all-star, you don’t want to lose him.”