TWO OUT OF THREE
Tigers take the rubber match after Cabrera draws a full-count walk-off walk in the 11th
Tigers best Jays in Detroit
The series win was there for the taking, but the Toronto Blue Jays were a combination of too sloppy with their defence and just unable to take advantage when the scoring opportunities presented themselves.
It was one loss but it felt like a microcosm of the entire season. There were flashes of the brand of baseball this group has thrilled the Toronto fan base with the past few years, but again the Jays were unable to finish the job, as they dropped a 6-5 decision in 11 innings to the Detroit Tigers.
The Jays lost the rubber match of this series when reliever Lucas Harrell missed wide of the plate on a full-count pitch to Miguel Cabrera with the bases loaded and two out, forcing in the winning run. It’s an awful way to lose, but it’s about what the Jays deserved on this day.
“Really, the way we have been playing, we are right where we should be, playing the way we have in all phases of the game,” Toronto manager John Gibbons said.
Officially the Jays committed three errors in this one, the winning run an unearned run when Josh Donaldson failed to come up with a tough but makable play on a ground ball directly over the third base bag. Donaldson appeared to field it but dropped it making the transfer from glove to throwing hand, leaving Nicholas Castellanos safe at first.
Castellanos would have been the second out of the inning after a leadoff walk to Alex Avila, who was then sacrificed to second.
Justin Upton followed Castellanos with the second walk of the inning to load the bases before Harrell failed to find the strike zone with Cabrera.
Twice the Jays had leads in this one. They opened the game up with three runs in the first inning, and after that lead was immediately handed back, Jose Bautista went yard for the second time in the series with a man aboard in the fifth.
The second lead stood up until reliever Danny Barnes was taken deep by J.D. Martinez in the eighth on a play that was initially ruled a double and after review changed to a home run.
Jays starter Marco Estrada gave Toronto’s first lead back almost by himself as he began the game unable to throw strikes.
When he straightened himself out, his defence let him down. Estrada came into the game not have pitched in 13 days and it showed early on as he needed 36 pitches alone just to get out of the first inning. Two walks, two hits and two sac flies later and the 3-0 lead he was given was back to even.
“It just felt weird to me,” Estrada said. “Once I got out of that inning, I felt great. I felt like myself again. I thought I made a lot of good pitches.”