LONG DAY FOR JAYS
Backups play again in loss
In the middle of the Camden Yards visitors’ clubhouse sits a set of leather couches, arranged in a square, and on Thursday morning they were occupied by eight players in various states of sprawl.
Most wore their blue, uniform themed bathrobes, famously supplied by David Price. One player was clearly asleep, and several others seemed similarly inclined. Another was reading phone messages through an oversized set of goggles, a souvenir of the long, loud, liquid celebration that shook the plastic covered walls of this room the previous night.
Aaron Sanchez, clad in his robe, entered the clubhouse, surveyed the scene and laughed out loud.
“Wake up, you guys!” he said, approximately. ( He included a few other words unsuitable for the pure of heart, but you get the idea.)
A few groans and weak smiles greeted him. The cleaning staff had done a good job of restoring the room, but for the heartiest partiers, cleaning out the personal cobwebs would take more time.
Such are the wages of the Blue Jays’ first celebration of a division championship in 22 years. But as manager John Gibbons observed, “it had been so damned long.”
They also had a game to play. Or something resembling a game, like the one they played using a Triple- A lineup in the nightcap of Wednesday’s doubleheader. The regulars had routed the Orioles 15- 2 in the opener, thereby clinching the American League East title. Gibbons rested his starters for Game 2, which Baltimore won 8- 1, and then everybody went back inside and donned their goggles and Go- Pro cameras and got wet.
On Thursday, Camden Yards also got very wet. Officials had switched the game time from 7: 05 p. m. local time to 12: 05 to take advantage of an alleged rainless period, but midway through the first inning, the forecast proved egregiously flawed.
Jays starting pitcher Drew Hutchison barely survived the first inning. By the time the rain delay began, he had surrendered four hits ( all for extra bases), walked one batter and hit another. The Orioles led the Blue Jays/ Buffalo Bisons 3- 0 when the rain delay was imposed.
Hutchison was starting for the B team because the Jays decided to shut down their ace, David Price, for the rest of the regular season and keep him fresh to start Game 1 of the American League Division Series next Thursday. Instead of starting him in Tampa Bay this weekend, management wants to save its ace for more serious business.
Some serious business does remain in the regular season, however. The Jays ( 92- 67) are tied with Kansas City for the best overall record in the AL after the Royals beat the Chicago White Sox 6- 4 Wednesday night.
Finishing first overall would give the winner home- field advantage throughout the playoffs. So Gibbons plans to start his regulars for the final series in Tampa.
It’s a measure of how far and how fast the Jays have come that on July 31, they were nine games back of the Royals. By Aug. 31, the deficit was 6.5 games. On Monday, Toronto slipped ahead by a game.
The Jays also hope shortstop Troy Tulowitzki is ready to play in a game or two before the season ends. He is recovering from a cracked shoulder blade suffered Sept. 12 and is scheduled to hit in a simulated game in Tampa on Friday. If that goes well, he may be in the lineup for Saturday’s game.
Mark Buehrle, who needs 8.2 innings to reach 200 for the 15th straight year, is set to start Friday and may start again Sunday if he’s a couple of innings short.
Meanwhile, the Jays- O’s game resumed after a delay of three hours and 29 minutes. The official attendance was announced at 18,257, but the place was almost deserted. By the middle innings, fans clustered in the first few rows at field level were yelling directions to the two or three souls in the upper deck who were trying to find foul balls.
Otherwise, the place was so quiet that Munenori Kawasaki’s dugout cheerleading was audible.
With Baltimore leading 5- 1 entering the sixth, Gibbons did something he has not done in four months. He let Chad Jenkins pitch. Jenkins spent the season in Buffalo, save for one May appearance with the Jays. He last pitched on Sept. 4 for Buffalo and was lounging on his couch at his Georgia home when the Jays called him up as insurance for their doubleheader in New York on Sept. 12.
The first batter he faced, Manny Machado, homered over the centrefield fence. But Jenkins held the Orioles scoreless for the next 1.2 innings, by which time the Jays had cut the lead to 6- 4. Jenkins left to a standing ovation from the 50 Toronto fans behind the third- base dugout.
O’s skipper Buck Showalter thwarted a Jays rally in the seventh by summoning Darren O’Day, his best reliever and Jose Bautista’s persistent antagonist. But Bautista was not in the lineup, and Gibbons was not about to let him pinch- hit, even though he could have represented the tying run in the eighth. Gibbons promised his regulars a day off — post- celebration, he figured they might be a tad wobbly — and he meant it.
From start to finish, the game took almost seven hours. The Jays lost 6- 4. Their regulars will be back on the job Friday in Tampa.