Struggling Jays waste Sanchez’s brilliant outing
The way Aaron Sanchez was pitching Tuesday night, it was almost as if he didn’t need the run support.
If only baseball and life as a starting pitcher were that easy.
Not only was Sanchez enjoying the best starting effort of his career — the right-hander carried a onehitter into the ninth inning — he was making it look easy. With a curveball that danced and an efficient use of pitches, Sanchez had struck out 12, three more than any Jays starter this season.
And what a waste it was in a 3-2, extra innings loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park.
One of the better individual pitching efforts of the season instead turned into one of the more frustrating losses as the Jays dropped their second in a row to the Tigers and saw their record drop to 31-29.
Whether the Jays were rattled by a late collapse in the ninth or not, the bottom of the 10th didn’t start out well with Joe Biagini surrendering a single to Justin Upton to lead off the Tigers’ half of the inning. Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia walked to move Upton to second, Jose Iglesias then loaded the bases on a sacrifice fielder’s choice and what 30 minutes earlier seemed like a sure win, a loss smelled like a lock. With the Tigers up to the top of the order, second baseman Ian Kinsler drove a single to left field and that was the ball game. It probably shouldn’t have got that far with the way Sanchez was pitching. But with only two runs of support, it wasn’t enough.
That ease and low pitch count allowed Sanchez to take the mound for the ninth, where a Tigers lineup that had been so quiet, suddenly woke up with a bang.
After Iglesias led off the ninth with a single, second baseman Kinsler blasted a double to left-centre that easily scored the run and cut the Jays’ lead in half at 2-1.
Roberto Osuna came on in relief of Sanchez and after an Andrew Romine sacrifice, Kinsler advanced to third with just the lone out. The next batter, Miguel Cabrera, doubled off the wall in right-centre and suddenly the game was tied at 2-2 with just one out.
Osuna was able to get J.D. Martinez swinging, Osuna had one more to retire to get out of the jam, which he did by forcing Nick Castellanos to ground out to third and send the game to extra innings.
The way things were going, it didn’t appear as if the Jays would need the added run support, but the first scent of trouble came in the top half of the ninth. Sure, they had a 2-0 lead, but with two out and the bases loaded, getting another run across would have been huge. Instead, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion each struck out and Russell Martin fouled out to end the threat.
Until the late collapse, Sanchez was making his case to be the ace of the Jays rotation as he pitched into the seventh inning or later for a seventh consecutive game.