SANCHEZ SIZZLES
Tigers’ Anibal Sanchez no-hits Jays into the eighth inning but Detroit still forced to hang on for the victory,
DETROIT— The belief is that winning baseball can be compartmentalized into three areas — pitching, hitting and defence.
On Friday night in an 8-6 loss to the Tigers at Comerica Park, the Blue Jays had none of those three assets going until the eighth inning. That’s when the bats finally awoke and an eight-run deficit nearly became a tie game, scoring six against Detroit starter Anibal Sanchez and the bullpen.
The normally heavy-hitting Jays managed to be no-hit into the eighth inning by the veteran righthander, Sanchez. The bid was broken up by Ezequiel Carrera, who at the end of a grinding at-bat lined a 2-2 single to left field. Sanchez had already thrown a no-hitter for the Marlins against the Sanchez had to settle for a non-quality start of three hits and four runs in 71⁄ innings, as
3 Carrera’s hit was followed by singles to Devon Travis and Ryan Goins driving him from the game. Righthander Josh Wilson came on and gave up all three inherited runners, capped by a bases-clearing double by catcher Dioner Navarro, snapping a 0-for-14 slump and bringing his club within two.
“I think that’s our mentality, that’s why we’re capable of scoring a lot of runs,” Navarro said. “It can happen in the blink of an eye. Anibal was throwing a great game, we got the first base-hit and went from there. We never give up. We’re going to play hard for 27 outs. Our job as an offence is to score runs and we did that tonight.”
As far as pitching is concerned, Drew Hutchison continued his unfortunate season of underwhelming work on the road. Overall, Hutchison failed to finish five innings for the fifth time in 2015. In nine road starts, he is 2-1, with a 9.00 ERA, allowing 42 earned runs in as many innings.
“I had a bad start, it’s as simple as that,” Hutchison said in denying there’s a road curse.
“It just happened to be on the road. We’ve been through this many times. We talked about this the complete opposite last year and it ended up being the complete opposite in the second half. I think it’s more the point of going out there and have good outings, whether it be at home or on the road, not put us in the hole like I did tonight, regardless of where we are.” Much of the damage was not Hutchison’s fault however. The defence contributed a huge amount to a five-run Tigers fourth inning. With one out and the bases loaded Jays left fielder Carrera dove for a Nick Castellanos line drive, had it in his glove but let the ball roll out onto the grass. The outfielder righted himself then fired a Scud missile over the cutoff man to the left of third baseman Josh Donaldson that rolled to home plate end of the Tigers dugout allowing another run to score. On the next play, Anthony Gose singled to left and Carrera fired another wild throw with no fixed address. It made it way past the entire infield and into the Jays dugout.
“We were uncharacteristically sloppy tonight,” Jays manager John Gibbons said. “That was unusual for us. We haven’t seen that all year.”
Following the shellacking at the hands of the Red Sox on Thursday, the Jays had recalled right-hander Ryan Tepera and purchased the contract of left-hander Felix Doubront. The 27-year-old Venezuelan had been working his way back to full speed after signing with the Jays on April 2. He had been released by the Cubs on March 28. He was 1-3 with a 2.44 ERA at Triple-A. “I know they had to work on my shoulder, my pitches, everything again, as a starter,” Doubront said of why two other starters, Scott Copeland and Matt Boyd, had been up before he got the nod. “Because I started the year in the bullpen down there with the Cubs. I was thinking just work hard down there and try to get my strength in my shoulder and get my pitches back.”
Doubront’s first three seasons in the majors were trending upwards, including being in the rotation going 11-6 for the 2013 World Series winning Red Sox. But when he struggled in 2014, he was sent to the bullpen, had a serious discussion with manager John Farrell, then was shipped off to the Cubs on July 30. Immediately onto Chicago’s disabled list with undisclosed shoulder issues he returned for four September starts and reported to spring training as a middle reliever.
“At spring training this year my shoulder was really good,” Doubront explained. “I think it started last year. It was minor, but the power that I needed for my fastball, it wasn’t there. When I came here to Florida (with the Jays), I started working my shoulder problems and stuff and since there, my shoulder feels 100 per cent, completely powerful and all my pitches . . . everything was really good.”
There is a start available next Tuesday against the White Sox and Doubront is the most likely candidate. He entered for Hutchison in the fifth and acquitted himself well enough to earn the Tuesday start, allowing a run in 21⁄ innings. He
3 was followed by Tepera with a scoreless eighth.
Meanwhile, Tigers star first baseman Miguel Cabrera suffered an injury to his left calf running between first and second and had an MRI. He will likely not be available against the Jays.