Jays deliver opening smash in Bronx
Long balls set tone but doubleheader poses fresh challenge
NEW YORK— Who’s on first? Nobody. Because they all came around to score. Who’s further in first? The Blue Jays, now by 21⁄
2 games.
We are speaking here, off the top, about a first inning that knocked the stuffing out of those Pinstripes and stunned a crowd silent — well, except for those annoying “USA! USA!” chants — with a Dominican on the mound, for heaven’s sake, facing an opposing lineup comprised primarily of Americans, but don’t let facts get in the way — to launch a critical, crucial and, you know, really REALLY important four-game series against the visiting Torontonians.
Shell-shocked Luis Severino still doesn’t know what hit him. The rookie flame-thrower stumbled on a fastball follow-through to the second Blue Jay he saw and literally fell to both knees on the mound. It looked like he was praying, and that was before the Blue Jays pulled the pin on HR grenades.
First base, as it turned out, was scarcely a way station for the hitters from up in the “6,” since only Troy Tulowitzki stopped on the bag briefly in that bludgeoning opening frame. Before David Price had thrown a single pitch, teammates had already invested him with a 5-0 lead. And the rangy ace hasn’t given up more than five runs since April, in a Tigers uni.
Let’s revisit that opening inning of what should not yet be described as a mustwin game between these teams neckand-neck, kneecap-to-kneecap, atop the AL East. Although the encounter was assuredly more of a better-win-here proposition for the home side than the visitors.
Ben Revere leads off with a double, Josh Donaldson smokes his 38th home run into the left-centre porch — his club-record 13th first-inning jack, extraordinary; Edwin Encarnacion laces a standup two-bagger and chugs home (high speed for E.E.) on Tulowitzki’s single; Justin Smoak strokes his 15th home run.
A Blue Jays barrage in the Bronx, featuring a brace of homers from Russell Martin in back-to-back plate appearances in an 11-5 win.
Severino, just 21 and in his seventh big league start, never made it out of the third — lit up by that prodigious Toronto lineup: six hits, six runs, two home runs, three walks, a wild pitch. He’s the youngest starter in the majors but wasn’t the youngest ballplayer in Yankee Stadium on Friday evening. “One year older than me,’’ said Toronto closer Roberto Osuna, stressing the point. “It doesn’t matter how old . . . He’s got amazing stuff. He showed us that in Toronto.’’
In a 3-1 loss back at Rogers Centre on Aug. 16 he flashed some impressive heat and entered this contest with a 2.04 ERA, 0.98 over his previous three — all Ws.
Anyway, Severino was showered off by the time New York got on the board in the third, and could have been halfway to Queens — had he not been compelled to wait for the post-game journo scrum — when Encarnacion crushed an offering from reliever Chris Martin and it was Toronto with a commanding 6-1 presence.
Somewhat mystifyingly, manager John Gibbons took the ball from Price after only five innings and 96 pitches, seguing to LaTroy Hawkins, who surrendered a towering threerun homer (two earned) to Didi Gregorius.
We’re not in autumn ball yet and the Jays have miles to go before they can sleep easy, but hammering New York was just the thing embarking on this weekend series, and a longball adjustment from their losing series in Boston.
Lots of ’pen help was summoned for their last game at Fenway, so that was top of mind for Gibbons as he pondered relief cadre management for Saturday’s rain-induced doubleheader.
We know who’s toeing the rubber to start: Marco Estrada in the matinee, Marcus Stroman on the undercard in his 2015 debut. But what can Gibbons reasonably expect of his relievers, should it come to that, in a two-fer gig at the ballpark, particularly from setup stud Aaron Sanchez and closer Osuna, both young arms? This is a team unaccustomed to double-punching the clock.
“Everything depends on tonight,” Osuna had said pre-game. “If we pitch tonight, we’ll probably be able to pitch in one game tomorrow. But then it depends how much you throw (in the first game Saturday). Throw a lot and it will be a problem, right? But if you only make, like, 10 pitches, you should be able to pitch in the second game. So we’ll see. Everything really depends on the score.”
To wit: Whether they’ll need Osuna to close in the early game. His services were not required Friday, it turned out. Ditto for Sanchez.
Osuna’s done it only once before, pitching in both ends of a doubleheader back in his Mexican League days. “I threw one inning in each game. But I only threw 12 pitches in the first and 18 pitches in the second game.”
Sanchez, musing on the possibilities, is a keener.
“I’ve never been a part of a doubleheader in the big leagues and in the minors I was always a starter. But I told (Gibbons) yesterday if the game situation plays out to where he needs me both games, I’ll be ready.
“I think it’ll be kinda cool to pitch in two games in one day. I’ve done back-to-back-to-back days pitching. I’ve done five days out of six. Something new, but I’m ready to take the challenge.”