FIVE GAME 2 MOMENTS Twists and turning points
Jays’ sloppy start
The Jays were the most efficient team in baseball at converting balls in play into outs this season — according to Baseball Prospectus — so their collective sloppiness in the first inning on Friday was an unfamiliar sight.
Delino DeShields led off with a long fly to right that Jose Bautista looked to have caught before the ball popped out as he collided with the wall. Prince Fielder hit a bouncer that took a funny hop and eluded Ryan Goins. Russell Martin missed his throw to Josh Donaldson when it looked like the Jays had Shin-Soo Choo in an easy rundown.
The Jays were down by two before they had recorded an out.
Colabello’s unassisted DP
With the Jays reeling in the opening inning, first baseman Chris Colabello helped limit the damage with a quirky unassisted doubleplay. With two on, one out and the Rangers already leading 2-0, he snared a weak grounder from Josh Hamilton, whom he then tagged on the first-base line before running clear across the diamond to also nab a moose-in-headlights Prince Fielder, who was stranded awkwardly between third and home.
“I knew Fielder was at third,” Colabello said. “I think at that point in time the priority was to keep (Fielder) from scoring. We were able to get two.”
Odor scores again
Rougned Odor, the Rangers’ second baseman who has been a persistent thorn in the Jays’ side through the first two games of the series, scored twice on Friday, the first time in the second inning as the Rangers took a 3-1 lead.
Odor drew a leadoff walk and came around to score mainly with some heads-up baserunning as he scampered from first to an unoccupied third on a high chopper to the mound.
The speedy infielder, who has already scored five runs in the series’ two games, then scored on Hanser Alberto’s sacrifice fly.
Cecil goes down
The Jays lost their 4-3 lead in the eighth when Brett Cecil, their best reliever throughout the second half of the season, gave up a twoout single to Mike Napolito drive in the speedy DeShields — who singled off Stroman to lead off the inning — from second base.
After the game-tying hit, Cecil picked off Napoli at first and caught him in a rundown, but immediately appeared in considerable pain and had to be helped off the field by Jays’ trainer George Poulis. After the game the team announced that Cecil tore his left calf muscle. He will presumably miss at least the rest of the series.
Replay controversy
What most Jays fans will be focused on after this game is the 14th-inning replay review of a strange play in which right fielder Jose Bautista, fielding a sharply hit single, tried to nab Odor, the lead runner, who had drifted past second base after moving up on the single.
Odor clearly was initially back in time, but replays showed his right foot may have come off the bag for a brief moment as Jays shortstop Troy Tulowitzki continued to lay the tag.
Replay officials in New York City decided the play was inconclusive, so the safe call on the field stood and Odor scored on the next play.