Blue Jays’ big bats fall silent as Cleveland opens a deep wound
In Game 3 of what might be the last stand for these Blue Jays, Cleveland’s starting pitcher had to leave after four batters. Trevor Bauer’s drone-mangled stitched-up pinky finger couldn’t hold together. He was wiping it on his shirt; it was dripping like a horrormovie faucet; there was blood spatter on his pants. The mound was basically a crime scene. Four batters in, he had to leave.
But Toronto is the one bleeding. Down 0-2 in the American League Championship Series, they couldn’t wait for Cleveland’s pitchers to eventually burn out, one by one. They couldn’t hope to burn out a bullpen for the future. They needed Game 3.
They didn’t get it. The bats were meek again, and the pitching finally cracked a little, and all of a sudden they are staring down the edge of the void.
With two on and two outs in the seventh, their last best chance was a Josh Donaldson liner, but it was caught by a sliding Coco Crisp. Cleveland’s Cody Allen had 32 saves this season, but there he was in the seventh and the eighth. Cleveland manager Terry Francona was composing a managing opera, and the soloists could move around.
In the eighth, Allen got Edwin Encarnacion on the way to an 0-for-4 day, and then got Troy Tulowitzki to strike out looking.
And then came Andrew Miller, base- ball’s reaper of the moment. He is death with a slider. He struck out Russell Martin on four pitches to end the eighth, and then came the last stand. Dioner Navarro singled to lead off. Then Kevin Pillar, strikeout on three pitches, Melvin Upton Jr., strikeout on five pitches. Darwin Barney, the last man, thrown out on a grounder up the middle. Hell of a play. Toronto lost 4-2, and could be eliminated as soon as Game 4 Tuesday. It has happened so fast.
Toronto manager John Gibbons had decided that if he was going to go down, he was going down swinging. Or at least, he was going down with the guys who swing best. Bautista to lead off, then Donaldson, Encarnacion, Tulowitzki. “Run your top dogs right away,” Gibbons said. Down 2-0, he didn’t have time to wait.
But his big dogs didn’t hunt in a pack. Two of the top four reached base in the first inning, on walks; that never happened again. Whoever pitched, they ate the big bad bats up. Story of the end of the season, and of this series.
A mess. After a leadoff walk to Cleveland’s Carlos Santana to start the game, Bautista started to turn his head as he tried to catch a Mike Napoli fly ball at the wall in the first inning: The ball bounced out of his glove, and it was 1-0 Cleveland. Then Bautista, one day after veiled complaints about the umpires, got a favourable call on what should have been strike three, and still struck out looking to start the game. Cleveland’s official team Twitter account, which had already made fun of Bautista’s umpire-themed talk of “circumstances,” tweeted “LOL.”
Then things got weird. Two walks and two outs into the game, Bauer’s mangled pinky was bleeding like it had been sliced open by a malfunctioning drone, requiring 11 stitches for a wound that looked gruesome and harrowing. Which, yeah.
The immediate domino effect: Corey Kluber, the Game 1 ace who has never started on short rest, was tabbed to start Game 4 on short rest. The bullpen would have to take the ball. Circumstances.
Michael Saunders tied it with a second-inning opposite-field home run off reliever Dan Otero, and the chess match really began. Toronto just needed to get to one reliever, blow him up, string something together. Cleveland just needed to get outs. Cleveland catcher Mike Napoli smashed a home run in the fourth, 2-1. Ezequiel Carrera hit a leadoff triple in the fifth, and Ryan Goins brought him home. 2-2.
You could feel how tenuous this was. Bautista nearly got one, but he hit a pop fly to the track instead. Josh Donaldson slapped a single and was stranded. They just couldn’t get it done.
Then came the tipping point. Second baseman Jason Kipnis, hitless in three games, crushed a leadoff home run in the sixth. Marcus Stroman was gone. Napoli walked, stole a base, scored on a single. Cleveland had a 4-2 lead in the sixth. Oh, dear.
The Jays came into this series with more starting pitchers, and with red-hot bats. It looked like a long series. Well, it got late early in every game. Maybe they should have started Aaron Sanchez in Game 3 rather than waiting until Game 4. But Sanchez was the flag all year to see how the wind was blowing — innings limit, a bigger innings limit, a move to the bullpen, then streaming straight on. You can understand the reasoning. And hey, if Sanchez started Game 3 he wasn’t going to hit.
But this organization was half-in and half-out all season when it came to driving for a World Series. When it came to this series, the bats went quiet, and they were half-in, again.
Well, now they’re three-quarters out, and Game 4 is Tuesday afternoon. The Jays aren’t dead yet, but they’re the ones bleeding in a field.