Richard Griffin
“We just got beat . . . plain and simple,” Gibbons says,
The 48,800 Rogers Centre fans watched in frustrated silence as Indians’ first baseman Carlos Santana drifted into foul territory, gloved Troy Tulowitzki’s popup and fell to his knees, arms upraised. The Indians were AL champions.
Cleveland won 3-0 Wednesday to clinch its first AL title since 1997. As Santana’s teammates swarmed over the rail to celebrate, Jays fans took a collective deep breath and began chanting “Let’s go Blue Jays,” in tribute to their fallen heroes. Some might say after Game 5 they didn’t deserve it. But fans saw the big picture.
“When the fans chanted that even after we lost . . . it’s difficult to smile after a game like that, but they were incredible,” catcher Russell Martin said. “Great fans. To react like that, even in defeat, I tip my hat to them.”
The Jays may have been talented enough to advance to the World Series, but they did not play well enough to advance to the final level, shut out by the Indians twice and scoring a total of just eight runs in five games.
A disappointed manager John Gibbons spoke to his players before the clubhouse doors opened to media. In breaking news, Gibbons was informally confirmed as manager for the 2017 season by president Mark Shapiro to reporters.
“I’m proud of these guys as well as the coaching staff,” Gibbons said of his speech. “I know the organization is proud of them. Hopefully the fans are just as proud. They put on a good show. We just got beat in the series, plain and simple.”
With backs to the wall for the seventh time in post-season play over two seasons — even with Marco Estrada on the hill, 2-0 in prior elimination games — the Jays went down meekly this time, losing to a callow 24-year-old left-hander, Ryan Merritt, making just his second major-league start.
The Jays were unable to take advantage of Merritt’s inexperience, allowing him to work 41⁄ shutout
3 innings. At that point, the result seemed inevitable. Series MVP Andrew Miller worked 21⁄ innings,
3 handing the ball over to Cody Allen. The win was even sweeter because of Jose Bautista’s ill-advised suggestion the night before that the young Merritt might be “shaking in his boots.”
“The TV’s on in the clubhouse. We hear stuff,” Miller said. “Some people use it as fuel and other people ignore it. Ryan Merritt, I assume he didn’t pay any attention at all. He went out there and did what everybody expected him to do. It says a lot about this team and a lot about him.”
The Jays seemed to be handed all the breaks in the series, every opportunity to knock down the door, but failed. They sat back and watched as manager Terry Francona’s depleted starting rotation got even shallower.
First was the fact that an Indians team that had won 94 games during the regular season would be missing Carlos Carrasco and Danny Salazar, who combined for 22 wins in the regular season.
On top of that, prior to the opening of the series came news of the freaky drone injury to scheduled Game 2 starter Trevor Bauer, that pushed him back to Game 3 and moved right-hander Josh Tomlin up to face 20-game winner J.A. Happ. Advantage Jays. But Tomlin, in the shadows and twilight of Progressive Field, dazzled the Jays with an array of off-speed pitches to take a 2-0 series lead.
In Game 3, when Bauer, in the wake of his drone attack, bled out heavily from the 10-stitch cut in the first inning and was lifted after just two outs, the Jays saw a huge chance to take advantage of Francona’s need for 25 outs from his ’pen. Francona managed the relief corps masterfully, with none of the six pitchers throwing more than 28 pitches. The Jays’ wall of desperation had been built and their backs were against it from that moment. Then came Merritt and Game 5. Is the window closing for this group? Have we seen the end of the Jose Bautista/Edwin Encarnacion Era. Both are free agents and with many others ready to declare at the start of November, the emphasis will be on re-signing or finding alternate offence. If one listens to Encarnacion, hope still springs eternal.
“I like the team, I like the fans, I like everything about the city,” Encarnacion said through an interpreter. “Of course it’s my first choice.”
Martin is one of the key players under contract through 2020. He understands baseball is a business, but has high hopes for another run at the post-season with many of the same cast of characters. He is on a personal six-year playoff streak and it’s not a coincidence that the Jays’ pitching is so good.
“I love all the guys that are in here,” Martin said. “We battled through the grind, through the marathon the whole year. I wish them all the best, the guys that are free agents right now. Do I wish that they’d come back? Of course, those guys are awesome. You can think about it, but there’s nothing you can do. Knock on the gym door and say, ‘Hey man, let’s do this.’ You wish them the best and hopefully ‘the best’ means they’re going to come back here.”
In one final profound statement, the gritty Martin explained his struggles down the stretch and through the playoffs. There were bumps and bruises he never complained about, but that clearly affected him.
“It’s not that I was hurt catching; it’s that I was catching hurt,” Martin said. The answer may be to get him some help in 2017 so he doesn’t have to catch 140-plus games, including playoffs. But that’s all speculation for another day.