Elliott: Odor throw, Donaldson dash has Jays drinkin' champagne
Blue Jays 3B Josh Donaldson scored from third on a Rougned Odor throw in the dirt at the OHA. Vaughn Ridley/Getty Images.
“I’m drinking champagne, feeling no pain ‘till early morning
Dinning and dancing with every pretty girl I can find
I’m having a fling with a pretty young thing ‘till early morning
Knowing tomorrow I’ll wake up with you on my mind.”
By Bob Elliott
Canadian Baseball Network
Former Pittsburgh Pirates manager Jim Leyland used to sing that George Strait classic after his team had clinched with the likes of Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, Andy Van Slyke and Doug Drabek.
Your Toronto Blue Jays were spritzing, spraying, popping corks and even drinking some Veuve Clicquot Brut champagne (Pinot Noir/Chardonnay, $70.60) Sunday night. It was their third champagne and beer bath in eight days: clinching home field advantage and the first wild card berth in Game 162 last Sunday at Fenway Park, beating the Baltimore Orioles on Edwin Encarnacion’s walk-off homer in the 11th on Tuesday and Josh Donaldson scoring from second on a ball that never left the infield on Sunday for a 7-6 win.
Never in doubt ... as the legendary Dave Van Horne used to say.
Yeah, sure.
People following the other series will read where the Blue Jays swept the Texas Rangers in the best-of-five American League Division Series and advance to play the winner of the Boston Red Sox-Cleveland Indian ALDS.
Yet, this was far from easy after the Game 1 10-1 Toronto romp at Globe Life Park. The Jays walked a tight rope in Game 2 before winning 5-3 with Roberto Osuna pitching 1 2/3 innings longer than expected -- especially since he had not pitched since walking off the wild-card mound with pain in his right shoulder.
The Jays escaped that and now here they were in the bottom of the 10th. It was score here or grit-yer-tooth and pass the ulcer medication inside the Jays dugout time: Osuna had already worked two innings and Ryan Tepera was warming ready to face the 3-4-5 spots in the Rangers order in the top of the 11th.
Lose and play the Rangers in Game 4 Monday afternoon likely without Osuna. Lose then and go back to Texas for Game 5. Yes, the Jays won three straight but it was far from a walk in the park.
“I was ready to pitch the 12th,” joked injured second baseman Devon Travis.
It was all unfolding like a year ago ... set-up man Matt Bush allowed a lead-off double to right centre on a 97.3 MPH fastball and Edwin Encarnacion was walked intentionally to bring up Jose Bautista with closer Sam Dyson warming in the right field bullpen.
Would it come down to a rematch of last year’s bat flipper facing the man who gave up the game-winning homer, then caused the benches to empty twice (yelling at Encarnacion to hush when he was quieting the crowd and then whacking Troy Tulowitzki in the rear end as he stood in the batter’s box after popping up) and complained postgame about Bautista’s celebration?
Jeff Bannister stuck with Bush. If Osuna was extended, Bush was pulled and prodded like Play-Doh. His longest outing was 33 pitches and after striking out Bautista, the 42nd he threw was a 3-2, 98.4 mph fastball to Russell Martin.
And then suddenly it was like 2015 all over again after all.
Remember SS Elvis Andrus clanked a Martin grounder, then 1B Mitch Moreland fielded a Kevin Pillar grounder and threw into Martin’s back and 3B Adrian Beltre gathered in Ryan Goins’ bunt and fired to Andrus covering third ... and he dropped the ball. The bases were loaded on E-6, E-3 and E-6.
Many thought the worst mistake came next last year one out later when Rougned Odor back pedalled on a Josh Donaldson pop. Pinch runner Dalton Pompey scored from first when the ball fell and Odor threw to second for the force. Had he caught the ball the Rangers would have led by a run and two were out.
And now all of a sudden the same cast of characters and their gloves and arms were back on centre stage.
On the 42nd pitch -- the third 3-2 pitch -- Martin grounded in the hole at short as Donaldson headed for third. Andrus picked it, turned and fired low to Odor for the force. Odor attempted to turn two and bounced the throw a couple of feet on the right field side of the line. Donaldson was off. Moreland picked up the ball and fired home too late to catch the sliding Donaldson. The MVP “slud” home in a cloud of dust his left hand touching the plate as the ball fell out of Jonathan Lucroy’s glove.
But hold on a second. Bannister challenged the play at second. Cowboy Joe West put on the head set, talked to Manhattan, took off the head set and gave the save sign.
Donaldson jumped off the bench where he had been waiting.
So the three errors and the misplay last year and now with the game on the line the low throw from short, the bounced throw from second to first where Moreland would have been better off coming off the base rather than trying to pick it to his bouncing throw home.
“Anticlimactic is the word,” Martin said. “You’re kind of waiting. Celebrate, we think we won, and then they challenge and you’re like: 'Oh gosh, let’s not have a technicality ruin this moment for us right here.' And it didn’t, gratefully. But it was a little bit of a buzz kill at the time. I didn’t see the slide at second, I didn’t know if it is what’s considered a good slide now, I don’t even know. But I was happy that they ruled no interference and whatnot and we won.
Said Donaldson reflecting his Auburn 'War Eagle' education “I concur.”
“It was like a double celebration,” Martin said, “no we didn’t win yet, oh, yeah, we did, yeah.
Donaldson thought back to an early season game at Tropicana Field: Bautista slid into second, the throw was wild and two runs scored. The play was reviewed and the slide was ruled -- illegal. Three out. Game over. From a win to a loss on a replay.
“It’s one of those things, they replay slides, it’s hurt us a couple of times this year,” Donaldson said. “I want to say it was the second game of the season playing Tampa Bay, it actually ended up scoring the go-ahead run. They called (Bautista) for interference.”
A year ago after Martin’s throw back to the mound hit Shin-Soo Choo’s bat Odor scoring the winning run. Fans tossed beer cans from the 500 level while riot police were marshalled at Queen’s Park.
What would have happened had they ruled Encarnacion had made an improper slide and the run did not count?
Ah, best not to worry about that.
Last year Odor had a serious misplay allowing the tying run to score before Bautista went deep off Dyson and flipped his bat away in disgust. On May 15 this year Bush hit Bautista and later on grounder Bautista slid in hard and Odor sucker punched the Jays right fielder which led to a brawl.
And then Donaldson scored the game winner on Odor’s error.
SIGNS, SIGNS: There were many witty signs, but the one that received the most attention read
“I would rather get punched in May than get knocked out in October.”
Odor had a serious misplay allowing the tying run scored before Bautista went deep off Dyson and flipped his bat away in disgust. On May 15 this year Bush hit Bautista and later on grounder Bautista slid in hard and Odor sucker punched the Jays right fielder which led to a brawl.
And then Donaldson scored the game winner on Odor’s error.
SCOUT’S HONOR: Toronto scouts Dan Evans and Jon Lalonde deserve a tip of the hat. Evans, the former Dodgers GM and Lalonde former Jays scouting director did the advance work on the Rangers for the Blue Jays.
HOME RUN COUNT: The Jays hit two homers in an eight-pitch span in the first off Colby Lewis -- Encarnacion homered to left on an 0-1 pitch to score Ezequiel Carrera, who had led off with a line single and one out later Russell Martin homered to left centre for a 3-1 lead. The two drives gave the Jays an 8-0 lead in home runs ... Elvis Andrus lined an 0-1 pitch to left centre in the third to cut the gap to 3-2 and Rougned Odor lined an 0-1 pitch to centre with Adrian Beltre aboard cutting the Jays lead to 5-4.
CATCH THIS: The Rangers added Jonathan Lucroy at the trade deadline as their No. 1 catcher. It’s not easy picking up a staff and its tendencies with only two months remaining ... as in Game 1: Cole Hamels threw up his arms and stepped off the rubber when he and Lucroy could not agree on pitch selection; Game 2: Yu Darvish said postgame that he and Lucroy would have to have a talk after he threw too many fastballs and Game 3: Lucroy was charged with a passed ball to allow Troy Tulowitzki to score, evening the score 6-6.
THE GOOD: Josh Donaldson had three hits -- including a pair of doubles -- and is batting .538 through four post-season games ... The Jays bullpen -- Joe Biagini, Jason Grill, Brett Cecil and Osuna -- put up 4 1/3 scoreless allowing one hit ... Besides his two-run homer, Encarnacion hit a run-scoring single ... 3B Donaldson bare-handed a nubber off the bat off Carlos Gomez with one out in the seventh ... After falling behind Mitch Moreland 3-0, Osuna got back to 3-1 and then Moreland line a smash into short right. 1B Encarnacion dove for it and 2B Darwin Barney fielded and fired to Osuna on the run. A lot of young pitchers -- no, make that most pitchers -- have been known to stop when the ball gets under the first baseman’s glove. And twice in the past 10 days Jays starters have been late getting to first to cover.
THE BAD: Aaron Sanchez allowed six runs and was up 5-2 and 5-4 before he walked Odor and allowed a single to Jonathan Lucroy. Moreland doubled for a 6-5 lead. Sanchez walked four ... Bautista, Kevin Pillar and Barney were hitless, a combined 0-for-12 ... $40 to park your car ... up $10 from a week ago.
PICTURE PLEASE: Assistant GM Andrew Tinnish took a picture of Marco Estrada and Jays executive Dana Brown.
“The man who made me,” said Estrada as he hugged Brown, who as scouting director of the Washington Nationals chose Estrada in the sixth round in 2005.
“Saw him the same day I saw Troy Tulowitzki when he was at Long Beach,” Brown said.
When he was done snapping photos Tinnish said “I saw him the same day.”
INJURY REPORT: LHP Francisco Liriano (concussion) left the park a few hours before first pitch as he was not feeling well ... 2B Travis (right knee irritation) was out a second straight game.
NUMBERS: After Game 3 ...
4 _ Career post-season homers by Encarnacion, the second-highest total in Jays history. Bautista and Joe Carter each have six each.
4 _ Different teams Martin has homered for in post-season play: with the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 1 of the 2008 NLCS against Jason Marquis and the Chicago Cubs; with the New York Yankees off the Baltimore Orioles Jim Johnson in Game 1 of the 2012 ALDS, twice with the Pittsburgh Pirates in a wild card game against Johnny Cueto and Logan Ondrusek of the Cincinnati Reds in the 2013 wild card game and with the Jays against Colby Lewis.
6 _ Straight post-season losses for the Rangers, all to Toronto.
8 _ Homers allowed in the previous 20 1/3 inning by Colby Lewis.
13.94 _ Combined ERA of Rangers starters Cole Hamels, Yu Darvish and Colby Lewis.
97.8 _ MPH, average velocity on the 31 fastballs thrown by Matt Bush.
GEORGE STRAIT Vid ... Drinking Champagne