This one had everything. Troy Melton struggled and got knocked out early, but the bullpen managed to bend without breaking. Meanwhile, the young Tigers hitters were centre stage as they fought back repeatedly with good at-bats late in this one. Kenley Jansen picked up his 496th major league save to wrap up the victory.
Monday night’s first of three at the Rogers Centre featured Melton against right-hander José Soriano. The Blue Jays have had almost as strange a season as the Tigers. Struggling through
the first half, they moved long time top starter Kevin Gausman, but acquired Soriano at the deadline as well, and have kept themselves in the thick of the wild card race.
Things didn’t start off too well as the Tigers quickly went 1-2-3 in the first, and Melton immediately dug himself a hole. Brett Bateman led off by slashing a single the opposite way past a diving Hao-Yu Lee for a leadoff single. Bateman appeared to be thrown out stealing second on a pitch that was called a ball and incorrectly challenged by Dillon Dingler to walk George Springer. So everyone was safe, and after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grounded out to advance the runners, Alejandro Kirk singled home Bateman for a 1-0 lead.
Melton didn’t help his cause against Nathan Lukes by yanking a wild pitch to score Springer, but he retired Lukes and Kazuma Okamoto flew out to Clark to end the first inning. 2-0 Blue Jays.
A Dingler strikeout started the second inning, and Max Clark and Brett Callahan grounded out.
Andrés Gimenez singled in the bottom of the second, but Melton started finding his mark with his secondary stuff, striking out Josh Smith. Ernie Clement singled as well, but Melton froze Bateman with a perfect fastball on the bottom rail, but then he turned right around and walked Springer to load the bases with two outs. Melton then tied up Guerrero with a sinker in to get a ground out to McGonigle at shortstop, escaping the jam. He was living very dangerously, however.
The Tigers again went down in order in the top of the third, with Spencer Torkelson and Hao-Yu Lee striking out. Torkelson blew the Tigers last challenge on a called strike that was upheld in the process.
Melton’s faltering command continued in the third. He walked Kirk and surrendered a double to Lukes on a first pitch curveball as he tried to mix things up while he hunted for the handle on his slider, cutter, and changeup, none of which were sharp. Okamoto grounded out, and Gimenez whiffed on a sinker to strike out. The pitch count was soaring for Melton, but he was one out from escaping the jam. Instead, he walked Smith to load the bases, and that was the end of his night. Beau Brieske took over looking to get out of traffic, and he did so, getting a sharp ground out to McGonigle off the bat of Clement. So it was still 2-0 Blue Jays, but they had to be kicking themselves for not blowing this one open.
The Tigers continued to struggle with Soriano’s power sinker in the fourth. McGonigle flew out, Torres grounded out on a first pitch curveball, and Riley Greene grounded out on a sinker. There was a chance to take some momentum out of stranding a ton of runners in the second and third and turn this into a new ballgame, but they failed to do so, and now it was a battle of the Tigers’ middle relief core vs. Soriano, and you don’t love those odds.
Brieske got Bateman on a ground out to Torres to start the bottom half. Springer did a nice job fouling off Brieske’s new mid-80’s power curve in a 2-2 count, then fought off a pair of fastballs and another curve. Brieske turned to a perfectly located slider down and away, and Springer nearly fell over as he swung, lifting a pop fly to McGonigle. Guerrero got to a full count but then took a slider right at the bottom of the zone. It was called a strike, but challenged, and Guerrero drew the fifth walk issued by Tigers’ pitching. After a battle, Kirk grounded one to McGonigle, who stepped on second and then fired to first to record the fourth out in the inning.
Heads up, Kevin. The Jays had stranded eight runners to this point.
Frustration continued in the fifth. Dingler grounded out, and Callahan hit the sinker hard but back to Soriano, who made a nice snag for the second out. The power sinker continued to defeat the Tigers as Clark grounded out to send it to the bottom half. That was all 15 hitters retired in order for Soriano.
Brieske’s pitch count topped 30 as he fought through a long at-bat against Lukes. Tyler Holton was warming as Brieske finally blew Lukes away with a fastball pretty much right down the middle, but the right-hander was getting 18-19 inches of IVB in this one after averaging 17 inches thus far this season. Okamoto whiffed on another good heater for the second out, and that was good work from Mr. Brieske. Holton took over to battle Giménez. Holton got ahead with a good sweeper and finished with one that coaxed a routine grounder to Torres to send us to the sixth inning.
Soriano punched out Torkelson again as his fifth victim on the night, and remained perfect in the process. Soriano finally cracked a bit, falling behind against Zach McKinstry 3-1. He spotted a sinker just a hair off the edge to walk him, and Kirk surprisingly didn’t challenge that one. So, perfecto over, but Lee flew out to right field for the second out. That left it to McGonigle, who tapped one in front of the plate for the final out of the inning.
Myles Straw pinch-hit for Smith and flew out to Clark to start the bottom of the sixth. Clement made better contact but flew out to Clark as well. Bateman tried a bunt, but Holton pounced on it and threw him out for a snappy inning.
Soriano’s 70th pitch was a sinker for a strike to Torres, opening the seventh inning. The veteran second baseman finally drew a bead on the sinker and lined a solid single to centre field. That ended the no-hitter bid, drawing a little ovation from the Blue Jays faithful. Suddenly, the Jays had bigger concerns as Greene stepped in as the potential tying run in the game.
Soriano worked ahead of the Tigers’ slugger 0-2, then missed with a curveball away. Greene fouled off a splitter next, and Soriano missed twice to work the count full. Another sinker was rifled to centre field for a single that moved Torres to third. Dingler pounced on a first pitch curveball and pulled a single to left, scoring Torres to make it a 2-1 Jays lead. Just like that, Soriano was fading, Paul Sewald was warming in the pen, and Brett Callahan was in the box with a chance to tie things up.
Soriano fired three straight low 90’s splitters and Callahan took the first two and fouled off the third. Soriano missed away with a breaking ball, but in a 3-1 count a wayward splitter up in the zone was lifted to left for the first out of the inning. Now Soriano had to deal with Max Clark and quickly fell behind in the count. Clark slashed a sinker deep into the left field corner just fair, both runners scored, and Clark cruised into second with a two-run double. Torkelson pulled a sinker down the left field line as well, and Clark scored in first gear while Tork cruised into second. 4-2 Tigers.
That was the end for Soriano. So often when a no-hitter bid ends, the adrenaline dump seems to just fold up said pitcher quickly. Good job by the Tigers battling and breaking through. Paul Sewald came on to face McKinstry.
McKinstry popped out, leaving it up to Hao-Yu Lee to extend the inning. Lee smoked the first pitch he saw to deep left field, but Straw made a great running catch to rob him, and Lee could only laugh ruefully at that bit of defense. On to the bottom half, with the Tigers now leading 4-2.
Kyle Finnegan was next out of the Tigers’ pen, facing Springer to start the bottom of the seventh. Nine outs to collect. Springer pulled a hard grounder into the hole and McGonigle couldn’t quite pick it on the backhand. Springer was pushing to beat out the hit and came up a little gimpy. A first pitch slider to Guerrero got driven to centre, and the crowd got excited, but Clark cruised back and handled it easily. Calm down, Toronto.
Finnegan then dug himself a 3-0 hole against Kirk. He spotted a fourseamer for a strike, but the next one was a smoked one-hopper that ate up Torres and skipped into right centre for a single. So, first and second, one out, with Lukes coming to the dish as Dingler went out to chat with Finnegan. AJ Hinch had Drew Sommers simmering in the pen, but he wasn’t quite ready yet, so Finnegan battled the lefty. They fought to a full count, and Finnegan challenged him with two fourseamers up that got fouled off. A third heater in the zone got a routine fly out to Callahan in left.
Okamoto, as analyst Andy Dirks reminded us throughout this at-bat, is a very dangerous fastball hitter. So Finnegan spotted a breaking ball down for strike one. A slider on the outer edge was fouled off, and so, would it be a breaking ball expanding the zone away, or a heater up? It was a heater up and in with perfect location, but even so, Okamoto turned quickly and yanked it just foul. Instead of learning the lesson, Dingler called for a heater again and this one was over the middle and hammered to left for a three-run shot.
Bad pitch call there, and even worse location. Someone needs to talk to the Tigers catchers about getting too cute because they fear the best pitch to call is too obvious. This has been a late innings theme all year, but more to the point, these guys just don’t have any dominant pitches other than Sommers. 5-4 Blue Jays.
Old friend Joe Mantiply was out for the Blue Jays in the eighth. McGonigle greeted the lefty with a solid single to right field, trying to rally his team right back into this one. Torres flew out, but Greene smoked sinker in to right field for a single to get McGonigle to third. Mantiply was done with Dingler coming up and relief ace Louis Varland took over. He punched out Dingler on a nasty right-on-right changeup that drew the whiff. And so, it was up to Callahan. The left fielder is always aggressive, and he got a first pitch changeup away and dumped a blooper off the end of the bat down the left field line for an RBI single to tie the game 5-5. Max Clark took a tough strike one call and had no challenges to contest it. He then slapped a hard grounder to third for the final out, but hey we had a pretty fun back and forth game going at least.
Hinch turned to slider enthusiast Tyler Kinley in the bottom of the eighth. McGonigle retired the speedy Straw on a hard grounder to the backhand to start the frame. An 0-1 slider to Okamoto was hit to the warning track in left but Callahan was right there to catch it. Kinley got ahead of Bateman 1-2 and he grounded out to Torres to end the inning.
Varland was still on the mound in the ninth, and while Torkelson couldn’t handle his 99 mph, Varland walked him anyway. McKinstry bunted foul for strike one. A second attempt was fair but too firm, and Guerrero fired to second to get the lead runner. McKinstry was looking to make up for it by stealing second and he did so successfully, taking advantage of Kirk’s mediocre arm. Lee slapped a little grounder to Guerrero’s right, and his leading throw to Varland was dropped. McKinstry roared around third to score as Lee held at first. 6-5 Tigers.
They called it an error on Varland, but it wasn’t a very good feed from Guerrero either. McGonigle smelled blood in the water and ripped a single into the right centre field gap for his third knock of the night. Varland dusted Torres with 99 mph up and in, and so it was two on, two outs, for Riley Greene. Varland fell behind 2-0 with changeups away, then yanked a fastball that nearly hit him to make it 3-0. Varland got back into the count, and Greene lined out to Bateman in centre field.
So now, we were going to get Kenley Jansen trying to save a one-run game. Surely nothing would go wrong here…
John Peck entered the game at shortstop, moving McGonigle to third, and Lee to second base for defensive reasons. Jansen meanwhile fell behind 3-0 against Springer. He then called out the home plate umpire to examine the mound, and the groundscrew came out to repair the cavernous hole in front of the rubber. The Blue Jays faithful did not approve.
Jansen was satisfied with their efforts after a practice pitch, and the game resumed. He dotted a cutter at the top of the zone to make it 3-1, but then missed up to walk the leadoff hitter. Cool, cool. Charles McAdoo came on to pinch-run, knowing that Jansen is easy to steal on. Guerrero dug into the batter’s box, and Tigers fans chewed their nails.
After a first pitch strike, Jansen threw over twice, and that put up the green light for McAdoo, but he didn’t run as Guerrero swung out of his spikes trying to get a high cutter. Another one was fouled straight back, and another down in the zone went right by Vladdy for strike three. Kirk was up next, and tougher to beat up with the high cutter. A 1-1 slider drew a huge whiff as the catcher corkscrewed himself into the batter’s box. Good timing on that pitch. McAdoo really seemed uncertain about running, and he did not. Instead. Kirk grounded another slider into a 6-4-3 double play to put this one to bed.
Heck of an effort in this one. The kids came through again and again, as did Greene and Torkelson. Frankly, as scary as they are, the bullpen held up decently over six innings of work.
Instead of the Blue Jays tying for the final Wild Card spot, the Tigers recaptured third place in the AL Central, and hilariously are still only 4.5 games out of the final spot themselves. No, this isn’t going to happen unless they win out or something, but it’s still evidence of what a bizarre season this has been, in the American League especially.
