Toronto Blue Jays' Ryan Goins attempts to tag Cleveland Indians' Jose Ramirez during eighteenth inning MLB baseball action, in Toronto on Friday, July 1, 2016.Frank Gunn
Yes, once again the Toronto Blue Jays' bullpen cost them a game.
But that is where anything ordinary about Friday's 2-1 win by the Cleveland Indians, a franchise-record 14th consecutive victory in front of 45,825 fans at the Rogers Centre, simply goes out the window. It was a 19-inning Canada Day marathon that was by turn infuriating, wonderful, dramatic and disappointing. The 19 innings tied for the most in a game in Jays' history with one against the Detroit Tigers on Aug. 10, 2014 (a 6-5 Jays win) but at six hours and 13 minutes fell 24 minutes short of that game for longest by time in team history.
By the time the 19 innings ended, three Blue Jays had been ejected from the game, including manager John Gibbons for an American-League leading sixth time this season, by plate umpire Vic Carapazza, who has a notoriously elastic strike zone. Gibbons, designated hitter Edwin Encarnacion, who were both tossed in the first inning, and catcher Russ Martin (13th inning) were all thumbed for questioning Carapazza's mysterious interpretation of the strike zone.
The bullpen? Well, when you consider the pitcher who was tagged with the loss was Darwin Barney, things are just a bit different.
Barney came to the mound from second base, where he played the previous 18 innings. And he relieved Ryan Goins, normally a utility infielder but this time the last man on the bench who was tabbed to pitch the 18th inning when Bo Schultz was given a rest after 2 2/3 innings. Schultz was the eighth Jays pitcher by position to take the mound, with Goins and Barney bringing the total to 10. The Indians, who decided not to use a position player to pitch, went through a mere nine pitchers, with Trevor Bauer (7-2) getting the win.
One more oddity is that Bauer is scheduled to start Saturday afternoon's game for Cleveland. The Jays elected not to use their Saturday starter, Marco Estrada, because there's a concern about tightness in his back, which opened the door for Goins and Barney.
So actually the performance by the Blue Jays' bullpen was quite promising given its season-long struggles. And so was the outing by starter Marcus Stroman, who threw six innings and allowed just one earned run and no home runs for the first time in four starts, which quelled worries about his recent issues. The Jays' bullpen held the Indians off the scoreboard for 11 1/3 innings before Carlos Santana hit the game-winning home run off Barney in the 19th inning.
"It was unbelievable," Stroman said of the Jays' bullpen, in particular the new recruits. "Before those guys [Goins and Barney], we had [Jesse] Chavez come in and be unbelievable, Bo Schultz be unbelievable.
"For Goins and Barney to do something they've never done before, throw strikes and keep us in the game, it was just awesome."
Goins electrified the crowd, a good portion of which stuck around to the end, when he got himself out of a bases-loaded jam in the 18th by getting Cleveland's Chris Gimenez to ground into an inning-ending double play. It sure looked like Goins, who said he has not pitched since high school, fooled Gimenez with a slick change-up but he wasn't so sure.
"It was more of an eephus," he said, referring to the old-school lob pitch. "But yeah, a double play is always nice."
Goins says his arm felt fine after the inning's work and he could play in Saturday's third game of the series. But not to pitch, although he noted his earned-run average is a nifty 0.00.
"I'll probably look back 10 years from now and say I'm tied for the best ERA in Major League Baseball," Goins said.
"So that's good, I've got that going for me. But that's probably about it."
Barney actually managed a strikeout in his stint, whiffing first baseman Mike Napoli on what looked like a slider to end the Cleveland half of the 19th. But Barney, who did pitch a bit in college back in 2008, said it wasn't really a slider.
"I just moved my fingers, tried to throw a cutter and it came out like a curve ball," he said. "I haven't had a curve ball like that since high school. They ask you to pitch and you just try to throw strikes."
While Encarnacion may have bumped Carapazza when he was ejected, which could draw a suspension, the most emotional reaction came from Martin.
He was enraged and repeatedly tried to get at the umpire, but was held off by the coaches.
Martin said he initially just argued a pitch missed the strike zone but Carapazza ejected him "as I was walking away."
"I wasn't being aggressive, didn't tell him that he sucked personally. I didn't tell him that he was bad," Martin added. "I didn't do anything like that, all the things that everybody in the ballpark were thinking.
"I guess he was just tired of being talked at or whatnot. I just know it wasn't the best display of umpiring that I've seen."