Blue Jays 11, Red Sox 10: This Game was Bananas

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

With the Red Sox up 8-4 through five innings, and Tim Wakefield in line for the two-hundredth win of his insanely long career, it looked to me like the story of the game was going to be the contrast between Brandon Morrow, a young guy with all the stuff in the world who has yet to truly figure it all out, and Wakefield, a guy with no arm and basically one pitch but who is, you know, the awesomest. But then everything got crazy, leaving the clear-cut narratives that seemed to have been developing in this contest obscure and, in the end, undiscernible. But that's probably OK.  


Actually, it was kind of weird from the first, really. Morrow scuffled from the outset, and it's not like Wakefield was exactly rolling, either: Thames came in on an E5 sac fly in the first; J. P. Arencibia set the Blue Jays mark for home runs by a catcher with his twenty-first in the second; and Bautista doubled in Thames in the third. But the first real sign of the madness that was to follow came when Brett Lawrie and Jose Bautista pulled off the double steal of second and home, with Bautista beating Marco Scuturo's pretty dang errant throw to the plate. The usual Red Sox bludgeoning followed, with home runs by Ortiz and Ellsbury, setting the stage for the Blue Jays' eighth, possibly my favourite inning all year. I mean, just look at it:

Bottom 8 (Daniel Bard pitching)

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  1.Brett Lawrie hit by pitch.




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  2.Adam Loewen singles on a ground ball to right fielder Josh Reddick. Brett Lawrie to 3rd.




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  3.J. P. Arencibia walks. Adam Loewen to 2nd.




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  4.Dewayne Wise strikes out swinging.




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  5.Yunel Escobar called out on strikes.




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  6.Eric Thames walks. Brett Lawrie scores. Adam Loewen to 3rd. J. P. Arencibia to 2nd.




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  Offensive Substitution: Pinch runner Chris Woodward replaces J. Arencibia.




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  Coaching visit to mound.




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  7.Jose Bautista walks. Adam Loewen scores. Chris Woodward to 3rd. Eric Thames to 2nd.




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  Pitcher Change: Matt Albers replaces Daniel Bard.




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  Coaching visit to mound.




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  8.Edwin Encarnacion doubles (34) on a line drive to center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury. Chris Woodward scores. Eric Thames scores. Jose Bautista scores.




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  9.Kelly Johnson strikes out swinging.

  
  

To the above I would add only that E5's double to the wall came on a 3-2 pitch, making it all the better (runners on the move!). Even Frank Francisco's insistence on allowing two runs in the ninth did not dampen my spirits, especially since the game ended on Jose Molina's throw to second, catching Mike Aviles stealing, an awesome way to end a baseball game, I trust you will agree.


I hope Tim Wakefield gets his 200th before the end of the year, because at forty-five years old, there's every reason to believe he won't be back. Like literally everyone else, I have a soft spot for knuckleballers. Maybe it would get old if he actually pitched for your team, and you had to listen to all the same old knuckleballer stories every five days instead of a couple of times a season, but in small doses it seems like the best of things. Alan Ashby, who caught Joe Niekro (presumably in the Niekro Leagues), had plenty to say on the radio last night. Jerry Howarth, totally enamoured with the knuckleball, eventually asked Ashby why so few players throw it. "I think it's because, for the time being, anyway, sanity prevails on the planet earth," was Ashby's reply. 


Kind of, but not really, because last night was crazy, man, it was crazy.


KS

Red Sox 6, Blue Jays 4: Knuckleballers Own

Tim Wakefield, shown here owning.

Either the Red Sox had some killer scouting report on Ricky Romero, or Romero was just junk out there, because the Sox were uncharacteristically free-swingers last night. They were not at all their usual patient selves, but they knocked the ball all over the place, so I am not dissing so much as noting. A night after Brett Cecil went the distance in a loss, Romero was out of the game in the fifth, so it was kind of a long night for the bullpen, who actually totally shut the door the rest of the way (nice job, bullpen). I didn't stay up through the forty-minute rain delay so I can't even act like I was heartbroken when the Blue Jays brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth or anything. I was resting comfortably. 


There's kind of an interesting thing going on with Travis Snider right now, I should mention. Since being recalled from Las Vegas, he's hit four doubles in three games. One would think that everything is cool, then, right? But both Gregg Zaun (who I loathe) and Alan Ashby (who I admire) have said that his swing is still not quite right in the way that it was not quite right before: he's still taking these basically one-handed hacks at breaking balls, and right now they're falling in, but over the long haul he's going to have the same problems that got him sent down, they say. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. Some guys have pretty solid careers with kind of mechanically awful swings, but not many.


Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the WAR leader boards at Baseball Reference, where you can plainly see that Jose Bautista sits not only atop these standings but also the haters. Also, as much as everyone is making of Justin Verlander, I am not sure we are making enough of Justin Verlander. And maybe, maybe Andrew McCutcheon should have made the NL All-Star team.


A.L. WAR Bat / Pitch

	Tm	WAR
J.Bautista	TOR	6.1
J.Verlander	DET	4.8
A.Gonzalez	BOS	4.5
J.Weaver	LAA	4.4
J.Beckett	BOS	4.1

N.L. WAR Bat / Pitch

	Tm	WAR
M.Kemp	LAD	5.4
A.McCutchen	PIT	5.0
R.Halladay	PHI	4.5
R.Braun	MIL	4.2
C.Hamels	PHI	4.2

KS