KANSAS CITY — It wouldn’t be a Toronto sports team’s final post-season loss without some sort of controversy; some sort of factor outside the team’s control that conspired to help them lose.
In the Blue Jays’ season-ending loss to the Kansas City Royals Friday night there were a few of them, namely a Mike Moustakas home run in the second inning that seemed to be aided over the fence by the outstretched glove of a fan, two called strikes in the top of the ninth inning that helped stunt a Blue Jays rally, and some perceived balks by Royals closer Wade Davis that went uncalled.
After the game, Ben Revere said publicly what many of his teammates were saying privately.
"We had some calls not go our way. That questionable Moustakas home run—a fan reached over. Usually that’s a dead ball. But they gave it to them," Revere said. "There were a couple of balks that I thought should’ve been called but they didn’t call it. There’s a lot of things that could’ve happened but they didn’t. That’s part of life. Could we have done a better job with men in scoring position? Yes. But then those little situations when umpires don’t have our side, I think they could have really helped us out a lot more."
The Moustakas home run was a topic of much debate on social media as ballpark cameras didn’t seem to definitively indicate if the ball cleared the wall before the fan plucked it out of mid-air. The Blue Jays asked for a replay review of the homer and were granted it, but replay officials in New York eventually upheld the home run call on the field.
"The guy definitely reached over. I was watching the whole time," Revere said. "You see the fan clearly reach over and catch the ball. So, I’m thinking that should’ve been an automatic double."
Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista, who had perhaps the best view of the home run ball in the entire ballpark, was somewhat more diplomatic, but hinted that he agreed with Revere’s assessment of the play.
"I was surprised, but I haven’t seen the replays that [the replay officials] saw so I’d rather not comment more than that," Bautista said. "I’d like to see more angles before I can comment. From where I was looking, from my point of view, it seemed like the ball never left the yard. The ball, I felt, from where I was looking, got pulled into home run territory inside of a baseball glove that a fan owns. But I haven’t seen every angle, so it’s hard for me to say that they made a mistake."
Revere was even more upset about a called strike Davis received against him during his at-bat with runners on second and third in the ninth inning. According to Brooks Baseball, the pitch was a half foot outside of the strike zone, but was still called a strike, making Revere’s count 2-2 instead of 3-1.
That call came just a few pitches after Dioner Navarro watched almost the exact same pitch be called a strike to force him into an uncomfortable 1-2 count against Davis, one of the best closers in the game. According to Brooks Baseball, that pitch also was around a half foot off the plate.
"Terrible. It was terrible. It changes the whole game. Even on Navvy, it changes the whole game," said Revere, who also thought Davis was balking during the inning. "That should’ve put me in a 3-1 count. Then, he has to throw me a strike. But instead it’s 2-2 and that puts me in the hole, and now I’m battling. It was a terrible call. You can’t call that."
Revere said home plate umpire Jeff Nelson’s strike zone had been fine up until that point in the game, and that he didn’t see the pitches he and Navarro took being called strikes earlier in the game.
"He was good until the Royals got the lead and until me and Navvy got there," Revere said. "And [Davis is] a good pitcher. A good closer. He’s already tough enough as it is. That’s why I was so ticked off. I can’t say nothing to [Nelson]—I can’t get ejected. I just have to go into the dugout and take it out on a trash can. It definitely wasn’t a great call. I’ve seen the pitching charts and it was absolutely terrible. It was like six inches off the plate. If I swing, I can’t hit it. That’s why I took it."
Revere said he felt that more borderline calls ended up going against the Blue Jays than in their favour throughout the post-season.
"Some of the guys will be up there just shaking their heads or looking at the video just like, ‘Man, that’s off the plate,’" Revere said. "It’s frustrating because you try and do so well in the playoffs and you’ve got these guys trying to really take the bats out of your hands. … I don’t want to blibber-blabber; I don’t want to keep crying like a cry baby. But it could be a different outcome of the game for us. We could have the ball in our court instead of having our backs against the wall."
Revere had a somewhat disappointing post-season offensively, batting .255/.314/277 with 12 hits in 11 playoff games. But he was terrific for the Blue Jays after being acquired from the Philadelphia Phillies at the trade deadline, batting .319/.354/.381 in the final two months of the season with 72 hits in 56 games.
Going into his third year of arbitration, Revere will be due a raise on the $4.1 million he made this season. He says he enjoyed his time in Toronto, and is looking forward to being back with the team next spring.
"It was fun. It was a great time. The fans in Toronto and all of Canada, they really supported us very well," Revere said. "Sometimes I wish I had done better hitting-wise, yes. But you learn, and I’ll come back here and work my tail off because I definitely want to go out of my way and get that ring next year."
