TORONTO – Edwin Encarnacion, as a general rule, didn’t chirp umpires but on July 1, 2016, after Vic Carapazza had already rung up Ezequiel Carrera and Josh Donaldson before calling a sketchy third strike on the long-time Toronto Blue Jays star to end the first, he had enough. He dropped his bat in disgust, expressed his frustration and was quickly tossed, then manager John Gibbons chucked along with him moments after when he ran out to intervene.
“He called me out on a really bad pitch,” Encarnacion recalled. “I got a little frustrated and I told him, ‘That was a ball.’ I was mad. Especially in a 3-2 count. When he threw me out, I got pissed, I went inside. But after we played 19 innings, I thought, ‘Thank you!’ I stayed in the clubhouse and supported the guys. All I could do.”
What a wild ride the remaining 18 innings were. Russell Martin also got ejected in the 13th. One infielder, Ryan Goins, was the eighth Blue Jays reliever and delivered a scoreless 18th in which one runner was cut down at the plate before an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded. Another, Darwin Barney, followed and served up a Carlos Santana solo shot in the 19th before getting the next three batters. Cleveland won 2-1 in a tidy six hours 13 minutes.
“It was a long game, man,” said Encarnacion. “It was hard for me watching from the clubhouse. I did a lot of different things. I got tired. But it was a really good game. I hope we never play that long a game again.”
The Blue Jays didn’t play that long Saturday during Encarnacion’s first Canada Day back in Toronto since that marathon contest, although a 7-6 loss to the Boston Red Sox, in which they nearly rallied from a four-run deficit but had the tying run thrown out at home for the final out, was no less frustrating.
A one-out single by George Spriner and Bo Bichette double in the ninth off Kenley Jansen set up the late drama and after Brandon Belt struck out, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. poked a single to right. Springer scored easily but Alex Verdugo got to the ball quickly and made a strong throw home and Bichette, initially waved in but not seeing a late stop sign from third-base coach Luis Rivera, was thrown out by a wide margin.
“I knew the situation,” said Bichette. “To score the run I need to be aggressive and get there. But I also knew that that ball was hit to their best thrower. I kind of assumed I'd be stopped but I just didn't really see anything.”
Perhaps adding to the confusion was that Springer, as he was about to cross the plate, motioned Bichette to follow him in. However you slice it, the play was a perfect storm of variables that produced an out – Guerrero sending the ball out to right at 93.9 m.p.h., Verdugo positioned well to play the ball quickly and make a strong throw, Bichette turning around the bag just as Rivera’s hand went up, catcher Connor Wong receiving the ball perfectly while leaving a lane.
“First of all, it’s a really hard play for Luis,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “I don't envy his job as much as some people say they don't envy mine. Vladdy hits it hard, Verdugo has the best arm, everyone knows that. Could Bo have picked him up a little bit earlier? Yeah, sure. You want to be aggressive. At the same time, you want to make the last out at the plate. Happens quick. In a perfect world, you want the last out to be made with the guy in the box, not (trying to) score on the guy with a good arm.”
The wild finish came after a promising start for the Blue Jays, in which Springer hit his 56th career leadoff homer and Bichette responded with his 15th of the season in the bottom of the third to tie the game after a two-run shot by Rafael Devers in the top half.
That came undone in the fifth, when Yusei Kikuchi gave up a three-spot and Trevor Richards allowed an Alex Verdugo sacrifice fly in the sixth as the Red Sox built a 6-2 game. But the Blue Jays offence, mostly quiet on the current homestand, was then gifted a run in the seventh on an errant Josh Winckowski pickoff attempt before a Matt Chapman two-run homer in the eighth made it a one-run game.
Daulton Varsho followed with a single and Danny Jansen walked to end the day for Winckowski and after a double-steal, Kenley Jansen went to a full count with Cavan Biggio, who ripped a ball down the right-field line that landed six inches foul before striking out to end the threat.
Justin Turner than took Erik Swanson deep to open the ninth, providing some insurance Kenley Jansen needed before a boisterous crowd of 41,813. The Red Sox improved to 6-0 against the Blue Jays, who are now just 16-28 in Canada Day contests.
“I thought we did well today, had good at-bats, we fought to the end,” Bichette said of the Blue Jays’ offence. “That's baseball. Everything isn’t going to go great all the time, but just continue to push.”
Kikuchi, entering on a streak of six straight starts of two runs or less, became the latest Blue Jays pitcher to wilt under relentless pressure from a Red Sox offence that’s scored 44 times in the six meetings so far.
He was fortunate to escape the second unscathed after two runners reached with one out as a Christian Arroyo rocket to right field was reeled in by Springer. But he wasn’t as lucky in the fifth when Turner’s double cashed in a Rob Refsnyder leadoff single before Devers and Masataka Yoshida followed with RBI singles later in the frame.
“I was trying to mix up my pitches but it's a good lineup over there,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “We'll will face them again in August, so make some adjustments.”
The pre-game Canada Day festivities included an on-field citizenship ceremony for nine new Canadians before members of the Naval Reserve unfurled a giant Canadian flag. After the anthems, a team from the Naval Tactical Operations Group rappelled from the Rogers Centre roof to deliver baseballs the nine new citizens used for ceremonial first pitches.
Nine innings later, there were a different set of emotions as the Blue Jays dropped to 45-39, just three games up on the 42-42 Red Sox.
For context, the Blue Jays were 43-39 after that 19-inning gut punch seven years ago, a season with some similarities for the club to this one. Like now, that group relied on pitching and ran hot and cold at the plate, but in 2016 the group clinched a wild-card spot on the final day of the season and eventually lost in five games in the AL Championship Series to the very same Cleveland team.
Encarnacion has made semi-regular visits to this year’s team as a guest instructor of sorts, coming by “whenever they want me,” he said to act as a sounding board for anyone that wants to talk hitting. This trip coincided with the Canada Day game, an event he always enjoyed.
“It's special for the players,” said Encarnacion. “We play in the country that supports us. We try to win every time we play because it's something special for the country and we know it.”
Sometimes it’s something frustrating, too.
