Orlando Hudson and Photo of the Day mojo recipient Russ Adams had two hits each, and Miguel Batista earned a fine save, but tonight belonged to Josh Towers.
I have nothing but unreserved love and admiration for Josh Towers.
Win or lose, dominate or get shelled, every inning that Josh Towers spends in the major leagues is a testament to human perseverance, and a monument of pure bloody-mindedness. This is a guy who's been written off so many times he's fully tax-deductible. A guy who's been told at every step along the way that he isn't good enough to go further. A guy who flat-out refuses to be defined by what he can't do, and demands that you deal directly with what he can.
"Bulldog", while a great nickname, doesn't even begin to capture the spirit with which Towers attacks the conflict between batter and pitcher. He's all offense and no defense - not as much as bulldog as a wolverine. Unwilling to surrender even an inch of ground, Towers forces every hitter, on every pitch, to do what is often described as the hardest job in the world - hit a round ball travelling 90 miles per hour with a round bat. He will give you nothing any other way - you must hit it.
And tonight, against the best-hitting lineup in the majors, for batter after batter Josh Towers forced them to fail. The Orioles registered a grand total of three hits, added just one walk, and failed to put even a single runner on second base. The furthest any Baltimore runner got was David Newhan trying a takeout slide on a Russ Adams double play in the eighth inning.
For his part, the massive Daniel Cabrera of the Orioles was magnificent and an extremely unlucky loser. Though not possessed of Towers' exquisite control, Cabrera fought hard all night to get ahead of the Jays hitters, who found his curveball completely unhittable. Cabrera wasted pitch after pitch on the pitcher's counts, but on even counts his fastball and curve were as nasty as I've seen from any Blue Jays opponent this year. Both Cabrera and Towers were helped somewhat by a shifting strike zone from plate umpire Brian Gorman (who was particularly inconsistent on the outside corner for left-handed hitters, to the point where several were driven to distraction).
The Towers-Cabrera matchup was a terrific study in contrasts. Towers, a small and slight pitcher without any dominating pitches and relying on a four-seam rising fastball, never gives an inch, never wastes a pitch, has simply outstanding control. Cabrera: a huge, intimidating man with a blazing sinking fastball and a very fine tight, late-breaking curve, is as profligate with his pitches as any pitcher I can recently remember. Though Cabrera demonstrated excellent control in the pinch tonight, he wastes as many pitches as any pitcher possibly can; I'm not sure he threw a 0-1, 0-2 or 1-2 pitch in the strike zone all night, and if he did it certainly wasn't the fastball.
At any rate, whatever their methods, both were devastating tonight. Towers, despite his animated demeanour on the mound, is as quiet an assassin as you're likely to see. A game against Towers for a hitter may last eight pitches, four swings, and if you're not lucky, four outs and a collar. His style of forcing hitters to swing or fall behind, gives him the psychological advantage even when he's matched up against a more talented player.
I fully intended tonight to write about one of my baseball heroes, the great Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada. When Towers started felling Orioles left and right, I changed course. A good thing I did, because Tejada had one of those days I just described. He hit two balls hard; unfortunately for him, he hit them right at waiting outfielders.
The Orioles only sent 28 hitters to the plate - one over the minimum possible for a losing team in a nine-inning game. Perhaps sensing his team's impending struggles at the plate, manager Lee Mazzilli decided to put his runners in motion at every possible opportunity. The result was a brilliant pickoff of Brian Roberts by Towers, a fine throw by Gregg Zaun to nail Luis Matos, and a rundown play on a delayed steal by the slow-footed Larry Bigbie where he would have been out by 40 feet. It was not a good day to be the O's manager.
Through it all, Towers remained unflappable (with the exception of his extended bunny hop when Sammy Sosa hit a long flyout to the warning track in right field in the seventh inning). He's never going to be a great pitcher. But he's as fun a pitcher to watch, and as easy a pitcher to root for, as anyone. I hope and trust now that Josh Towers is no longer (in his most famous quote) "pitching for the other 29 teams". Tonight was his finest hour, and I, for one, am glad it came for this team and this team alone.
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