Well, the first thing I heard when I took my seat tonight was the voice of the handsome and talented Spencer Fordin. Spencer said: “Hey, Magpie, you doing the Game Report tonight?” And when I affirmed that indeed I was, he cackled that in that case, the home team didn’t have a chance.
Right. Lay it all on me. The Blue Jays record on Fridays now stands at 2-6, and so would mine if I hadn’t picked up a cheap win with an emergency start on Tuesday in place of Craig. (I think I’d like to give myself a save, however, for that crazy Kansas City game, when I tossed about 3000 pitches...err, words... but that was Joe’s start and win. Anyway.)
This evening began very well, for me anyway. I’m not normally in the press box on Fridays, I was filling in tonight. And normally I cycle to the ball park. But tonight... I don’t know, I felt a little lazy. And my better half had thoughtfullly (carelessly?) left her TTC tickets lying around. So I walked the half block to the street car stop, and just as I got there, just as I was stepping on the car, the skies opened up. A deluge! And normally, of course, I would have been grimly pedaling south on Bathurst, getting absolutely soaked. I regarded this as a good omen for the evening.
I’m also not normally the assigned scorer for the same game that I’m writing a Game Report for. All kinds of possibilities occurred to me, and I may yet exploit some of them. But, as so often happens, the baseball had other ideas.
So let’s talk about this game.
Josh Towers threw two quick strikes that Shannon Stewart looked at, but chose to let go by. He fouled off an 0-2 pitch, took a ball, and then lined a single to right, in between Hudson and Hillenbrand. Nick Punto bunted the first pitch to the left side. Punto can fly, it turns out. Towers sprinted down off the mound, picked it up, whirled and threw his best fastball to Hillenbrand. But the throw pulled Shea off the bag. It was, somewhat generously, scored a base hit. That brought Lew Ford to the plate, and he hit a slow grounder between third and short. Aaron Hill charged the ball and got his throw off to first in plenty of time. Again, however, Hillenbrand was pulled off the bag. This time an error was charged.
And so the bases were loaded with nobody out. Now, as it happens, the legendary Aaron Gleeman had joined in on the Batter’s Box chat this very evening. No doubt figuring that this time his man Johan would throttle the Jays, and he, Gleeman, would get to do a little strutting and boasting. Being otherwise occupied, I was not participating tonight. Yet, strangely enough, I was thinking of Gleeman at this very moment of the game. Why? Because I had quite recently read the following over at his excellent site:
On a team that has struggled an obscene amount with the bases loaded all season, Hunter is perhaps the worst offender. He is now 0-for-9 with the bases loaded, which doesn't even properly account for his struggles by including double plays.
It was most encouraging to know that: a) the Twins have been terrible with the bases loaded, and b) that Torii Hunter, the on-deck hitter, had been the worst of them all, with a special gift for hitting into bases loaded double plays. It gave a fella hope, something to look forward to. If Towers could somehow get by Justin Morneau.
This was a wonderful at bat. The first pitch was a ball. Morneau fouled off the second pitch, swung and missed at the third. Behind 1-2, he fouled off another pitch. Towers missed, to even the count at 2-2. Morneau fouled off another pitch, and another. Towers missed again, to run the count full. Finally, on the ninth pitch of the at bat, Morneau hit a sinking liner that Orlando Hudson picked off at his shoe tops, and then, alas! Orlando looked at second to see if he had a chance to double off a runner. He did, but not there - Ford had strayed a little too far from first base, and if Orlando had looked that way first, he had him.
But still - one out, still no harm done, and Twins rally-killer Torii Hunter was the hitter. A double play would get Towers off the hook. One could sense already, by the way, how hard Towers was working to try to get out of this jam, how much it takes out of a pitcher to work such a high stress situation. The Morneau at bat was a dilly. While he may actually throw, say, 10 pitches, they would take the same toll as 25.
Hunter co-operated, to a point - swinging strike, foul, ball, swinging strike. Just one more out to go. But now the immoveable object - the Twins inability to produce with the bases loaded - encountered the irresistible force. The irresistible force is Twins RF Jacque Jones, who simply destroys Toronto pitching, a fact which happened to be much on my mind.
You see, prior to the game, it is my custom to head outside, eat a hot dog, and peruse the pre-game notes for each team. I had been glancing through the Minnesota notes, wondering “who on this team sucks against the Blue Jays, and who absolutely owns them.” Well, Jones in 163 career AB against Toronto has hit .362 with 9 HR. Which is considerably better than how he hits against the rest of the league, I can promise you. Towers got ahead 1-2, but Jones grounded the next pitch up the middle to score a pair of runs. And that was more or less that, because I think pretty well all of us were thinking “there’s no way the Jays are going to hang another beating on Johan Santana.”
But the Fighting Jays were in the house, and gave the Cy Young winner a quick wake-up call. Reed Johnson lined Santana’s second pitch of the night for a single. From somewhere - I'm pretty sure it was Section 141 - I think I heard someone crying "I LOVE REED JOHNSON." Four pitches later, Frank Menechino crushed a ball to deep centre field. It stayed in the park, but Sparky scooted around to score.
On the mound, Johan Santana said to himself “Enough of this crap.” Or words to that effect. Followed by pitches, also to that same effect, nasty and discouraging pitches.
Alex Rios fouled off a pair of 2-2 pitches and worked the count full before waving at a slider that just vanished somewhere between leaving Santana’s hand and materializing in Redmond’s glove. Santana then made Shea Hillenbrand look like Ken Huckaby in a quick and futile at bat, three swinging strikes. Vernon Wells flied out to deep centre field. The inning was over, and this was as close as the Jays would ever be to being a factor in tonight’s game.
With two out in the second inning, Shannon Stewart drove a 3-1 pitch 389 feet into the left-centre seats - Shannon was bringing back a few memories tonight. The man can hit. Towers gave up a pair of singles before striking out Morneau to end the inning. Santana dismissed Hill, Zaun, and Hudson with just eight pitches in the bottom half. Which brought us to the top of the third inning, which settled everything.
Towers got two quick strikes on Torii Hunter, who then spanked a ground ball right down the third base line. These balls usually go foul before they hit the bag, but not this one - it didn’t go foul until it was about 30 feet past the bag. Which mean it was a fair ball, and a double. Jones grounded the next pitch between Hill and McDonald to put runners on the corners with no one out.
And so Towers would be required to exert himself again if he wanted to keep the game close. But the thing began unravelling. Tiffee swung and missed the 1-1 pitch, which broke and dove into the dirt at the last second. It fooled Zaun too, bounced off his glove, and rolled towards the backstop. The fourth run scored and Jones took second.
Down 4-1, facing Santana, the Jays were on the baseball equivalent of life support, but Towers was still battling. He got Tiffee to swing and miss the next pitch, and jumped ahead of Redmond 0-2. Redmond laid off a couple of pitches to even the count, fouled off the first 2-2 pitch, and popped the second one up, about 160 feet down the first line. The ball didn’t have a lot of arc on it, so all you could do was hope that it went foul... except Orlando Hudson, in violation of all known laws of physics, came this close to making as great a play as I have ever seen. He sprinted all the way over from near second base, where he had been shading Redmond up the middle, launched himself into a headlong dive and actually got his glove on the ball. It was astonishing that he was even within twenty feet of making a play. But the ball kicked off the tip of his glove and rolled away. Rios ran it down, but Jones had read the play, assumed that no merely human second baseman could possibly make the catch, and was running all the way. He scored easily, and it was now 5-1.
And by now I think Towers was frustrated and distacted. He threw over to first once, to keep the Twins backup catcher close to the bag. Then his first pitch to Juan Castro was deposited over the wall down the left field line. And now the score was 7-1, and school was out, boys and girls. School been blown to pieces. Towers induced Shannon Stewart to hit a screaming line drive into Aaron Hill’s glove, surrendered a triple to deep right centre off the bat of Punto, before finally retiring Ford to end the carnage.
I looked up at the scoreboard, and thought: “Wow. It’s not often you see a starting pitcher allow 11 hits in three innings.” This would become the only item of interest remaining in the game. In the fourth inning, Hunter singled for the Twins 12th hit off Towers, and I started to wonder just what the Blue Jays record was for most hits allowed in a game by a pitcher. And on page 291 of the Media Guide, I found the answer - the record was 13, and here are the not-so-memorable occasions:
Pete Vuckovich, July 6 1977 - this game was tied at 5-5 through six, but Hartsfield sent Vuckovich out for the seventh. He gave up his 12 and 13th hit, mixed in a wild pitch and a walk, and was lucky the Red Sox only pushed one run across. They went on win 9-5.
Dave Lemanczyk, May 28, 1979 - the Jays turned a couple of double plays and Lemanczyk pitched into the seventh trailing 5-2. Three hits in that inning drove him from the game, and the Tigers won it 6-2.
Dave Stieb, August 29 1980 - the Twins stranded 7 and Stieb pitched into the 9th trailing 4-2, before giving up three more hits and being pulled in a 5-2 defeat.
Jim Clancy, June 23 1982 - Clancy got a no decision, but he was in line for the 3-2 victory - yes, 3-2 - but Joey McLaughlin blew the save in the bottom of the ninth. Seattle stranded two in the first; they lost one baserunner on a caught stealing and another in a rundown in the third; they stranded two more in each of the fifth and sixth; they stranded another in the seventh; they left the bases loaded in the eighth. Seattle was ahead 2-0 after 8, but the Jays scored 3 in the top of the 9th. Seattle tied it off McLaughlin in the bottom of the inning, but Joey eventually vultured a 5-3 win in 11 innings.
Todd Stottlemyre, April 23 1992 - The Jays jumped out to 13-4 lead, so Todd stuck around until Cleveland scored four off him in the top of the seventh. He gave a double to Cole and a homer to Belle in the first inning, but everything else was a single. Nevertheless, it must stand as one of the all-time Cheap Wins - 13 hits and 8 earned runs in 6.2 innings.
David Cone, June 4 1995 - the Jays scored 7 in the top of the first, and gave Cone an 8-0 lead to play with. It was down to 8-6 when he left in the sixth inning, and Paul Sorrento won it 9-8 for Cleveland with a walkoff two run HR off Darren Hall in the 9th.
Pat Hentgen, July 20 1995 - the Angels scored six times in the top of the first, and added single runs in each of the next few innings. Eleven of the hits were singles, and Hentgen hung around for five innings of a 10-3 loss.
Pat Hentgen, June 25 1997 - I was at this game, and it was nuts. Boston jumped out to a 7-1 lead after 5 innings, but the Jays bullpen was horribly depleted, and Gaston left Hentgen in to soak up a few innings. Hentgen absorbed a frightful pounding, as Boston hit five homers in the game and tacked on another six runs. Meanwhile, the offense was trying to mount a comeback. They cut the lead to 7-3 in the fifth, and 7-6 in the sixth. Then Hentgen gave up two more in the seventh and two more in the eighth to make it 11-6. The Jays scored three of their own in the eighth to make it 11-9. The Red Sox got a couple more off Quantrill to make it 13-9 and they needed them all, because Toronto scored three in the bottom of the ninth before Heatchcliff Slocumb finally shut the door.
Naturally, I was excited at the prospect of seeing something never seen before, and I started telling all my neighbours in the press box. Could Josh put his name in the record book? Well, as long as both he and Shannon Stewart stayed in the game, you had to like his chances.
Stewart stepped up with two out in the fifth inning and lined his third hit of the night, and Josh had allowed 13 to tie the record. I made sure the Jays PR staff were aware that we were watching a little bit of history being made. Towers retired Punto to end the inning, and Gibbons brought him back out for the sixth inning. It didn’t take long: Lew Ford lined his second pitch into right for the Twins 14th hit, and the press box public address system came to life:
“Attention Media, the 14 hits allowed by Josh Towers is a new team record etc etc.”
It is, of course, a privilege to be present when history is being made. And the eight 13-hit games I referred to above... yesterday's news. One last look, and they're gone.
Josh took his new-found status in the Jays record book with his usual spirit:
That's awesome. I'm in the records books then... I would have made it a little bigger if he had let me go back out there. He didn't let me though. I would have put that thing out of reach.
That was about the last item of interest on the evening. After allowing hits to the first two Toronto hitters, Johan Santana didn’t allow another hit until the seventh inning. It’s not too often you find a Cy Young winner in the Rule 5 draft. The man’s slider and changeup... well, it’s just not fair.
We all got a little wrong-footed when Gabe Gross came into the game to play RF in the eighth inning. No one noticed that Gross was actually replacing Wells in the lineup, hitting fifth, and that Rios had moved over to play centre. This prompted a flurry of frantic editing and correcting on the part of myself and my mlb.com colleague on my left before we could get on with entering the game action. Those of you following the action on GameDay - you know that lull in the top of the eighth inning? Now you know why it happened.
It all wrapped up in a brisk 2:28, and I logged into the box and activated the Instant Replay thread. The press box empties within minutes of the final pitches, as the regular writers head off to the clubhouses to gather quotes. Not me. I checked that my game account had been received by AP and the STATS office, that there were no problems, and left the building.
And who did I run into on the Spadina street car, also leaving the game? Coach and Adam (known on the Box as “A”)! So that was cool, and we yakked all the way to the subway...
As I said before, way, way up at the top of this piece, upon the realization that I was both scoring the game for STATS and writing the Game Report for the Box, all kinds of possibilities occurred to me. I could do a Game Report on the “day-at-the-office” theme. Not that there’s much to tell - really, the most interesting thing might be sitting outside eating hot dogs and going through the Game Notes. And I do think it would be fun to go through the Game Notes in detail some time. Both teams crank them out, on stapled sheets of legal paper, 162 times a year, and they’re always full of goodies. Tonight, they alerted me to Jacque Jones, Blue Jay Killer.
But I've also been interested for some time in writing a piece about scoring. We all score games, or we have at one time or another. Haven’t we? And haven’t we all developed our own way of doing it? It’s a fun subject, I think.
I developed my own method, of course, when I was a wee little thing. I never get to use it anymore, but I think it provides a picture of the game. You can look at it and know at a glance who won the damn game, and who was scoring the runs. But tonight, of course I was on the STATS gig, using the STATS scoresheet and method. This has a different requirement. We’re not painting a picture, we’re constructing the complete narrative. You can’t glance at the STATS scoresheet and know instantly who won and who were the stars. (Although, as a general rule, the more cluttered and messier one team's side is, the better!) You can, however, extract an extremely detailed account of the action. And here’s what those accounts look like:
And that, gang, is what I did on Friday night.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20050528011440313