Still 9 things.
Nine things:
1. Marco Estrada did what Martin Perez didn’t.
2. Kevin Pillar did what Delino DeShields couldn’t.
3. Troy Tulowitzki did what Prince Fielder hasn’t.
4. That thing we talked about yesterday, about Perez’s inability at times to keep his composure when things start to unravel? He did a really good job inducing the double plays he desperately needed on Sunday, but his body language from time to time was awful.
For me, that’s a really bad trait for a starting pitcher. You can’t let them see that you’re mentally on the ropes. Just can’t.
Allowing nine of the final 15 hitters you face to reach base isn’t a great recipe, either. Even when you have the double play ball working.
5. Estrada is no David Price and no Marcus Stroman, and that was to the Rangers’ detriment, as the decent 32-year-old, who this year won in double digits for the first time, Vidal Nuno’d the Texas lineup with a dizzying array of 88-90, in and out, along with a change he was able to consistently locate. Estrada, with less stuff than Perez but a similar repertoire (and now exactly one run allowed in 6.0 or 6.1 innings in each of his three career starts in Arlington), executed the game plan Perez needs to execute to succeed.
6. Way too many lazy flies, a bunch with the arc and force of a rolled-up T-shirt slingshot into the crowd, and too many called strike threes. It’s just an odd thing that this offense tends to have more trouble with pitchers who locate moderate stuff than with those who feature filth.
R.A. Dickey today rather than Price? Not sure how elated I am about that, if that’s actually how the Jays go.
7. Chi Chi Gonzalez made a mistake pitch to Tulowitzki — at the time, 0 for 11 in the series — that changed the game, but he wasn’t terrible otherwise.
Still, I wondered why that wasn’t a spot for Colby Lewis instead. I suppose the club would prefer to have Lewis start an inning rather than come in inheriting someone else’s property, but with Perez having allowed Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista singles to start the fifth, putting men on the corners with nobody out in a 2-0 game and Edwin Encarnacion, Chris Colabello, and Tulowitzki due, I might have preferred the veteran with a swing-and-miss pitch over the rookie.
I’m a big Gonzalez fan, fired up about his future. And he was one well-executed pitch away from escaping the fifth and redistributing momentum for the first time all night. The crowd was dying to explode, and that was the chance. But I wondered at the time why Lewis wasn’t the choice when Perez was lifted, and would have said so here even if Gonzalez had gotten out of the fifth cleanly rather than delivering Tulo’s kill shot.
8. The best thing all night: Fielder’s L8 to start the ninth. Best pass he’s put on a ball in a long time.
Carry that one into today, man.
9. Game 4 in a best-of-five is, by definition, an elimination game for someone.
Eliminate Toronto.
Today.