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 Springer 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, blowing by a late stop sign from third base coach Luis Rivera, was thrown out by a wide margin.
The late drama came after a promising start, in which Springer hit his 56th career leadoff homer and Bichette responded with his 15th of the season in the bottom of the third after a two-run shot by Rafael Devers in the top half left the game 2-2.
That came undone in the fifth, when Yusei Kikuchi gave up a three-spot and Trevor Richards allowed an Verdugo sacrifice fly in the sixth to make it a 6-2 game. 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. 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 Jansen needed before a boisterous crowd of 41,813. The Red Sox improved to a perfect 6-0 against the Blue Jays, who fell to 16-28 in Canada Day contests.
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.
