So, here’s the pitch:
Top of the fourth, two on, two out, two strikes. Matt Shoemaker drops a sinker right on the inner edge of the plate and walks off the mound believing he’s struck out Tampa Bay Rays slugger Yoshi Tsutsugo to escape a jam.
But behind the dish, umpire Vic Carapazza didn’t see it that way. Plate appearance extended. Two pitches later, Shoemaker left a splitter on the outer half that Tsutsugo shot 379-feet over the left-field wall.
And thus began the most heated series of events we’ve seen play out in this brief, frustrating Toronto Blue Jays season. Shoemaker got a strikeout to end the inning and stormed back to the dugout cursing into his glove. He continued yelling once he was there, which caused Carapazza to eject him from the game. And suddenly, there was this:
It escalated quickly. Shoemaker chucked. Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo, too, as he carried on the argument his starting pitcher began.
Here’s the pitch again in slow motion:
It’s certainly borderline. Carapazza was probably going to hear it from one of the dugouts no matter what he called. MLB StatCast suggests he made the right call, for what it’s worth. It’s the third pitch in the following image:
But that’s almost beside the point. This moment was a long time coming. The frustration for this team has been building and building. Sunday didn’t help. The Blue Jays lost, 7-5, thanks in part to a misplay in left field by Teoscar Hernandez. It was their second loss of the day. And for a team that’s endured a deluge of hardships and disappointments essentially from the moment it reported to the Blue Jays’ spring training facility in Duendin, Fla., weeks ago, it was only a matter of time until someone erupted.
The campaign began with a COVID-19 outbreak at that facility, remember, and the uncertainty of where the team would hold its abbreviated training camp. The roster was split between Toronto and Dunedin for part of that camp, and no one knew where they’d be playing regular-season home games when they went out on the road for opening day.
Since, there has been a three-week road trip, myriad missed opportunities, dispiriting loses, baffling fundamental mistakes, an offence stuck in mud. The team’s best player hit the injured list Sunday, joining its best reliever who’s been there for three weeks. Its other best reliever then gave up his first run of the season at a critical juncture, as the Blue Jays dropped to three games below .500.
Only 30 minutes later, Shoemaker was taking the mound with his team desperately needing a strong outing to, primarily, get back in the win column, and secondarily, save a bullpen which split five innings between six pitchers earlier in the day.
And, boy was he cruising. Shoemaker struck out the side in the first, establishing his fastball in the zone while getting swing-and-misses with his splitter. He flew through his second inning on 10 pitches; his third on nine. He allowed only a Kevin Kiermaier single over those first three frames, promptly erasing it by picking him off at first.
But then he put a couple on in the fourth, didn’t get a call, gave up a homer and got tossed. Add it all up and it’s obvious why Shoemaker was so incensed and obvious why that pitch was so crucial for him and his team. If he gets the call, Shoemaker’s more than halfway through a complete, seven-inning game. When he didn’t, the Rays took the lead in a ballgame his team really needed.
It’s not like the Blue Jays have been able to sit back and count on their offence at times like that. Bo Bichette, who hit the injured list Sunday, leads the team in essentially every offensive category that matters and, along with Hernandez, has been one of only two Blue Jays hitters playing to their potential offensively. This is a club that entered the day second-last MLB-wide in runs scored to only the St. Louis Cardinals, a team that had played only seven games to Toronto’s 17.
So of course Shoemaker was pissed. He should be. As all Blue Jays should be for the way their 2020 season has played out. That pitch, and the one Tsutsugo drove over the wall moments later, would have been the latest indignity.
And yet, it wasn’t. That was still to come. As everyone was still processing what had just happened with Shoemaker, Montoyo and Carapazza, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was tattooing a hung curveball towards the I-190 to tie the game. And two batters later, Anthony Alford was hitting a bomb of his own, sending a two-run shot to deep left-centre to put the Blue Jays up by two.
It was a timely and, in the context of this campaign, unusual offensive eruption for the Blue Jays, who received three innings of strong relief from Jacob Waguespack, Anthony Kay, and A.J. Cole after Shoemaker was tossed to reach the seventh. And then, the indignity.
Cole had allowed a runner in the inning but was within an out of finishing the win when he fell behind, 3-1, to Yandy Diaz. The Rays infielder shot a slider into right field, where Hernandez nonchalantly approached it, dropped the ball, kicked it, and allowed the baserunner to score from first with the tying run.
What can you even say? Hernandez has been one of Toronto’s most potent offensive threats this season, hitting .306/.320/.667 with a dozen extra-base hits in 17 games. And yet, mental lapses leading to fielding miscues like those have been common throughout his career. He’ll win them games with his bat and the incredible quality of contact he makes. But he can lose them games, too, with unpolished moments like that.
Just add it to the list. In the top of the eighth, Wilmer Font took over with a runner starting on second and Willy Adames took him deep, putting the Rays ahead for good. Another demoralizing loss in the books. More frustration in a season rife with it. And an eruption that was a long-time coming, but wasn’t enough.
