TORONTO – It began as a routine fly ball, and out in right field, Ezequiel Carrera looked like he had it all the way. Then he lost it in the sun. He raised his glove, partly to shield his eyes, partly in self-defence. And as he ducked, he thought maybe the ball would find his glove.
After a Tuesday night game in which the Blue Jays concluded that all good things were possible, they played a matinee in which they left a host of possibilities unfulfilled. There was the matter of outrageous fortune, as in the sun ball that confounded Carrera in the third inning, and the matter of outrageous hitting with runners in scoring position (one-for-14).
The result was a 5-3 loss in 10 innings to the White Sox, who averted a three-game sweep. Down 3-0, the Jays crept back with runs in the seventh and eighth, and the tying run in the ninth on another homer by Josh Donaldson, whose three-run walkoff shot had won Tuesday’s game.
“They kind of got lucky,” said Russell Martin, who started at catcher and finished as the second baseman. “They got a couple runs early in the game where, if they don’t get those, we probably end up getting the W.”
Martin, who was originally drafted as an infielder, played second base in the ninth and 10th because of a defensive shuffle triggered by a couple of pinch-hitters in the eighth. In his only play, he flagged down a high-hopper up the middle and flipped it to second for a force play. It was not a difficult play. Martin insisted he was comfortable playing without a mask and chest protector.
“It’s kind of like riding a bike,” he said.
Had he practised by taking ground balls during batting practice?
“No, I’m just a really good infielder, no matter what,” he said with an impish look that left observers to draw their own conclusions about whether he was joking. The conclusion here is that he wasn’t.
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Martin’s insertion at second base for the second time in his career (Aug. 30, 2011 with the Yankees, just so you don’t have to look it up) was a mild diversion in a game that appeared winnable in the ninth inning after Donaldson homered off closer David Robertson. But Robertson retired Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion to preserve the tie, and then the White Sox scored twice off the usually invincible Roberto Osuna in the 10th.
Osuna was working for the second game in a row and the fourth time in five games. Before and after the game, manager John Gibbons was asked whether he was concerned about the workload shouldered by the 20-year-old rookie (21 games, 23 1/3 innings).
Gibbons, pre-game: “I don’t know where we’d be without him … It’s very tempting to use him every day, but I don’t know how smart that would be.”
Gibbons, post-game: “Big-league bullpen guys, in games like that, they pitch a lot. You could probably ask Robertson the same question, you know?”
Statistically, Robertson and Osuna have assumed almost identical workloads this season. Robertson, 30, is in his ninth big-league season. Osuna is the youngest player in the majors. He had Tommy John surgery two years ago.
Osuna gave up a leadoff, opposite-field triple to Jose Abreu, a single to Adam LaRoche and, two outs later, an opposite-field double to Gordon Beckham.
“He’s not really getting whacked around,” Martin said of Osuna. “Big, strong guy Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
