It isn’t just Bautista and Encarnacion whose futures are in flux, but they’re the two who matter most. Facing the three best hitters in the Jays lineup to start the game, Merritt opened his first career playoff start by painting an 83-mph changeup near the inside corner for strike one against Bautista.
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Bautista, who can be a free agent in the offseason, doubled. Merritt didn’t merely fare well against the Jays. he made them look foolish. Bautista had an off year this season and his 36th birthday was on Wednesday.
Largely unheralded when each arrived by trade – Bautista from Pittsburgh in 2008 and Encarnacion from Cincinnati in 2009 – the Dominican sluggers developed into All-Stars. When organized baseball first took shape 150 years ago, the pitcher stayed in until the game was over or he was abducted by stagecoach bandits. “Before the game, they came and told me they had my back, everybody had my back, good or bad”. “Both of them made their name here in Toronto”. He understands baseball is a business, but has high hopes for another run at the post-season with numerous same cast of characters. “We’ll see. We’ll see if it’s tomorrow”. “They both love it here, but it’s still a business”. Cleveland Indians shortstop Francisco Lindor celebrates after the Indians defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0 in Game 5 of the baseball American League Championship Series in Toronto on Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2016.
Why Bautista? Well, he’s always been the most outspoken and flashy of the Blue Jays players in front of the media and on the field, and tried trash talking the Indians before the game. He threw three ideal innings to start the game and did not give up his first hit until there was one out in the fourth.
Pitch better, then? Maybe the Blue Jays missed the True Ace quality that David Price gave them last year - Price’s spotty playoff history notwithstanding. “We battled through the grind, through the marathon the whole year. His ability to balance that and not put himself and his own personal and individual success, his thought to put that at the back, is something that shines and, I think, players respect him because of it”. “We’ve got to get some things done this off-season, we’ve got to have a good off-season, but I don’t expect huge differences”.
Some places were already sold out of the adult-sized t-shirts the team wore in the locker room after Wednesday’s game. Josh Tomlin has a seven-year big league track record of, particularly in recent years, relying on his cutter.
“Maybe we don’t have guys who are on billboards across the country, at least not yet, we’ll see”, he said as he was doused for the umpteenth time in champagne. “Overall, I feel really proud about what the fans and the organization have done for me”. However the Jays bats were once again nowhere to be found, and with the disappointing finish, many questions are looming surrounding the clubs future.
Bautista entered the major leagues in 2004 with Baltimore. “We got some big hits in the wild-card game and that kind of carried over to the Texas series”.
“This is the team I grew up watching”, Saunders said.
“I think that team was built over a very long period of time in a very different way, forced by a different market”, Shapiro added.
Those numbers represent a step back in terms of production from 2015, but still show how unsafe a healthy Blue Jays lineup could be.
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Merritt, whose last appearance was a win against Kansas City on September 30, wasn’t even on the Indians ALDS roster. The 33-year-old first baseman seems to be the better choice of the two, if the Jays opt to only sign one of them. I’d love to be back.
