In 2017, they will still have a starting staff that led the American League in ERA this season.
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The ace left-hander got Donaldson to hit into a double play, unsuccessfully challenged by the Jays, to snuff out the threat.
“We just got beat in this series, plain and simple”, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said.
Blue Jays fans, whether they’re feeling optimistic or not, will have to wait and see.
On top of that, prior to the opening of the series came news of the freaky drone injury to scheduled Game 2 starter Trevor Bauer, that pushed him back to Game 3 and moved right-hander Josh Tomlin up to face 20-game victor J.A. Happ.
But even as the missed opportunities remain a fresh wound, it’s worth remembering the found money quality of the last 14 months, how a team that was 50-51 on July 28th last year turned into the baseball equivalent of discovering a crumpled lottery ticket in your winter jacket and suddenly finding yourself with enough cash to quit work and spend a year lounging in a cabana, drunk if you chose. Although he said he probably will not attend the World Series games this year, his grandchildren have season tickets. “This has been a really resilient team all year and we hope to just keep that going for one more series”, Chernoff said. So yes, the bile rising in the gut of Blue Jays nation isn’t without merit.
Bautista’s two hits in the finale left him 3 for 18 (.167) with no RBIs in the series, while Encarnacion was 4 for 19 (.211) and drove in two runs.
For some, though likely not everyone, it’s a more interesting conclusion to draw than, say, “Jose Bautista made a comment about Ryan Merritt “shaking in his boots” but then didn’t go 3-for-3 with three home runs and six RBI so he failed at his job”.
Now, he and the Indians are on to the World Series for the sixth time – looking for their first championship since 1948.
It isn’t just Bautista and Encarnacion whose futures are in flux, but they’re the two who matter most.
It was Bautista, though, who brought up unspecified “circumstances” that surrounded the umpiring.
“In those days they sold beer the whole game, and it was like the football games; people got smashed, they got in fights”, Freedheim said. Fellow pitchers Bauer and Andrew Miller insisted that knowing how grounded Merritt is that he’d be unflappable despite the pressure of his first post-season season.
Unbeaten in six playoff games this year, Cleveland can complete its second consecutive sweep on Tuesday. This one was five.
Lucroy now finds himself at home and out of the playoffs, while Miller has landed his pitching prowess in the 2016 MLB World Series.
“It is tough”, Martin said.
Blue Jays: Toronto faces an uncertain offseason after making the postseason as a wild card. You make it through another round. “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”.
As we all know now, Bautista was wrong and Merritt did all he needed to do to help the Indians advance to the World Series.
You have to wonder if it will be next year, either.
Bautista was more conciliatory in defeat. There is some feeling that Shapiro will take his blueprint from Cleveland, where he left after past year. They didn’t make too many mistakes. In the end, after the Indians had vanquished them, Gibbons talked to his team for a final time.
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“The bats went silent again, but it’s still a great team”, she said, referring to the Jays paucity for runs this series. “Some ups and downs”, said Gibbons. “But overall they deserved it, they played really well”. They had another great year.
