Today in Jays history: Jays win in 18 innings

Ten Years Ago

The Blue Jays and Rangers played 18 innings, and best of all, the good guys won. I miss these games.

It seemed like it was a game that would never end.

We scored three runs in the third inning. Edwin Encarnacion singled, Adam Lind walked, and Colby Rasmus hit a line drive to right-center field. Edwin scored easily. Lind? It would have been a close-ish play, but Jurickson Profar, Rangers’ second baseman relay throw went wide of home, and Colby scored.

We put up zeros for the next 14 innings.

Mark Buehrle had a great start. A month earlier, he allowed a seven-run inning against the Rays. However, his season turned around after that inning. In his five starts between that game and this game, Mark had a 3.38 ERA.

On this day, he went 7 innings, allowed 4 hits, 1 earned (a Jeff Baker home run in the seventh), 2 walks, and 3 strikeouts, throwing 92 pitches. He should have had a win.

I don’t remember much about Baker, but he had a pretty good season with the bat, hitting .279/.360/.545 with 11 home runs. He played for 11 seasons, in over 100 games just once and 104 games with the Rockies in 2008.

Buehrle should have picked up a win here, but after Steve Delabar pitched a scoreless eight, Casey Jansen gave up 2 runs in the ninth. It was Casey’s first blown save of the season. Casey finished the season with 34 saves and 2 blown, so we can give him a pass.

After that, our bullpen pitched nine scoreless innings. From the recap:

Dustin McGowan was brought into a tie game in extras for his first appearance since his 5 games in 2011. Dustin walked the first batter, then got a double-play ball, but Mark DeRosa booted it. A hit batter later and the bases were loaded. Dustin got a strikeout, then

Juan Perez came in and gave up a medium fly to right. Fortunately, Jose Bautista has a great arm and made a perfect throw to cut down the runner at the plate. A great play. Juan pitched 2.0 innings, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 k.

Neil Wagner got 2 outs to end the 12th.

Brett Cecil had a clean 12th, getting 1 k.

Brad Lincoln pitched 4 very good innings, 1 hit, 1 walk, 2 hit batters, 3 k. I figured Gibby was leaving him until the game ended or his arm fell off. But, instead..

Aaron Loup gave up a hit and hit a batter but got out of the 18th without a run-scoring.

Brad Lincoln was terrific. For his four excellent innings of work, he was sent to the minors the next day. It doesn’t seem fair.

On the Rangers’ side:

• Yu Darvish threw 7 innings, giving up 2 earned and 1 unearned run. We had 6 hits against him.
• Neal Cotts went 1.1 allowing just a hit.
• Jason Frasor, a former Blue Jays reliever, went 1 inning, allowing a hit.
• Robbie Ross: 1.2, with a hit and a walk.
• Ross Wolf threw 6.2 innings. He was getting himself in and out of trouble almost every inning. And then came the 18th:

After Maicer Izturis lined out, Emilio Bonifacio singled (he had 57 hits in his 97 games with the Jays, 47 singles). After Josh Thole popped out (Thole, famously, hit .175/.256/.242 that year, but he pinch-hit for DeRosa in the 16th. Unless there was an injury, it was a dumb move, even though Josh was a lefty batter), Wolf threw wide of first on a pickoff attempt, Bonifacio went to third. Rajai Davis singled him home for the walk-off win.

From the recap:

Jays of the Day: Lincoln (.570 WPA), Perez (.499), Buehrle (.297), Cecil (.143), Loup (.143 and the win), Wagner (.142), Davis (.223) and Rasmus (.141).

Suckage: Janssen (-.280), Izturis (-.367), DeRosa (-.183, plus the error), Thole (-.132)

Three guys had the number, but I’m not giving them Suckage Awards: McGowan (-.213), but that was because of DeRosa’s error. Bautista (-.155) but the throw from right to save the game clears him. Bonifacio (-.147), but he drew the wild pickoff throw and scored the winning run.