Blue Jays takeaways: The calls don’t go Toronto’s way in loss to the Yankees

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This article was published 16/06/2021 (1614 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 3-2 loss to the Yankees in Buffalo on Wednesday:

The Blue Jays could make a very strong argument they had a game-winning rally taken away from them by Kerwin Danley’s umpiring crew Wednesday night.

Down a run going into the bottom of the ninth, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off with a single to right field and Teoscar Hernandez followed with an opposite-field double, putting the tying and winning runs in scoring position with nobody out.

Randal Grichuk struck out to extend the deep trough in which he currently finds himself — one hit in his last 22 at-bats — then Santiago Espinal came up as a pinch-hitter and hit a comebacker to the mound. Guerrero took a few hard steps toward the plate and was thrown out by Aroldis Chapman trying to get back to third. Replays showed that it was likely Guerrero got his hand in before Giovanny Urshela got the tag down, but it wasn’t enough for the replay official to overturn the call on the field. (The fact that the call on the field has any meaning in a replay review is a whole other column.)

Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was next, and he swung and missed at the first pitch, which ticked off the glove of Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez and hit home plate umpire C.B. Bucknor square in the mask, buckling his knees.

Once Bucknor regained his composure, he signalled foul ball with Hernandez about 10 feet from home plate and the ball lying near the backstop.

Replays clearly showed that Gurriel hadn’t fouled the ball off, but a foul tip is not reviewable by MLB rules, so the umpires huddled and determined that they either weren’t confident enough that Gurriel had missed it or that they just didn’t want to change the call and that was that. Gurriel flied out to end the game.

The play couldn’t be protested, because only rules interpretations can be the subject of protests, not bad calls.

No good answer: Sometimes when things are going badly, it doesn’t matter what move you make, it’s the wrong one.

A few times over the course of this last tough month for the Blue Jays, a starter who was pitching well has come out of a game before the seventh inning, either because the pitch count was getting into the 90s or to avoid seeing a good-hitting lineup a third time. Often, the bullpen has come in and given up a run or three. Sometimes more.

Ross Stripling was absolutely dealing through six innings Wednesday, having allowed only one hit, one unearned run and, at one point, retiring 14 Yankee hitters in a row. He had thrown 85 pitches and was halfway through that third trip through the lineup when went back out for the seventh inning, leading 2-1 and trying to give a beleaguered bullpen a break.

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The right-hander had earned the chance. His last time out, in Boston, Stripling was pulled with two on and two out in the sixth inning, leading 5-2, and Tyler Chatwood allowed those two runners to score in a game the Blue Jays eventually lost in walk-off fashion.

This time, Stripling gave up a leadoff single, a cue shot off the end of Miguel Andujar’s bat and just inside the bag at first base. Stripling struck out Rougned Odor, but then Gary Sanchez came off the bench and took him deep.

Should Stripling have been allowed to come back out for the seventh? Of course, he was going great, and with the bullpen going the way it has been, manager Charlie Montoyo would have been roasted — and rightly so — if he’d taken his starter out after six innings.

He didn’t, and the lead was lost anyway.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and the host of the podcast Deep Left Field, with new episodes every Thursday. Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness