I’m not exactly sure why this is happening, inasmuch as Toronto has the same rules around fan behavior and alcohol sales as any other ballpark. I would point out is was one guy out of 50,000, though.
People are calling for the fan, assuming they caught him (I hope they did) to be banned for life. Sure, but why should he also not be charged with attempted assault?
I’m wondering the same thing, about attempted assault. I replayed the event over and over to see if I could spot the asshole. From the one camera angle provided by TBS I could only make out that the asshole was about 5-6 rows back from the outfield wall. If police acted quickly and had access to all camera replays, there’s a good chance they could figure out who the asshole was.
I’m avoiding him or her and saying asshole because I’m not sure it was a guy (most likely), or possibly a gal (lower chance), but was definitely an asshole.
After game 5 in last year’s ALDS game 5 when some Blue Jays fans pelted the field was to me embarrassing. I like to consider Canadians a polite people but after that and last night, well, people are people wherever you are, and there can be assholes anywhere. I definitely include some SF Giants fans when I say that.
Anyway, yes, attempted assault. Ban that asshole from baseball. (And bring Pete back into baseball!) 
Tonight: GO GIANTS!!! A classic matchup at Citi Field, Bumgarner against Syndergaard.
Well, now, reading ESPN, they say Britton was not hurt. His absence was just so bizarre that the announcers, and I, and a lot of other people, assumed something must be wrong. But nope, he was fine.
So I don’t understand Showalter’s decision not to use him. The 11th inning, with a lefthanded hitter leading off, seemed a rather perfect time to get your closer in and have him pitch two innings and pray your team scores before you have to go to the long man. I am truly baffled.
Britton has already publicly expressed his frustration that he was not used in the most important game Baltimore played all year. I can understand how he feels. What a weird decision.
Resisting the temptation to pick the remaining games as I’d like to see them come out as opposed to probable grim reality:
Mets and Giants go to late innings with Giants up 1-0, Mets with 3 or fewer hits. Mets get two-run HR to take 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the 9th, Familia blows save. Mets eventually squeak out win in extra innings, then get swept by Cubs, who take pennant over Dodgers.
Meanwhile, Cleveland beats Toronto for the AL pennant, loses in Series to the Cubs. Cute, cute Joe Maddon is anointed emperor of the Windy City.
I stick to my theory that every playoff matchup is basically “a really good team against another really good team” but if I had to bet on anyone winning the AL pennant, I’d bet on Boston. I know Cleveland won one more game but Boston looks like a measurably better team to me.
Now, it’s funny. As a Blue Jays fan I’m not worried about our pitching. The starters have been fantastic all year – Toronto might well have the best rotation in the AL, especially with so many of Cleveland’s starters hurt. The bullpen has been up and down but, assuming that Osuna is okay, they should have the horses for a playoff series.
The offense, though? They’ve been a total black hole. Last night’s game was shaping up to be a typical Toronto game for a while there: amazing pitching, but you don’t win much when you score only 2 runs. Fortunately the bullpen was incredible and bailed out the hitters for like 5 innings there.
Well said, well thought out. I agree on all points.
It’s completely bizarre, almost like there is a rule that you can’t use your closer on the road unless you have a lead. A guy on third with one out, Buck? Ubaldo Jimenez?
Why Jimenez?
What was the logic behind that change?
I feel so sorry for that pitcher. It has got to be tough on him.
Showalter has said simply… well, just nthat he wanted to keep Britton available if a save was needed.
As more than a few commentators have pointed out, this is a sensationally stupid approach in an extra inning game. There’s no point holding your best pitcher back for a save opportunity that will never happen.
If you think about it, Britton should have started that inning; I understand using Brach, also a great pitcher, for two full innings prior. You want your BEST pitcher in the game because you are hoping to score the following inning. If Baltimore scores in the top of the 12th, Britton can throw another inning. If they don’t, then you hope to score in the 13th, and you bring in someone else. There are two critical logical points to make here:
In this situation, if you think about it, you have more room for error after you go ahead than before. In a tie game, you are one pitch away from the golf course. But if you’re ahead, whatever pitcher comes in can make a mistake or two and you haven’t lost yet.
The logic behind using your very best relief pitcher to start an inning with the game tied is simple; you know you need to play at least one more inning. Going into the 11th, Baltimore knew they had to get at least six outs - three in the 11th, score a run, three in the 12th. It is of course possible that you might also have to get three ours in the 13th, 14th, 15th and so on. But you don’t know those innings will ever happen; you might score in the top of the 12th and have a chance to ensure they never exist. You should use your relief ace to pitch the innings you are absolutely sure will actually be played. By using Britton in the 11th and 12 Showalter would have been using the best relief pitcher in baseball in innings he knew he had to get through cleanly. By holding him back, he was holding him back to pitch in innings he didn’t know would ever even be played - as infact they were not.
One your relief ace can no longer pitch, if you still need to get outs, then you bring in a long man. That of course is exactly what Toronto did; they used their ace, Roberto Osuna, in the 9th and 10th with the score tied. Once he couldn’t pitch anymore, only then did they go to the long man, Francisco Liriano.
Now, Buck Showalter is a smarter guy than I am, so why did he do something so dumb? Simple; because managers manage 99% of the time based on convention. The convention is you use the ace to get a save. So he was waiting for a save situation. But obviously this was not a game that should have been managed conventionally, and so the collision of accepted convention versus the situation the Orioles were actually in runs into the absurdity of having their eighth-best pitcher facing one of the greatest power hitters in baseball in literally the most important moment of the entire season, while the best relief pitcher in the world sat on his hands.
Yep. Duensing did fine, striking out the one hitter he faced, but it made more sense to have Britton in there. And i was yelling at my screen when they brought Ubaldo in.
Yes, Jimenez had a decent September, but Britton gave up 4 runs ALL YEAR! He was getting almost 10 strikeouts per 9 innings. He was almost unhittable. And he could have gone more than one inning, if necessary.
I like Buck Showalter; he’s managed the Orioles through a period of pretty good results after 15 years of losing, and he seems to have a good rapport with the players. But he fucked up last night.
Did not watch the game but looked at the box score last night. First thing I thought reading it, Buck must have said, “fuck it, 2016 was great but I’m done.” Ubaldo Jimenez!?!?! One of the worst pitchers in MLB in recent years is who he went with in the 11th? But hey, Buck says, over his last handful of starts Ubaldo managed to lower his ERA from 6 to 5 and a half. Wow!
So let’s look at the play by play of the 11th. Single. Single. Ok, get his ass out of there. Nope, gonna let it ride with Ubaldo frickin’ Jimenez. And by the way, the stud closer was not only healthy, but warmed up and ready to go.
If I didn’t think it was a miracle the O’s got event this far with that roster, I’d say Buck should be packing his bags today. That’s worse than Grady Little leaving Pedro in for too long. I mean, damn, at least that was Pedro.
This is why I was rooting for the O’s. I do NOT want to see a repeat of what happened in Toronto last year or in Texas this year.
The hell of it is that even having made the mistake of letting Duensing and Jimenez pitch that inning at all, Showalter could still have corrected his error by summoning Britton with Encarnacion up. That moment is the highest leverage moment in the game… and it’s critically important to note that there is only one out and a reasonably fast runner at third base. Encarnacion didn’t have to hit a home run; a reasonably deep fly ball ends the game. The outfielders won’t even bother to chase anything near the warning track. Baltimore must get a strikeout or a GIDP there. And Jimenez looked absolutely terrible; I could have hit the slop he was throwing. He quite obviously just didn’t have it, which does happen to pitchers sometimes. Surely they notice that, right?
Hey, anyone want to guess who this year set a major league record for the highest ground ball ratio for pitchers pitching at least 50 innings? I’ll give you a hint; his name rhymes with “Mack Smitten.”
Anyone wanna guess who also set an all time record for the lowest ERA in 50 innings or more? Yeah same guy.
Bonus points if you can guess the pitcher with the all time WORST ERA in a season of 50 innings or more:
Roy Halladay, believe it or not.
[QUOTE=Barkis is Willin’'[/QUOTE]
If I didn’t think it was a miracle the O’s got event this far with that roster, I’d say Buck should be packing his bags today.
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As dreadful a mistake as it was, I guess you have to look at it the same way you would a player having one terrible game in a playoff game. If Manny Machado had a bad game nobody would suggest releasing him.
To me at least, these things aren’t all equal. That 162 games should settle as much as reasonably possible is more important to me than whether the team with the third-best record gets into the playoffs but the team with the second-best record doesn’t. If the team with the best record beat the second-best team over 162 games, the second-best team should stay beaten. If that means some other team derives an undeserved benefit, so be it.
And it would also be possible to go back to 2 divisions in each league, and a lot more games within the division than between divisions, so that the division winner was unmistakably the best team in its division, but leave it an open question as to whether it was better than the other division’s champ, whatever their records. We can both come up with scenarios that, if adopted by MLB, would make our arguments stronger.
But mostly, I miss the compelling nature of pennant races as they existed until 1993. ‘Will the Nats get the home field advantage over the Dodgers?’ doesn’t carry quite the same emotional impact, as significant as that may turn out to be.
If i may be permitted the conceit of quoting myself, this is what i said at 11.34 p.m. Eastern Time last night:
That was about 60 seconds before Encarnacion hit the ball out of the park.
I’ve spent most of the season watching hitters face Zach Britton and send weak ground balls to Jonathan Schoop and J.J. Hardy. It was clear that this was precisely the situation where you need a ground ball pitcher, especially since, as you say, all it was going to take to win the game was a moderately deep fly ball.
And while Jimenez actually had a pretty decent September, he never even looked like getting an out last night. He started with a pitch that went looping almost over the head of the catcher, and it only got worse from there.
He channeled his inner Mike Matheny.
Not bringing in Britton was nuts to me. I’m sorry to see that there wasn’t really a good reason for it. I hate when people make boneheaded moves at this point in the season. They have to stare at it all off-season.
If you want to get all stats-y on the Britton decision, Fiverthirtyeight has you covered.
Pitchers’ duel in New York right now.
Let’s Go Mets!
I was really happy for the Giants when they won in 2010, but i don’t think i could stand them winning it for a fourth time in seven seasons.