Marco Estrada had been put in this situation before. Just a little more than a week ago, in fact.
He and his Toronto Blue Jays teammates were in a corner then, facing playoff elimination just as they were Wednesday. The first time came in Game 3 of the American League Division Series, and Estrada pitched into the seventh inning having allowed a single run. The Blue Jays eventually won that game and the next two to advance to this AL Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals.
Estrada was called on again Wednesday afternoon to save Toronto’s season. And just like in the ALDS, the 32-year-old right-hander by way of Sonora, Mexico, and Southern California pulled his team back from the brink of elimination for at least one more game. He pitched into the eighth inning this time, allowing one run again and leading the Blue Jays to a 7-1 Game 5 win at Rogers Centre.
The Royals still lead the best-of-seven series, 3-2, but Estrada’s gem saved Toronto’s bullpen and ace David Price, who is now scheduled to start Friday’s Game 6.
“He’s pitched like that all year,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons told reporters in his postgame press conference. “We’ve seen him take a couple no-hitters late into games. He’s very durable, gives up minimal hits, that kind of thing.
“But the fact that it’s an elimination game, he really rose to the occasion. He’s looking pretty. He’s a free agent. The timing is just perfect for him. … He shut down a good-hitting, hot team.”
As a 25 year old, Marco Estrada pitched just 7.1 innings for the 2009 Washington Nationals, who went 59-103. He's come a long way since.
— Cespedes Family BBQ (@CespedesBBQ) October 21, 2015
When Marco Estrada was a random Sept call-up for the 2008 Nats, I can't say I ever pictured him tossing 7.2 innings in an elimination game.
— Mark Zuckerman (@ZuckermanCSN) October 21, 2015
He did it in dominant fashion, too.
Estrada is not a fireballer. His fastball sat at 90-91 mph and that was with the postseason adrenaline and home crowd cranking him up a bit. But his fastball-changeup repertoire, sprinkled with occasional curveballs and cutters, worked wonderfully against the Royals.
He put away the first nine hitters in order, and through 6.2 innings, Estrada had faced the minimum 20 batters. That is the deepest an American League starter has pitched into a postseason game while facing the minimum since Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956.
Estrada didn’t find any real trouble until the eighth inning when he gave up a two-out, opposite-field home run to Salvador Perez. Alex Gordon followed with a single, and that was it for Estrada after 7.2 innings and three hits allowed.
“Everybody is aware that if you lose, you’re on your way home. … He’s a guy we’ve really leaned on all year,” Gibbons told reporters. “Of course the games throughout the year weren’t like this one was, but he’s a guy that’s carried us in a lot of ways.”
Friday David Price can silence all the big game / post season critics. Marco Estrada sure did his part thru 7 2/3 IP. #BlueJays up 6-1 B8th.
— Dan Plesac (@Plesac19) October 21, 2015
Aside from saving their season, Estrada also saved the Blue Jays from blowing out their bullpen and using Price in relief. Price had been curiously warming up with a five-run Toronto lead in the seventh inning.
Gibbons admitted he was ready to pull the trigger and use his ace out of the bullpen for the second time in an elimination game. He did so in Game 4 of the ALDS with a 7-1 lead, and Price allowed three runs in three innings.
“He wasn’t far off,” Gibbons said when asked how close he was to using Price.
Had Estrada gotten into serious trouble in the seventh, Price would have pitched to left-handed-hitting Eric Hosmer. But after a two-out walk to Lorenzo Cain, Estrada got Hosmer to fly out and the lefty-lefty matchup never materialized, leaving Price to start Friday with everything on the line, including his postseason reputation.
“It really worked out perfectly that we didn’t need David that way he can go Friday,” Gibbons told reporters. “It couldn’t have happened any better.”
ALCS boils down to Blue Jays needing their July pickup ace to win Game 6 so Royals are forced to rely on their July pickup ace in Game 7.
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) October 21, 2015
Now things are put into Price’s left hand. He is heading into free agency and made himself a strong Cy Young Award candidate during the regular season. But he has been bad in the postseason, having allowed 13 runs in 16.2 innings for a 7.02 ERA and raising his overall postseason ERA to 5.65 over his last eight appearances (51 innings).
He can erase virtually all of those ugly stat lines and memories if he throws a gem similar to Estrada’s in Game 6 in Kansas City’s Kaufmann Stadium, site of Price’s seventh-inning meltdown in Game 2. The Royals turn to Yordano Ventura.
If Price can get the Blue Jays to a seventh game, Toronto goes to Marcus Stroman, who has already pitched in two of the team’s elimination games in his first postseason. Obviously, the Blue Jays have won both, and they would be trying to do it again against Kansas City ace Johnny Cueto.
No team ever wants to be facing elimination for three consecutive games. But if you have to do it, Estrada has set up the Blue Jays to do so about as favorably as one team could hope.
All quotes, unless otherwise specified, have been acquired firsthand by Anthony Witrado. Follow Anthony on Twitter @awitrado and talk baseball here.
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