Fan Interference

Maybe I should move this to Wednesdays. Another busy week has made my weekly report rather late. We had but the one Vulture last week. Though maybe it was a lion cub…

September 25th, Roberto Osuna of the Toronto Blue Jays. Roberto has been quite a revelation for the Blue Jays. He’s only 21 and he’s had nearly two full seasons of elite level baseball pitching finally anchoring the sorry Toronto Blue Jays bullpen which had been flummoxed in recent years trying to get a quality stopper to seal the cracks. They went as far as trading Ben Revere to the Nationals in exchange for Drew Storen.

As with all quality relief arms, Roberto is not perfect. He’s  human like everyone else and has his ups and downs.

Roberto had a down night on Sunday.

Leading by one run in the top of the 9th inning, The Blue Jays turned the ball to their reliable closer to seal the deal on a 2-1 victory over the Yankees. Every game has playoff implications so this was important! It didn’t quite work out that way

Mark Teixeira started things off with a single, proving that rumors about his demise have been greatly exaggerated (he’s just retiring folks, not dead!). Then Billy Butler came up and singled as well proving that rumors about his dead bat have been greatly exaggerated. Then Chase Headley came up and grounded out to Osuna proving that rumors about his unexceptional value have been right on target.

He did move the runners though so he achieved the same thing as bunting the ball.

Now comes Mason Williams to the plate. His name sounds like that of a prize fighter not a ball player. But its appropriate because he landed a hard hit to left field scoring the tying run. Ouch.

Ronald Torreyes came next. His last name sounds like his parents were drunk when they filled out the birth certificate and couldn’t quite put Torres and Reyes correctly on the form so they goofed up and joined the names. See, in Venezuela (and most Spanish Speaking countries) it is customary to have two surnames or family names. The paternal comes first and then maternal comes second. As explained by Ronald’s wikipedia page:

This name uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Torreyes and the second or maternal family name is Solorsano.

I’m boring you to tears about names because weird ass names are SO Venezuelan. And because Ronald hit a sacrifice fly scoring Rob Refsnyder from third base (who subbed in for Tex earlier). I will leave the dissection of Refsnyder’s last name to someone else. This wouldn’t have happened if Ronald had hit a home run and I could display a nice video of that instead of the above.

So here we are. Blown Save. Down by one. Two outs. The night has not gone well at all for Roberto Osuna. Brett Gardner popped out to first base ending the threat. Bottom of the 9th and the Yankees lead 3-2.

But No Worries!

In the next frame Melvin Upton walked to start the inning. Then Ezequiel Carrera bunted the ball which I’m sure caused a fit of agita to a certain mangy cur dog that occasionally fouls these parts. However Tyler Clippard didn’t really handle the ball well, made a bad throw to first and Carrera – there’s a good name, it means “race” as in “racing contest” – made it to first on a single and then to second base on the throwing error.

Devon Travis struck out and then Josh Donaldson was intentionally walked. But all that means is facing Edwin Encarnación, which I’m not sure is any better. However, since the run on second means “The End”, there’s no point in pitching to Donaldson with first base open, so this was the correct call to make.

Of course Edwin Encarnación hit a 2 run RBI walk off single to give Osuna the Win and mangy cur dogs everywhere celebrated.

Alas, the good cheer lasted only through the night as the next morning brought sad news.

I can’t sign off without mentioning the tragic death of Jose Fernandez. I can’t possibly do better than the rest of the team here at Fan Interference. They have said everything that needs to be said. One of the most promising young pitching stars of our generation, cut down just entering his prime after surmounting so many obstacles. There’s every reason to believe he was destined for further greatness in Major League Baseball.

It was not meant to be.