Ten years ago today, the Blue Jays and Cleveland played one of the longest games in team history: 19 innings, a marathon that stands as the second-longest contest by duration and ties for the most innings the Jays have ever played.
Toronto came out on the short end, falling 2-1, but the game still packed in plenty of drama. Cleveland’s 14th straight win was snapped the next day, when the Jays took the final two games of the series.
The Jays had to reach deep into the bullpen and beyond. They used ten pitchers in all - eight actual pitchers and two utility infielders - to get through the night.
Marcus Stroman set the tone with 6.2 innings of one-run ball, allowing five hits and one walk while striking out six. He threw 96 pitches and left in the seventh after a single, an error by Justin Smoak, and a walk loaded the bases.
Brett Cecil came in to finish that inning, and Jason Grilli handled the eighth with a clean frame. Roberto Osuna worked around a leadoff single.
Joe Biagini pitched the tenth and allowed a hit batter and a single. Jesse Chavez then turned in three perfect innings.
Drew Storen took the 14th and began the 15th before leaving after a walk and a strikeout, and Bo Schultz closed out the 15th with a double play before adding two more innings of his own.
Then came the unusual part. Ryan Goins took the 18th and immediately faced traffic, allowing two singles that put runners on the corners with no outs.
He got a force at the plate on a grounder to second, then the Jays intentionally walked Tyler Naquin. Goins responded by getting Chris Gimenez to ground into an inning-ending double play.
Darwin Barney took over for the 19th and gave up a leadoff homer to Carlos Santana, but he settled in after that and retired the next three hitters, finishing the inning with a strikeout.
Toronto’s only run came in the sixth on a Justin Smoak home run. That was it against nine Cleveland pitchers, including Trevor Bauer, who was scheduled to start the next day and ended up throwing the final five innings to get the win.
The Jays finished with 11 hits in all. Darwin Barney had three hits while starting at second base, Troy Tulowitzki also had three, and Kevin Pillar added two. Ezequiel Carrera went 0 for 7, Josh Donaldson was 0 for 6, and Michael Saunders finished 0 for 7.
The game also featured a familiar source of frustration behind the plate. Home plate umpire Vic Carapazza had trouble with the strike zone, and Edwin Encarnacion was ejected in the bottom of the first after a polite dispute.
Over the first eight innings, eight Blue Jays were called out looking, and only the first and last of those were clearly the right calls. The tension boiled over again in the 13th, when Donaldson was hit to lead off the inning, Travis’s fielder’s choice brought up Saunders, and Saunders was rung up on a pitch he thought was inside.
Russell Martin then took issue with a called strike on a curveball, was tossed, and went absolutely ballistic before DeMarlo Hale and Luis Rivera held him back.
Goins, who had to pitch in the game, went on the DL the next day with forearm tightness. He hit 90 MPH on his fastball in his inning and would be out until early August before later being sent to Buffalo until late August. Schultz was also sent down after the game.
The recap’s top performers were Schultz and Chavez, while the pitchers as a group carried the day for Toronto. Tulowitzki was the lone hitter to earn positive marks. Barney took the hit on both sides of the ball, and Carapazza, unsurprisingly, drew the harshest criticism.
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