Joe Smith knew he didn’t have his best stuff on Wednesday night. Still, the Indians reliever thought he could get one out.
That proved to be a tough task for Smith, who entered in the ninth inning of a tie game with two outs and a man on first. The right-hander gave up a single and a walk to load the bases, and Blue Jays No. 9 hitter Munenori Kawasaki made the most of the situation.
With two strikes, Kawasaki sent a liner over the head of shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera, and some shaky defense in center by Michael Bourn allowed all three runners to score. The Indians rallied for two runs in their half of the ninth, but dropped a 5-4 decision at Progressive Field.
“I said I was good,” asserted Smith, who had pitched in each of the Tribe’s previous three games. “I felt all right, but I wasn’t good. That was far from that, that’s for sure.”
Smith’s appearance came about just as Cleveland had planned. Left-hander Rich Hill began the ninth and retired two of the three hitters he faced, walking Colby Rasmus with one out. As expected, Josh Thole came out in favor of right-handed-hitting J.P. Arencibia.
Arencibia was 0-for-4 with four strikeouts and a walk in five career plate appearances against Smith, who relieved Hill. But Arencibia singled, and after Emilio Bonifacio walked, the bases were loaded for Kawasaki.
Hitless in his prior 18 at-bats, Kawasaki sent a 1-2 sinker from Smith into the outfield to put Toronto on top. Bourn mishandled the ball and let loose a wild throw to the infield, which compounded the damage.
“You sit there and it’s like, ‘Man, even if I could have given up one run, we would have won the game,'” Smith said. “It [stinks].”
The Tribe’s ninth-inning scoring kicked off with Cabrera’s RBI single off Blue Jays closer Casey Janssen, which made it 5-3. Bourn, who singled and moved to second on indifference with two outs, scored on the play.
Janssen then walked Jason Kipnis before an error by Kawasaki on Nick Swisher’s grounder scored Cabrera and extended the inning. Janssen was lifted for Steve Delabar, who got Michael Brantley on a fly ball to center to end the game.
“Great ballgame, it really was,” Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. “We took the lead, they came back and it got pretty hairy at the end, but there was a lot of good things tonight.”
For the first six innings, the Blue Jays couldn’t produce much against Tribe starter Justin Masterson, despite walking five times against him, and it appeared entirely possible that Masterson might add to his Major League-leading three shutouts.
But the sinkerballer’s command was even less sharp in the seventh than it had been all night, and the Blue Jays grabbed the lead with a pair of runs on Bonifacio’s two-out single with the bases juiced.
That was it for Masterson, who was replaced by righty Preston Guilmet. In his Major League debut, Guilmet struck out Kawasaki with a slider on a full count, keeping the Indians within a run.
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