ARLINGTON, Texas -- Just 17 days shy of his 41st birthday, R.A. Dickey started his first postseason game on Monday afternoon, with the Blue Jays' entire season on the line and facing the team with whom he began his career nearly two decades ago. Dickey said the start against the Texas Rangers was bringing his career "full circle" and that it was "poetic,'' "another chapter'' in his story and a "neat narrative."
The narrative arc took a surprising turn in the fifth inning, though. Leading 7-1 in the fifth thanks to the game's best offense returning to form by scoring seven runs in the first three innings, Dickey was on the mound just one out from qualifying for the victory. And then he saw his infielders gathering around him, followed by manager John Gibbons walking out to take the ball from him and give it to David Price.
How would you feel about that?
"No competitor would or should want to come out of a game like that, OK? So everybody understands that," Dickey said after the Blue Jays' 8-4 victory over Texas that sends this American League Division Series to Toronto for a decisive Game 5. "[But] Gibby is the manager and when he says, 'go,' I'm an employee and sometimes you don't necessarily like what your boss wants you to do but I respect him. And at the end of the day when you look over your shoulder and you've got a guy like Price coming in behind you, it makes it a whole lot easier to give the ball to Gibby.
"So am I disappointed? Sure, I think any competitor would be. But it's amazing what you can accomplish when you don't care who gets the credit, and we won today and so we're going back to Toronto with a chance."
The question is, could the Blue Jays' chances be even better if Gibbons had not made such a move? Yes, Toronto needed to win the game or its season was over. But with another game necessary to win Wednesday, do you really want to burn the league ERA leader when you lead by six runs with two out in the fifth inning and have a starter on the mound who was 8-1 with a 2.80 ER in the second half?
Gibbons said it was a tough decision but he made it for a several reasons. One, the Rangers had a runner on and Dickey was facing Shin-Soo Choo, who singled against him twice in his previous two at-bats. Two, balls can fly out to right field easily here. Three, he had Price warming up and felt he needed to use him because of that. And four, the Astros and Royals showed big leads can disappear quickly.
"One thing I've learned over the years is sometimes the best way to win games is don't let the team get back into it," Gibbons said. "There's a method to the madness. I'm sure it's not real popular."
That's because the move unnecessarily weakened the Blue Jays' depth for Game 5. Starter Marcus Stroman has pitched very well (4-0, 1.67 ERA) since returning from what had been considered season-ending ACL surgery in spring training. Nonetheless, you have to worry a bit that something can go wrong when someone is recovering from such a serious injury that happened not all that long ago. And because of Gibbons' move, the Jays won't have Price to back up Stroman.
While Price said he will be available, Gibbons said he will not. Price, who began warming up in the bullpen Monday so early he caught Kevin Pillar's second-inning home run there, threw 50 pitches and allowed six hits and three runs in three innings. "R.A. threw the ball much better than I did," he said.
Still, the Blue Jays won to give themselves a chance to join the 2001 Yankees and the 2012 Giants as the only teams to lose the first two games of a best-of-five series at home yet come back to win the series. They are the fifth team to even force a fifth game under such situations. And they also get to play at home. Which made the move easier for Dickey to take.
"I'm sure Gibby and I will talk about it, but in this moment, I'm not going to let it steal away the joy that I have about getting to go back to Toronto, when there's a lot of teams that would have folded," Dickey said. "But we have a lot of character and it's fun to be part of a team and I don't want that to steal the joy from something like that."
If Stroman and the offense are in top form, the Blue Jays stand a great chance of increasing that joy and advancing to the AL Championship Series and getting Dickey -- and Price -- another start in October.
If not, Gibbons may face a long winter of second-guessing.