Blue Jays-Brewers, 1997: Let’s Play Two, Twice

[Mac]

Major League Baseball had planned, but, as always, Mother Nature got the last laugh.

Bad weather caused delays to start the ‘96 season, so MLB adjusted and scheduled teams from colder climates to open the ‘97 season on road trips in warmer cities. Alas, you cannot plan for the skies. It was a cloudy afternoon in San Diego for the New York Mets on Opening Day, while back home, an empty Shea Stadium basked in a beautiful spring day. On the eastern half of the continent, April started with ideal weather, but when those teams returned to open their stadiums up a week later, winter made its return.

The schedule was getting messed up again. Rain washed out games on the East Coast while snow and the accompanying cold temperatures made it tough to play in the Midwest. Still, at Milwaukee’s aging and open-air County Stadium, the Brewers played their home opener against Texas on the second Monday of the season, but the teams wouldn’t play another until Thursday. Another two-day break was on deck, as snow cancelled the first two games of a weekend series with the Blue Jays. Sitting under a leaking roof in his office, Brewers manager Phil Garner cracked, “Yeah, we don’t need a new stadium.”

Toronto squandered a seven-inning gem from Pat Hentgen in a 3-2 loss on Sunday, when temperatures warmed (4° C) enough to play. Toronto was returning to Milwaukee for a two-game series on July 28-29, and it was expected the teams would play a doubleheader one day and make up the other lost game on a scheduled off day following the series. Toronto and Milwaukee ended up keeping their off days. Why they ended up playing a pair of doubleheaders instead of playing a game on the 30th has eluded me. After the off day, Toronto played 14 in a row, so the teams possibly wanted to keep that day away from the diamond in the heart of summer. At least, it kept the upcoming misery in Milwaukee condensed.

There were three doubleheaders on April 13 to make up for rained-out games, including two in New York as both the Mets and Yankees played twice for the first time in 15 years. (photo credit: SABR)

Despite the impending twi-night doubleheaders, the Blue Jays had reason to look forward to their trip to Milwaukee. Their fortunes had changed at the right time against the Brewers a week ago. Nine games out of the playoffs when they returned home from a 5-6 road trip, Toronto swept Milwaukee before taking two of three from Kansas City. With some good pitching performances and some timely hits, the Blue Jays found themselves six games back, and the Brewers represented a beatable opponent. The opportunity to make up ground and potentially salvage their season had arrived.

And the Blue Jays couldn’t have asked for a better pitching matchup in the first game of four. Roger Clemens shut out the Brewers in the middle game of the previous series, throwing eight innings in an 8-0 win. Clemens had a major league-leading 1.54 ERA heading into this start and had given up only four earned runs in his last seven times out. He was 16-3, and with his opposition today, Toronto could count on the Rocket to continue to deliver. He did. The rest of the team did not.

July was a tough month for the Brewers staff. Ace Ben McDonald was placed on the injured list in July, never to return, and fellow starter Jeff D’Amico battled shoulder issues and skipped a few starts following the All-Star break. When D’Amico was taken off the active roster before the series, Steve Woodard was called up to make his major league debut against Toronto. Garner was going with a hot hand. Woodard had won 15 starts that season in the minors and did so while striking out less than a hitter an inning. The right-hander topped out at around 90 but had impressive enough movement on his off-speed pitches to warrant the call.

Coming off a two-hit performance against Kansas City, Toronto’s bats came out swinging against Woodard, and they came up empty. Otis Nixon hit Woodard’s third pitch of the day for a double, but after that, Toronto was no-hit. Woodard escaped the first inning jam by striking out Joe Carter and Carlos Delgado, the beginning of a 12-strikeout debut in eight dazzling innings. Eleven of those strikeouts were swinging, with most coming courtesy of his changeup. It was a dreadful performance by the Blue Jays that aided Woodard’s spectacular debut in a 1-0 Milwaukee victory. “Swinging at **** in the dirt. No patience,” muttered catcher Charlie O’Brien after the game.

Their efforts at the plate wasted a terrific performance by Clemens, who threw a complete game, going eight innings in the loss. The only scuff came in the fourth when Jeff Cirillo doubled and scored on a base hit by Jeromy Burnitz, who was picked off after the game’s lone RBI. Milwaukee wouldn’t get another baserunner until the eighth inning, but it was no matter. In getting his first major league win, Woodard had defeated a pitcher he considered a hero growing up. Clemens tipped his hat after. “(Woodard) had everyone off balance,” he said.

While Woodard had entered the majors that afternoon, Huck Flener exited them that evening. It would be the end to a terrible year for Flener. He set out to crack the Toronto rotation in ‘97 after an effective month or so as a starter the previous year. He didn’t get a chance to leave his seat. While awaiting to deplane his flight to Florida, a fellow passenger dropped luggage from the overhead compartment onto Flener, chipping his collarbone. A week later, a minor knee procedure turned into arthroscopic surgery, one that would keep him off the mound most of the spring and optioned to Triple-A Syracuse at the end of it. “We had a golf tournament this spring, and he rode in the cart with two Hooters girls,” said manager Cito Gaston, trying to offer some consolation.

When he rejoined the major league team in late April, Flener joked he was extra careful getting off the plane this time. He pitched in six games before being sent down to make room for Gord Ash’s 14-game experiment with Rubén Sierra. He was called back up in July after an injury to Juan Guzmán, and his first appearance back came out of the bullpen. He was now being pressed into the starter’s job he wanted in spring under less than ideal circumstances. 

Unlike it was for Clemens, run support was a non-issue in the nightcap. Flener only recorded six outs before Gaston lifted him in the third inning of the 9-3 loss. He would be charged for four runs on seven hits in his final appearance as a big leaguer. The entire day was highlighted by Alex Gonzalez lining into a triple play in the fourth inning with the Blue Jays down just two. The loss dropped Toronto to 3-19 all-time in doubleheaders against Milwaukee, and the Blue Jays ended the day 9.5 games out of a playoff spot. They would only get further away.

Flener was designated for assignment a day later to make room on the 40-man roster for the recently acquired Mariano Duncan, who had found himself in The Boss’ doghouse in New York. “You know George Steinbrenner,” he said. “For some reason, the team wasn’t going good in May, so he picked on me.” (photo credit: David Barrett / National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

“Get the toe tags ready for this Blue Jay season,” opened Allan Ryan in the Toronto Star after Tuesday’s same-results doubleheader. Woodard and rookie Joel Adamson had kept the Blue Jays’ bats quiet the day before; today, that job would be completed by José Mercedes and Scott Karl. Toronto was blanked again, 2-0 by Mercedes, before losing 4-2 to Karl in the evening. The Blue Jays tallied 10 hits across the final two games of the series and went 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position on the day. Woody Williams was the hard-luck starter in the first game for Toronto, pitching into the eighth while striking out seven. “You know they’re frustrated,” Williams said of his offence. “They’re not hitting, and they know it, everybody knows it...but it’s not something I can go talk to them about. Just like they’re not going to come up to me and say, ‘Why’d you throw that pitch?’”

Starting for Toronto in the final game was 21-year-old Chris Carpenter. Impressing in spring alongside fellow top prospect Roy Halladay, Carpenter started the year in Triple A before getting roughhoused in his first two major league starts in May. He was sent back to Syracuse, but not before being the only Blue Jays’ pitcher to hit a home run during batting practice at Shea Stadium. Carpenter was called back up to pitch in the Milwaukee doubleheaders and fared a little better in the series' final game, giving up two runs on 10 singles while pitching into the sixth. It was enough for Carpenter to earn another start and largely keep him in Toronto’s rotation for the next several years.

After the season, the Brewers would move to the National League as a part of major league realignment with the incoming expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks. The doubleheaders became the last time the Blue Jays and Brewers met until June 17, 2005, when they were finally scheduled to face each other in interleague play. Eric Hinske hit a three-run home run in the first inning of that game, part of a six-run frame that Toronto rode to a 9-5 win in much uglier duds for both teams. No matter how the latest Blue Jays-Brewers series is won this afternoon, at least we both look better two decades later. 

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