Osuna has rare off night in tough loss to Tribe

Righty allows 2 homers in game for 1st time in career

August 20th, 2016
Roberto Osuna has 27 saves in 30 attempts this season. (Getty)

CLEVELAND -- has been almost perfect this season, but like everyone, he has moments of weakness. And on Friday night, that was all it took to send the Blue Jays to a crushing loss.
Osuna surrendered back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the ninth inning as the Indians walked off in dramatic fashion. A solo home run by Jose Ramirez and an inside-the-park homer by , and just like that, a 2-1 victory turned into a 3-2 loss.
Prior to Friday, Osuna had never allowed two home runs in the same game. He also had not blown a save since June 7 or allowed more than one run in the same inning since June 29. Things changed in a hurry during the series opener.

"It's really tough for me and the whole team," said Osuna, who has 27 saves in 30 attempts this year. "It really hurts. ... I tried to go with my best, and my changeup has been so good lately. Same with my slider. I just made a couple of mistakes, left the ball right in the middle, and they hit me pretty good today."
Ramirez delievered the first blow with one out in the ninth inning, when he sent an 0-2 changeup from Osuna over the wall in right field, which tied the game at 2. That set the stage for potential extra innings, but instead, the game was over five pitches later, when Naquin sent a deep drive to right.

Unlike the previous at-bat, though, this one did not entirely fall on Osuna's shoulders. Naquin's shot bounced off the top part of the right-field wall, which was just above the outstretched glove of a leaping . The play should have resulted in extra bases, but center fielder Melvin Upton Jr. was late backing up the play.
When the ball ricocheted into right-center field, Upton Jr. initially was nowhere to be found. By the time he reached the ball, Naquin was on his way to third base, and Upton Jr. then compounded the issue by slipping on the outfield grass. That provided more than enough time for Naquin to round third and slide home for the winning run. With that, Toronto's record in one-run games dropped to 13-21.
"That was a tough one," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "We were sitting pretty good. We had a couple of our key guys out, we're sitting on a chance to win it with one out in the ninth, and we get beat by the home run. That's tough. That went from feeling good to feeling rotten, that's for sure."