Blue Jays complete series sweep of Angels with wild 11-10 victory
An adventure ride of a series closed out in predictably wild fashion as the Blue Jays pulled off as wacky a four-game sweep as one could imagine.
Lead changes were aplenty as the Angels and Jays moved it back and forth seven times in an eventual 11-10 Toronto win Sunday.
It completed the first series sweep of the season for the Jays, the last one coming in the final series of last season when the Jays took care of the hapless Baltimore Orioles in the final three-game set of 2021.
As has been the trend this series, the Jays did a little bit of everything to put this one in the win column.
Right near the top was a patient approach at the plate as the Jays worked six pitchers for a total of eight walks, two of those bringing in runs with the bases loaded.
It was the bottom of the order combining to do most of the damage, with Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Raimel Tapia combining for eight RBIS, five from Gurriel Jr. alone, including the key two-run double in the eighth inning that put the Jays in front for good.
But the hero in this affair could be reliever Yimi Garcia.
Garcia was the sixth of seven Jays pitchers to take the mound and worked the pivotal eighth after the Jays had scored two in the top of the inning to take that one-run lead.
Garcia got Angels' leadoff man Taylor Ward on strikes, wisely semi-intentionally pitched around Shohei Ohtani, who already had two home runs in the game, putting him on with a walk and then got Mike Trout to fly out to centre and Jared Walsh on strikes.
It was a masterful 21-pitch inning for the 31-year-old Dominican right-hander who has been thrust into that key setup role with Tim Mayza on the disabled list.
On a day where the Jays were asking multiple relievers to take the ball on their third consecutive day and knowing closer Jordan Romano would not be available having already pitched three times in the series, Garcia's effort was huge.
“We were prepared,” Garcia said post-game of the possibility that even those deemed to be needing a rest might be called on.
Garcia said the situation he faced with Ohtani and Trout in particular due to face him, isn't something he lets worry him.
“In my case, I focus more on the pitches I have to make, not who I am facing,” Garcia said. “I am just trying to control my strike zone and make sure I make my pitch. I'm not thinking about Ohtani or Trout. I'm just trying to make my pitch.”
Until the finale, the Jays had handled Ohtani about as efficiently as any opponent could, knocking him out of his Thursday start early with a deliberate and patient approach at the plate. Some back stiffness on Ohtani's part played into that, but the Jays played their role and opened the series with a win.
At the plate, again the back stiffness was a factor for Ohtani, but Jays pitchers had held him hitless in seven at-bats, limiting him to a lone RBI before his two-homer, three-rbi afternoon in the final game.
Surprisingly, the Jays put 11 runs on the board without two of their everyday regulars for most of the game.
Both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the struggling Teoscar Hernandez were not in the starting lineup as manager Charlie Montoyo
has begun getting his regulars some days off.
Guerrero Jr. has some wrist soreness while Hernandez and catcher Danny Jansen, who did not see the field Sunday, are both dealing with hip issues.
Hernandez and Guerrero Jr., however, both wound up in the game as Montoyo effectively used the bench depth to extend both a three-run seventh inning and a two-run eighth as the Jays turned the game back in their favour.
Hernandez had a walk and a single in his two plate appearances while Guerrero Jr. was walked intentionally in his lone plate appearance.
It was another rough start for Jose Berrios. He lasted just 2 1/3 innings, giving up six runs on six hits on just 56 pitches, including both Ohtani homers.
He admitted after it was not the best day to be a guy earning his living throwing the baseball.
“It was one of those days as a pitcher you didn't want to go out there,” Berrios said, summing up the afternoon perfectly for the vast majority of the 13 men who took the mound between the two teams.
David Phelps came on in the ninth and closed it out for his first save of the season and first in four years for the 35-year-old reliever.
The Jays will now head home and enjoy a much-needed day off before the schedule resumes Tuesday with the Chicago White Sox in town for three games.