Donaldson keeps rolling with big home run in Oakland
Extra innings. Game on the line. Runner on base and the chance to avoid a series sweep.
They’re all just details to Blue Jays star third baseman Josh Donaldson. The more at stake for the proven clutch slugger, the more he thrives on the moment.
“I relish it all the time,” Donaldson said after his two-run, 10th-inning homer sent the Jays to a 7-5 win over his former team Wednesday afternoon at the Oakland Coliseum. “It’s something that I’ve always enjoyed, it’s what gets me excited about playing.
“At that moment, you have a very great impact on the game and whether you’re going to win or you are going to lose. I try to take advantage of those at bats.”
The big blast was the latest of a massive eight days for the Bringer of Rain, a stretch that included a game-winner against the Yankees on Sunday, a two-homer night against them in the same series and a fifth-deck Rogers Centre blast against the Reds earlier in the week.
But this one had some extra oomph and meaning, a towering shot to deep centre that allowed the Jays to avoid what would have been a demoralizing sweep at the hands of the last-place Athletics.
It was Donaldson’s second home run at the Coliseum since the A’s dealt him north of the border prior to the 2015 season.
“That’s what MVPs do,” Jays manager John Gibbons said of the latest rain storm, a homer measured at 394 feet. “He’s good, but he knows he’s good. That’s what star players do. We’ve been watching it a couple years now.”
The clutch crack from Donaldson was the most notable, but it was yet another day where the home run carried this team, as it so often does.
And it was especially needed in the matinee conclusion of the series, given some shoddy defensive work in left field and a grinding effort from starting pitcher, Francisco Liriano.
Red-hot Justin Smoak hit a pair of solo shots to boost his team-best home run total to 17 while Kevin Pillar provided a three-run homer.
And yes, the math adds up to all seven Jays runs coming courtesy of the long ball, the team’s tried and true method to victory.
The mini home-run derby helped to overcome the defensive misadventures in left field, where it was Chris Coghlan’s turn to turn fly balls into a mystery.
Twice Coghlan mishandled fly balls that weren’t particularly high on the degree-of-difficulty scale and each led directly to A’s runs in the first then fifth inning.
Gibbons is well aware his team needs to tighten up defensively, especially in a game that goes to extra innings. Typical of his managerial style, however, Gibbons stood by Coghlan — or at least diverted his response — when asked directly about the left-field shenanigans after the game.
“Did we win today or lose?” Gibbons said with a smile and a playful stare.
Donaldson touched on the defensive issues, however, as no doubt others in the Jays clubhouse will. Prior to Coghlan’s woes on Wednesday, Ezequiel Carrera has been a lost soul in left field as well. Who would have thought the Jays would be missing injured Steve Pierce more for his glove than his bat?
“We need a much better job on the defensive side of the ball,” Donaldson said. “I was a little disappointed in that from our team.”
It’s hard not to be impressed with the continuing power displayed by Smoak, who moved into at least a temporary tie for second in the American League with homers 16 and 17.
Brimming with confidence, the switch-hitting first baseman is hitting them out from both sides of the plate and to opposite fields.
“It’s a matter of trying to keep that feel that you have,” said Smoak, who had the fifth multihome run of his career. “That’s the hardest part of this game — staying locked in for a six-month season. I keep saying that I want to have good at-bats and I feel if I do that, at the end of the year, the numbers will be what they are.”
The big, personable first baseman has a big fan in Donaldson.
“He’s hit more homers than all of last year, he’s done a great of job of both sides of the plate,” Donaldson said. “Smoak’s been amazing.”