Injury-plagued Jays win third straight
TORONTO 4 SEAT TLE 0
It was a week or so ago when Blue Jays manager John Gibbons was given a little history lecture in Toronto baseball by former club president Paul Beeston and with it, a lesson in perspective.
The two were commiserating about the brutal start to a season that had embarked with such high expectations. Beeston, of course, had seen it before and also was the steward to the magical turnaround in 1989.
“He says ‘ We started out 12-24,’ ” Gibbons said, leaning back in the leather chair of his office in the Jays clubhouse and recalling the Beeston conversation. “We went on and won the division. You guys can still do it … the only problem is we fired Jimy Williams.’”
Gibbons broke out in laughter at the telling, but the reality is the manager hasn’t even hinted at giving up hope. And minus losing his job, he still has aspirations of engineering a similar recovery.
Well, the Jays took another impressive step in the right direction on Friday with a 4- 0 win over the Seattle Mariners, matching a season- high three victories in a row and five of their past six.
Suddenly, a team that began 2-11 is now 15-21 and doing so without three- fifths of its starting infield and the same percentage of its starting pitching staff also on the disabled list.
The leaders of the AL East may be much further gone than they were when Cito Gaston took over from Williams in ’ 89, but that era didn’t include wild card routing to the post-season, either.
A winning run that is looking less modest by the day certainly has the veteran Jays squad playing with confidence.
Jose Bautista was the hero at the plate on Friday and take note of what that means going forward if his gradual warming continues. Bautista beat up on a third- inning offering from Mariners pitcher Christian Bergman, who was making his first career start.
Bautista pulled it high and hard off the left-field foul pole to extend the Jays’ lead to 3- 0.
On the mound, the Jays got another solid starting effort from Joe Biagini as the team waits for Aaron Sanchez, J. A. Happ and Francisco Liriano to return.
Perhaps the biggest roadblock to get back to .500 and beyond is the injury-ravaged lineup Gibbons has been dealing with.
If the Jays can continue to chip away at the standings — their win percentage is now .417 — until Troy Tulowitzki, Josh Donaldson and Russell Martin return, look out.
The fact that they’ve begun the climb back before those regulars return only adds to the encouragement, not to mention the confidence of players such as Ryan Goins and Ezequiel Carrera, who are getting added playing time.
Gibbons is a big fan of the quirky Biagini, even more so we’re thinking after his excellent outing on Friday and the impressive stats as a starter that go with it.
Working around the dangerous Mariners lineup, Biagini went sixplus innings of shutout ball. In his two major- league starts now, the big right- hander has pitched nine innings and has yet to surrender a run.
Even better, in those innings he’s allowed six hits while striking out seven. And perhaps most impressive about his nine innings is that Biagini has remained so cool that he hasn’t yielded a single walk.
“I could see him being a good major- league starter,” Gibbons said. “He got the stuff. More than enough. Nothing bothers Joe.”
He has certainly remained cool on the mound as he threw a career high 67 pitches on Thursday and exited to a standing ovation from the festive Friday night crowd at the dome.
“Joe’s very unique,” Gibbons said. “You’ve got to approach Joe a little different than the other guys. You almost have to talk his language a little bit. But Joe gets it. It’s kind of refreshing.”