Blue Jays done in by sloppy play
MISTAKES: Toronto and Kansas City combine for seven errors but Royals prevail
KANSAS CITY — The bags were all packed, vacation reservations confirmed, minds wandering to a few days of rest and relaxation.
What ensued was one of the sloppiest professional baseball games you will ever see. The shirts against the skins at the company picnic would make fewer mistakes than the Blue Jays and Kansas City Royals made in Sunday’s finale before the all-star break.
For the record, the Royals, after blowing a 7-0 lead, rallied to win their 52nd game of the season 11-10, though on general principle, both teams should have been declared losers. The two teams combined for seven errors.
Manager John Gibbons felt the most critical point in the game came after the Jays took an 8-7 lead in the sixth and the Royals came right back against reliever Steve Delabar to score three more runs.
“I’m proud of our guys for battling back,” said Gibbons. “The key when you take the lead there is you’ve got to get some outs, you’ve got have some shutdown innings. The first two guys got base hits. That’s what absolutely kills you. It was a war of attrition on both sides. Neither team played good baseball but they played gutsy baseball. The guys were running on empty out there, it was so hot.”
For the first five innings, it looked as if the Blue Jays had already checked out for the All-Star break as mental gaffes piled on top of physical errors.
Apparently, though, bad baseball is infectious because in the top of the sixth, the Royals let the floodgates open for an eight-run rally built upon multiple mistakes made by a team that prides itself as the best defensive unit in the American League.
Seven of the Toronto runs in that inning were unearned as the Royals butchered a couple of routine plays. In the end, the Jays had six hits in the inning as six different players had RBIs. Only Danny Valencia had more than one, with a two-run double.
The Royals scored six in the first inning and another in the fourth to take a 7-0 lead against Felix Doubront. Toronto scored eight in the top of the sixth against Edinson Volquez and reliever Ryan Madson to take the lead but Kansas City rallied for three in the bottom of the sixth to retake the lead, 10-8. Toronto scored one in the seventh and another in the eighth to tie it before Paulo Orlando led off the bottom of the eighth with a solo home run off reliever Bo Schultz for the margin of victory.
Under a blazing Missouri sun, both teams played as if their brains were fried.
“A frustrating loss,” said Jays catcher Russell Martin. “I don’t think either team played well. They just did a little bit more at the end. We definitely should have played better. We made some mistakes, got back in the game but didn’t come through.
“After you come back and take the lead, you want to keep the lead, not give it back.”
When it was over, the teams had combined for 21 runs, 27 hits and seven errors.
“It was an odd game,” said Jose Bautista, who was tossed from the game in the middle of an at-bat in the eighth inning for arguing with the home plate umpire, Jerry Meals.
“But those are going to happen every now and then.”