Bautista finally flips the script
Blue Jays slugger smacks eighth homer in May, putting brutal April behind him
TORONTO — Jose Bautista was called over the hill in April and now he’s king of the hill in May.
The Toronto Blue Jays right-fielder smashed a three-run homer to left in the fifth inning at Rogers Centre Saturday to lift the Jays to a 3-1 victory over the Texas Rangers. Bautista has nine home runs on the season, eight this month. In April, he hit .178 with one homer and there was talk the 36-year-old’s glory days were over. That talk seems to have died down.
“I feel a little bit better rhythm wise and I feel like I’m manipulating the bat where I want to more often than I was a few weeks ago,” said Bautista. “And because of those reasons, I’m not missing my pitch that often.”
The Jays have now homered in six straight games and 15 of their last 16. The victory was the fifth in the row for the suddenly hot Jays and the fifth loss in the row for the Rangers.
“We’re playing good baseball, really the whole month of May. The month of April wasn’t a very good one. You can’t sugar-coat that. But we always felt confident in the guys that were basically filling in for the last six weeks in some key spots and really just stepped up,” said Jays manager John Gibbons. “But really a lot of things have switched. Early on, we couldn’t get that big hit or that big break, the big out. Now we’re getting those things. The ball’s starting to leave the ballpark. In April, it seemed like everything was landing at the warning track. Now it really looks like our old team. And we’re just playing a better brand of baseball.”
Toronto starter Marco Estrada (4-2) picked the win, going six innings, giving up four hits, one run, walked one and struck out eight. He has 20 strikeouts over his last two outings. Rangers starter Yu Darvish (5-3) took the loss.
“I felt really good today. I woke up this morning in a really good mood and mentally was prepared for this game and usually day games are kind of tough, we’re not used to waking up so early,” said Estrada.
Texas right-fielder Shin-soo Choo welcomed Estrada to the game by depositing the right-hander’s first offering over the centre-field wall, giving the Rangers a 1-0 lead. It was the eighth time in his career that Estrada surrendered a leadoff homer, the first time on an 0-0 count.
“He crushed it, which sucked obviously,” said Estrada. “Actually Luke (Maile) called a change-up on the first pitch and it kind of caught me off guard. I thought he was kind of joking with me, (but) I probably should have thrown it. I threw a ball right down the middle, (Choo) hit it out, whatever.
“I liked everything. We were locating fastballs, change-ups, some decent curve balls, threw one good cutter. The other one wasn’t too good, but overall pitches were working,” added Estrada, who did much of his damage with his change. “It’s night and day from what it was. Worked on it a bunch and finally feels back to what it usually is.”
Estrada added that not having to deal with a sore back, which plagued him last year, has made all the difference. The right-hander continued to roll, though in the fourth he ran into some trouble. With two out, he gave up a single to Rougned Odor and then a double to Ryan Rua. With men on second and third, Estrada struck out Joey Gallo to end the inning.
Bautista came up to bat in the fifth with two out and Maile and Devon Travis on base. On a 0-0 pitch, he launched the ball over the wall. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded and two out, Toronto left-fielder Ezequiel Carrera struck out for the second straight inning.
Estrada was puled after six innings and 106 pitches and replaced by Aaron Loup to start the seventh with the Jays ahead 3-1. Toronto had a chance to add to their lead in the bottom of the eighth, but with the bases loaded and one out, relief pitcher Tony Barnette struck out Kevin Pillar and Travis to end the inning. Roberto Osuna pitched the ninth and picked up his ninth save.