Bronx dagger restores ‘swagger’
Series win statement Bautista contends, Red Sox on deck
NEW YORK— The Blue Jays, at times, were as sloppy as the Yankees on Sunday. They surrendered three different leads to the Bombers and finished the game with only three players in the same position they started, but Jose Bautista believes Sunday’s 5-4 victory over the Yankees has become a “statement” game. Not in terms of a statement to outside media and fans that these Blue Jays can compete in the AL East, but a statement to themselves, to the players inside the clubhouse.
“Not only how we behave as a team and our mentality and our mindset. We need to sometimes have that swagger and that attitude that we are a good team,” Bautista said. “There are times when we lose a couple in a row, it seems like we lose it a little bit, lose that edge.”
That losing two in a row has not happened much lately. In fact, not since before the all-star break. Bautista was a big part of Sunday’s statement at Yankee Stadium. In the ninth inning, after sensational rookie Aaron Sanchez had surrendered the Jays’ third lead of the afternoon, Bautista was a huge part of recapturing the margin and earning the 22year-old his first major-league win.
In the winning rally, the Jays took their fourth lead of the day on a soft line drive to right centre by Dioner Navarro, scoring Bautista from second base. Bautista had stolen second at a key moment, guessing right that Yankee closer David Robertson would not be paying attention and go to the high leg kick. Then came the Navarro hit. Casey Janssen
“We need to keep doing what we did today . . . We need to just believe sometimes.”
JOSE BAUTISTA
saved it and Sanchez had his first win.
“Maybe not so much the way I would like it to happen,” Sanchez said. “I need to do a better job of shutting that inning down. But these guys picked me up and it’s such an awesome feeling to get my first win, especially here at Yankee Stadium. This is the big leagues. This is where I want to be.”
It was not easy for the Jays. It never is at Yankee Stadium, where they have now won two straight games after losing 17 in a row. The Jays led thrice through eight and gave all of those leads away. The series win was their first in the Bronx since Aug. 27 to 29, 2012.
The Jays had the bases loaded in the seventh inning against Dellin Betances with one out, but Navarro grounded into a force play at the plate and Dan John- son flew out to left. Navarro was glad to be able to play the ninth-inning redemption song with his winning RBI.
“There’s been a couple of opportunities with runners in scoring position, less than two outs, and I haven’t been able to get the job done, so it pisses me off really bad,” Navarro said.
“Those are the RBIs not that you’re supposed to get, but you should get because that’s how you’re going to win games. I’m so glad that I got a second chance and came through.” It would be easy to suggest that the Jays’ statement by finally winning in the Bronx was to the rest of baseball, but Bautista stresses the importance of the real message to his own team. “At times you can see it on the field and in the clubhouse,” Bautista said of the Jays’ needed attitude adjustment. “We lose a couple in a row and they’re tough games, the energy goes down a little bit. It’s natural, because this is a sport where that’s the tradition. You’re not going to be walking around with a smile on your face and celebrating after you lose a game. “But we need to realize that not any one win or any one loss means winning a championship or losing, so we need to keep doing what we did today in the bigger scale. We need to just believe sometimes that we’re that good of a team and act like it.” The usually helpful ghosts of Monument Park must have all been in Cooperstown celebrating with Joe Torre on Sunday, because this current group of Yankees, though resilient at times, did not play like a contender. Betances had set up the Jays’ goahead run in the eighth with a wild pickoff throw past an out-of-position Brian McCann, allowing Colby Rasmus to go from first to third. Mune Kawasaki then drove him home with a sacrifice fly. Staked to a 2-0 lead halfway through the game, starter J.A. Happ yielded a solo blast to Chase Headley, then two pitches later allowed a game-tying homer to Francisco Cervelli that ticked off the glove of a leaping Melky Cabrera, bouncing on top of the wall and out. Headley’s homer was his first with the Yankees, while Cervelli’s was his first since April 25, 2013, while facing Mark Buehrle and the Jays. On the down side, Bautista was also a major part of the game-tying run allowed by Brett Cecil in the sixth. With one out, Derek Jeter lobbed a single to centre. When Jacoby Ellsbury drew a 10-pitch walk, that was all for Happ. With two outs and runners on first and second, the Jays shifted the infield for McCann. He grounded to the outfield grass. Kawasaki corraled it and bounced a long-hop throw to Bautista that should have been handled, but he dropped it. Ellsbury scored. It was ruled a single.
“With an experienced first baseman I think you have an out to end the inning there,” Bautista conceded with candour, “but I haven’t been there enough to kind of pick those hops and I was more concerned about blocking the ball than trying to scoop it.”
The bottom line is that, in an imperfect world, the Jays broke the Bronx jinx and will enter Fenway Park on Monday with what should be a little more of Bautista’s described clubhouse swagger.