Jays offence comes alive on Canada Day
Team has five home runs, including two by Smoak, in big win over Red Sox
The Blue Jays’ offence was due for a breakout. It had, after all, been four whole games since they plated a dozen runs against the Texas Rangers, marking their longest stretch of the season without scoring at least five in a game.
So perhaps it is little wonder their muscle-bound sluggers busted out against Boston’s struggling righthander, Rick Porcello, and a sloppy Red Sox team to deliver an 11-2 drubbing on Wednesday afternoon in front of a sellout Canada Day crowd of 45,392.
Dressed in festive threads to mark the occasion, the Jays hit five home runs, including a pair by Justin Smoak, the switch-hitting first baseman, who in his first start since June 21 became just the sixth player in franchise history to homer from both sides of the plate — the second of which was crushed almost into the upper deck.
“For me I was just trying to be on time,” the lumbering South Carolinian said afterward. “It’s been a while since I’ve been in there. Got a changeup in my first at-bat, was able to hit it pretty well. Second at-bat was ready for the heater first pitch. Squared it up pretty good.”
The Jays’ monster-mash trio of Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion — all of whom rank among the league’s top 20 in home runs and together form what is arguably the best heart-of-the-order in baseball — also went deep, while Jose Reyes went 4-for-5, scoring four times.
It was another double-digit display of the Jays’ unrelenting all-world offence, which is on pace to not only be the highest-scoring in franchise history but among the best of any team in the last 30 years. Wednesday marked the 14th time the Jays have scored 10 or more runs in a game, their highest total since 2009, and they have yet to reach the season’s halfway mark. They lead the majors in runs scored by a margin of more than 60.
“Best offence in the game,” Smoak said afterwards. “I feel like in 2010 when I was with Texas, being in that offence, it was really good — this one’s a lot better than that one.”
The 2010 Texas Rangers finished fifth in the majors in runs scored but won the American League West division and advanced to the World Series, falling in five games to the San Francisco Giants. But that Rangers team also had the third-lowest staff ERA in the AL. The Jays, meanwhile, have the third-highest.
Therein lies the biggest question for the second half of the Jays’ season: whether the team’s pitching can improve enough to support the dominant offence. General manager Alex Anthopoulos has 30 days before the non-waiver trade deadline and he has made clear his desire to add both a starter and relief pitcher. This year, perhaps more than any other during Anthopoulos’s tenure, he may be willing to part with prospects for a short-term rental, given the strength of the team’s offence and the winnability of the division. On Wednesday, anyhow, Mark Buehrle did more than enough. He was his usual efficient self, allowing just one run on four hits and no walks over seven solid innings. It was also no coincidence that it was the 36-year-old veteran on the mound in a game in which 13 runs were scored in two hours and 19 minutes.
The game began with the patriotic pageantry that has become a hallmark of the Jays’ annual Canada Day matinee, with the unfurling of a giant Canadian flag and ceremonial first pitch thrown by Don Cherry to Josh Donaldson, whose all-star candidacy received a hearty boost from the star of Coach’s Corner during the Stanley Cup final.