FLYING HIGH Jays thump their way to AL East lead,
Happ’s mound magic and seven-run fifth knock off Orioles
It took 118 days but the Blue Jays are back in first place.
Not since April 5 has Toronto sat on top of the heap in the American League East. For 99 of those days, until Saturday afternoon, that lofty spot was occupied by reviled rival Baltimore.
A 9-1 win, behind the masterful pitching of J.A. Happ and the relentless offence of Toronto’s lineup — even with just one long ball on the ledger — knocked the Orioles from their division perch.
Seven runs in the fifth cracked open an affair that had been slouching along in eye-glazing fashion, giving the Jays a half-game edge in the East.
The onslaught was launched off a oneout home run from the bottom of the order by Devon Travis, his seventh of the season, a line drive on a 3-and-2 count that seemed to catch its second breath as it just snuck over the left-field wall. Baltimore starter Yovani Gallardo, who’s been a nemesis for the Jays — 4-0 career against Toronto — then walked Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson back-toback.
After Edwin Encarnacion doubled to score Bautista, Orioles skipper Buck Showalter made the fatal decision to intentionally walk Mike Saunders, boos cascading down, loading the bases and summoning Mychal Givens from Baltimore’s baseball-best ’pen to contend with Troy Tulowitzki. Except the shortstop took a stroll on a checked-swing ball four, putting Toronto ahead 2-1 as Donaldson trotted home and all the bags were still tenanted by Jays.
Russell Martin — who’d struck out with the bases loaded to end the first — redeemed himself splendidly, doubling off the wall over the head of Mark Trumbo, bringing Encarnacion and Saunders across the plate. Melvin Upton Jr. struck out swinging on three straight pitches but, with the Jays batting around, Kevin Pillar drilled a slider into the leftfield corner and two more Toronto runs were on the board.
Seven runs on four hits, three of them two-baggers.
“An aggressive move by the manager,” observed Martin of the intentional walk that bit Showalter on the arse. “He’s trying to get a double play, trying to get two outs with one pitch. He has a guy on the mound he feels he can trust, that throws strikes for the most part. Tulo put up a tough at-bat, laid off a tough slider 3-2.
“It backfired. But you can always look back and judge someone after the fact. Sometimes you make a call and it works, sometimes it doesn’t.’’
Make no mistake, though. Taking the mickey out of Showalter’s strategizing was particularly lip-smacking for the Jays.
In the scenario which ensued, bases stacked, velocity from Givens might have been expected. Martin, however, was anticipating a breaking ball. “Right there, I was dead-red sitting on off-speed. He threw me a get-me-over breaking ball and I hit it. It’s not something I do a lot, but in that situation I just had a feeling that he was going to start me off with a breaking ball. And he threw a good one to hit.’’
Toronto appended another brace of runs in the seventh, Pillar doing the ribbie honours — racking up his third two-out RBI in two weekend games against Baltimore, five doubles in the past four games.
“Two-out RBIs are hard to come by,” agreed Pillar afterwards. “Pitchers do a good job getting two out. They feel like they’re going to get off the hook. If you can come up with a big hit, it’s a big momentum change.’’
But the all-fields barrage started with Travis. Martin gave full credit to his spark-plug teammate, who seems always to be in the mix of good things. “Devon, in my opinion, is the best ninth hitter in the league right now. I feel he could be a twohole hitter on a lot of teams. He has a professional approach. If you make a mistake, he’ll make you pay. He’s able to foul off some tough pitches and get back in the count. That’s what he did in that at-bat. Got a good fastball over the middle of the plate and took care of it.
“Then we had some big hits from our big hitters, some tough at-bats. We were able to get a little rally going.’’
A huge rally, actually, that rendered Pedro Alvarez’s second-inning dinger insignificant as Happ and Toronto’s bullpen largely stymied the most potent home-run team in the majors.
It’s a long season, tons of baseball still left to play, but the Jays made a statement in the first two games of this series: They can beat Baltimore tight and they can beat Baltimore fat.
“It means we’re playing good baseball,” said Martin. “We’re swinging the bats well, we’re playing good defence and we’re pitching well. But what I like about this team is the consistency of our starting pitching. I feel like it’s been that way all year. If you want to be on a winning team, that’s one of the main things that you want to have is pitching, and we have that. So we’re feeling pretty good about it.’’
Not just a feeling but a fact, with the starting rotation, on Happ’s assured arm, collecting its AL-tops 66th quality start and for the 77th time holding the opposition to three earned runs or fewer. On Saturday afternoon, they accomplished that with the tall left-handed hurler striking out 11, duplicating his season high.
“He was on today,” marvelled Martin. “His fastball was exploding towards the plate.’’
A lethal mix of two-seam and four-seam fastballs held Baltimore’s explosive offence to just three hits over seven innings plus one batter.
As he walked off the hill, Happ — who’s now won his last nine decisions, 14-3 on the season — was saluted with a standing ovation from the crowd of 47,305.
Happ doffed his cap in appreciation.
“A huge reason why I play the game is the fans. To feel their gratitude, for them to show their respect, was great. I just tried to tip my cap and show it back to them.’’
The once-and-again Toronto start- er wasn’t here for last year’s memorable race to the post-season. But he’s heard tell. At spring training, throughout this campaign, teammates have described it to him. This weekend series has resonated with playoff atmosphere, especially when Happ came out of the dugout to start the eighth. “It was awesome. The fans. Really, since the (all-star) break, it’s been unbelievable here.
“We certainly know what we’re capable of and I think that feeling . . . we’re starting to experience that. Hopefully we don’t look back.’’
Pillar can look back, and forward. “The atmosphere definitely feels like post-season. We’re approaching these games like post-season games.”
Baltimore, of course, can never be counted out of any game, regardless of the score.
They loaded the bases in the eighth off Happ and Joe Biagini, but Brett Cecil quashed the threat by striking out Chris Davis. Jesse Chavez closed it out tidily.
Toronto will be aiming for the sweep when Aaron Sanchez takes the mound Sunday.