Deep sweep refreshes Jays
Pillar walk-off hero, Sanchez survives five . . . good times rolling
One drew blood, one dribbled blood.
Kevin Pillar, he’s the guy who slammed a walk-off home run, delivering the Blue Jays their fifth W in a row — first time they’ve stitched together a winning streak of that length this season, elevating themselves to four games under .500.
Aaron Sanchez, he’s the guy with droplets of blood on his pantaloons from a split fingernail that had prevented him from starting since April 30, and that was just one inning and DL-gone again.
Not a big deal, Sanchez insisted. “Yeah,” he confirmed afterwards of the barely visible red splatter. “But can we keep this about the game? It’s not an issue. There’s no pain.”
Or, as manager John Gibbons had dryly suggested: “Maybe it was a hemorrhoid or something. Is he too young for that?’’
There were no orifices involved, and too much information anyway.
Yet still Sanchez was keeping his pitching hand tucked away from reporters and TV cameras.
Five uneventful innings Sanchez threw Sunday in Toronto’s 3-2 victory, looking perhaps a little bit less than his commanding self, maybe subconsciously cautious, as he scattered a quintet of hits, a pair of walks and an unearned run against the Seattle Mariners. But 78 pitches was a heartening performance and Sanchez showed no reluctance to use the curveball, its snapping friction particularly at fault for the blister on his middle digit which landed him on the disabled list.
“I go back out there with the mindset, as I would (when) there were no issues before. I felt like if I went out there thinking that, I was already defeated. Just compete, attack, not even worry about what’s going on with my finger. Just go out until I reach my pitch count.”
And Gibbons had considered sending Sanchez back out to the mound for the sixth frame, then decided to turn once more to a yeoman bullpen that leads the American League in strikeouts this month. Dominic Leone — dinged for a homer by Jarrod Dyson in the seventh — and Ryan Tepera assumed the relief duties with the latter racking up his third win.
So, the starting rotation is pointing back towards quasi-normal, even with J.A. Happ still on the shelf and Francisco Liriano recently added to the 10-day hurtin’ bay with shoulder inflammation.
“It was a long time coming,” said Sanchez. “I thought the start against Tampa Bay was going to be no issues and today reassured me that there were none. I’m happy to finally be back out there, be with the team, what a great win. They battled all day. K.P. coming up with the big hit, Smoky coming up with the big hit ...”
Justin Smoak, that was, who singled in the second and cranked his sixth homer to give Toronto the lead in the sixth, fourth against a lefty — James Pazos out of the ’pen, blowing the save in relief of Seattle starter Ariel Miranda.
Edwin Diaz, however, was on the bump in the bottom of the ninth to serve up the hanging slider that, with two out, Pillar deposited over the left-field wall.
Then, home run trot completed, he ran even faster to duck his congratulatory teammates, making a beeline for dugout safety.
“I wanted to keep my jersey on because I told my mom we’d get a picture after the game.” His mom, Wendy, dad Mike and wife Amanda were all at Rogers Centre. They trooped down to have a memento family photo taken. “First time my mom’s been here for Mother’s Day. I thought it would be nice to get the photo.”
Pillar had watched and participated in the pile-on attack when Ryan Goins lined a walk-off single that won a game for Toronto over Cleveland last week. The Jays have taken to shredding the jersey of the team hero.
“His jersey’s not even recognizable anymore,” said Pillar.
For Pillar, most famous for those Superman catches in centre field (had one of those too on Sunday, leaping diagonally to rob ex-Jay Danny Valencia of an extra-base hit with two Mariners on in the fourth), home run No. 5 was his first career walk-off jack. He started the game ranked first in the AL in hits.
Looking fastball all the way in that at-bat from a pitcher he’d never faced before.
“I went out there taking the first pitch. I wanted to really just see the ball out of his hand, feel a little bit more comfortable with him. He threw me a first-pitch slider for a strike. He threw me another slider for a ball.
“I’ve tried to go up there and be the hero and end up popping up or getting out. Right there I was really just trying to find a way to get on base.’’ With two out. “I just tried to stay within myself, committed to a fastball and he hung a pitch. It was a great way to send us off.”
This is a more plate-disciplined Pillar, circa 2017, not jumping on the first offering, not chasing pitches out of the zone.
Those awesome catches a-field are cool. But yanking one out of the park is cooler, he said.
“I’m a guy that doesn’t hit a lot of home runs. Any time I hit them they’re always special. For anyone who’s never hit a home run, it’s a feeling you can’t describe. It’s just pure joy. It’s the top of the mountain for a hitter to be in the box and put a good swing on and watch it go over the fence.’’
He avoided the subsequent jersey-ripping — except for one button torn off — but got a keg of Gatorade over the head, courtesy Darwin Barney.
A further notable of this encounter — sweeping away the Mariners in the process — was Devon Travis, he of the stolen home plate 24 hours earlier, stroking his eighth and ninth doubles over the last 14 games. Gave credit to hitting coach Brook Jacoby for the adjustment he’s made. It was Jacoby, during the team’s series at Yankee Stadium at the start of May, who noticed that Travis was standing closer to the plate; even drew up diagrams showing the differential compared to 2015 and 2016.
“It was a very substantial amount that I was closer to the plate,” Travis explained. “That little bit of movement in the box can be the difference between you swinging at a pitch. I think it kind of had my strike zone and my recognition of the plate completely skewed.’’
He fixed it. A .243 batting average for this month (compared to .130 for April) and eight doubles has been the result.
“Most of the stuff when you’re hitting is a feel, right? It’s not mechanics, when you look at video and you’re, like, what the hell do I do? Sometimes it’s nice for someone else to point it out and say, hey, this could be it.
“When you’re going good, you feel like you can hit whoever you wanted to. You can criss-cross your hands and still get hits. When you’re struggling, it’s the complete opposite.”
These are the opposite Jays, from April: 9-4 in May, with 20 home runs.
Going good.