GRAND FINALE
Steve Pearce’s 10th-inning slam caps a wild day at the Rogers Centre as Blue Jays complete four-game sweep of Oakland.
The Blue Jays often live by the sword. And on Thursday, in a matinee in front of a full house, Steve Pearce crushed a 10thinning grand slam into the second deck in left field give the Jays a walk-off win at the Rogers Centre for the second game in a row. This time, it was an 8-4 come-frombehind win over the Oakland A’s that featured four Jays home runs, including one by Kendrys Morales that tied the game in the ninth.
The two walk-off wins — Toronto hit two homers in the ninth Wednesday to beat Oakland — gave the Jays a four-game sweep over the A’s, who had entered the week tied with Toronto in the American League standings.
“Hopefully we can just keep the ball rolling,” Pearce said. “We’re getting down to the end of the season so we’ve got to step it up. It’s a great series to get it started.”
Morales, who hit the walk-off homer Wednesday, led off the ninth Thursday with a game-tying blast to dead centre field.
It was his second homer of the game, his 20th of the season and the 19th multihomer game of his career.
But there was an ugly sidelight in the fifth inning that took away from the Jays’ stirring comeback. Nobody among the Rogers Centre sellout crowd of 47,484 paid their money to watch the umpires perform — they came to see effusive right-hander Marcus Stroman and a fourth straight win — but home plate umpire Will Little and his inconsistent strike zone stole the show.
In the fifth, following a ball four call to A’s catcher Bruce Maxwell, home plate Little heard John Gibbons, who had been on him for a while, and tossed the Jays manager. It was his fourth ejection of the season and that should have been it. Gibbons sacrificed himself for the team.
But after the manager came out and had his nose-to-nose say, Little turned back towards the pitching mound, baiting Stroman by taking off his mask. When the pitcher reacted, Little waved his right arm like a frenzied Muskoka cottager swatting deerflies, ejecting both Stroman and catcher Russ Martin on consecutive flails. Stroman had to be restrained by Martin and acting manager DeMarlo Hale.