THE GAME OF THE NAME
Blue Jays open weekend series with 4-2 win over Phillies under assumed names
Justin Smoak, Devon Travis, Kevin Pillar and the rest of the Blue Jays sported their nicknames for Friday night’s game at the Rogers Centre, part of the fun for fans of every big-league team on Players’ Weekend around the majors. Moakey, D-Trav and KP went a combined 0-for-12 … but the Jays still got it done.
It’s being called Players’ Weekend around major-league baseball and it is the only time that playful nicknames can be used on the back of team jerseys. It’s meant to be a fun three days for the players, but for Blue Jays starter Ryan Borucki the fun is clearly in the winning. The 24year-old left-hander played it straight with a straightforward “Borucki” stitched across the back of his jersey for the win.
The Jays, behind the rookie Borucki, took the opener of the three-game inter-league set against the Philadelphia Phillies 4-2, running the winning streak to four straight games on what has been a clean homestand. It was the Jays’ 200th win against a National League team, including a mark of 33-22 against Philadelphia, their 1993 World Series foe.
The Phillies opened the scoring in the first and looked poised to do serious damage against Borucki, but he escaped allowing just one run. After back-to-back hits by Cesar Hernandez and Rhys Hoskins, Borucki crossed up his catcher Russ Martin on a swing and a miss for strike three, with both runners moving up. Wilson Ramos then lifted a deep sacrifice fly to centre field.
Borucki made his 11th start for the Jays, recording his third win in his past four decisions. The 24-year-old Chicago native worked 61⁄ innings, allowing 3 two runs on seven hits, with one walk and five strikeouts.
Borucki entered the game coming off three sticky starts in a row. Since a dominating eight innings in Seattle, he had logged just 92⁄ innings, allowing 19 3 hits, with nine walks, three strikeouts and a 13.02 ERA.
The Jays tied the game in the second inning when Kendrys Morales sliced his 19th home run of the season into the home bullpen behind the left-field fence. It was the fifth straight game in which Morales had homered, tying him on the alltime franchise list with Jose Bautista (2014) for second place behind Jose Cruz Jr., who went deep six games in a row in 2001.
The Jays have decided to see what they have with the four outfielders other than veteran Curtis Granderson, who will likely come off the bench as long as remains with the Jays. As such, the only other lefthanded hitting outfielder, Billy McKinney, will see playing time against most right-handed pitching.
McKinney gave the Jays their first lead of the night in the third inning, hammering his second career homer into the centre-field stands against Jake Arrieta, scoring Aledmys Diaz ahead of him.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr. rejoined the Jays at shortstop after a stint on the disabled list and extended his hitting streak to 12 straight games with an RBI single into left field in the fifth inning. The first 11 games were all with at least two hits.
Ken Giles came on to pick up his17th save in17 opportunities.