Back-to-back HRs in 9th give Blue Jays victory
TORONTO — Were it not for Santiago Casilla, Paul Blackburn would have his second big-league win tucked away and Bob Melvin would have his 1,000th as a big-league manager.
Casilla, the A’s closer, inherited a two-run lead in the ninth and promptly turned it over in a two-pitch span, failing to get an out in Toronto’s 3-2 victory Wednesday at Rogers Center. Casilla walked Josh Donaldson to open the ninth, Justin Smoak clobbered a two-run homer to right and Kendrys Morales followed by doing the same on the very next pitch.
“I think I was just going a little bit too fast,” Casilla said, with Juan Dorado interpreting. “I felt great in the bullpen, and then in the game, I felt like my mechanics were not right. I was getting a little bit ahead of myself . ... I feel really bad, because I feel great physically and I feel like I’m going out and competing, and today it didn’t work out.”
Casilla blew his sixth save in 22 chances and his fourth in 16 games. He incurred his fifth loss, and his hold on the closer role is growing shaky — especially with Blake Treinen allowing just one unearned run in six outings since being acquired from Washington.
Blackburn, from Brentwood, was the story until Casilla’s failure. Blackburn, who worked seven scoreless innings, gave up a double to the first hitter he faced, Jose Bautista, then didn’t allow another hit until Donaldson’s two-out double in the sixth, a span of 18 plate appearances in between.
“Anytime you look up, it’s big name after big name after big name,” Blackburn said. “That’s a really good team, a really good lineup, so for the most part, I was executing my pitches and sticking to the game plan.”
“We really wanted to get him a win,” Melvin said. “To an extent, he’s pitched better here than he had in Triple-A . ... It’s too bad. He pitched great. What a good lineup he got through. He kept the ball down, can’t ask much more than that.”
Blackburn’s sinker was working especially well; he induced 12 groundballs to just one flyball. He walked three and struck out three.
“He’s got three average pitches, but really great command, throws strikes,” one AL scout said. “Toronto has all those free swingers — he was just carving them up.”
Over his first five big-league outings, Blackburn, 23, has allowed a total of eight earned runs in 32 innings, a 2.25 ERA, and opponents are 1-for-19 with runners in scoring position against him. He said he’d worked on a few mechanical things after allowing four runs against the Mets last week. “Keep my arm free, not force things and tonight that really helped,” Blackburn said. “I didn’t feel like I was yanking or forcing anything to the target.”
Oakland’s somnolent offense stirred with two outs in the fifth, when Matt Joyce walked and Marcus Semien blasted a homer to left-center. The A’s finished with three hits and have 11 hits and five runs in the first three games of the series.
Yonder Alonso turned in a nifty play in the seventh, snatching up a bullet of a grounder by Troy Tulowitzki to start a 3-6-3 double play, chasing down Morales and tagging him to end the inning.