BIG BATS JUMPSTART JAYS
Lopsided win in ALDS opener
In their last visit to Globe Life Park in May, the Toronto Blue Jays took a literal punch to the jaw.
In Game 1 of the American League Division Series here, they responded with a metaphorical haymaker.
Behind a sparkling effort from starting pitcher Marco Estrada and an explosive outburst keyed by Josh Donaldson and Troy Tulowitzki, the Blue Jays had their first easy win in more than two weeks, a 10-1 blowout that reminded baseball that this team, when it hits, is a handful.
The Blue Jays arrived in the blast furnace of North Texas taking more than a little cheek for the swagger of their win over the Rangers in the ALDS, and the way the last meeting between the teams ended — with Rougned Odor clocking Jose Bautista in the face after he took exception to a hard slide.
The Rangers and their fans have had much fun with that punch, making signs and shirts to celebrate the act. “Bat flip. Fat lip,” said one spotted in the concourse at the ballpark before the game. The photo of the punch was on the front page of the local paper on Thursday.
And then the Rangers, AL West champs and possessed of the best record in the American League, went out and mustered all the offence of a slap fight. Much of that was due to the brilliance of Estrada, who snookered the Texas lineup all day with a curveball and change-up to complement an effective fastball. He gave up only two hits through six innings, and one of those was an infield cue-ball dribbler that would have been an out if Estrada had remembered to cover first base. He didn’t throw his 75th pitch until the seventh inning.
Manager John Gibbons had some sexier choices to start Game 1, such as 20-game winner J.A. Happ or hard-throwing youngster Aaron Sanchez, but he went with Estrada in part because it keeps the whole rotation pitching on regular rest.
But also, because he was good in the playoffs last season.
“You look back at the games he pitched year, back-against-thewall, elimination-type games, and he dominated,” Gibbons said after the win. “And then he goes out and does that again today.”
Estrada, who has never thrown a complete game, was lifted in the ninth after surrendering a leadoff triple. He tried to stay in.
“I was looking at Gibby the whole time (he was walking to the mound). I was yelling ‘I got it, I got it.’ He never really looked up at me,” Estrada said. “I don’t really care, to be honest with you. We won. That’s all that matters.” They sure did. This is a team that has made a lot of mediocre pitchers look very good in recent weeks, but on Thursday it took a very good pitcher in Cole Hamels and made him look mediocre. Metaphorically, they beat him about the head and face and tossed him into a dumpster.
Donaldson started the damage with a run-scoring double in the third inning, which was followed by an RBI single up the middle from Bautista. Two batters later, with the bases full, Tulowitzki mashed a Hamels pitch deep to the right-centre gap. Texas centre-fielder Ian Desmond, a shortstop until this season, played the ball much like someone who was a shortstop until this season: he appeared to have a bead on it, but when he hit the warning track he stutter-stepped and reached out like he was fearing a collision with the wall.
The ball dropped beyond his reach and all three runners scored. 5-0, Toronto. Melvin Upton, Jr., added a home run in the fourth inning to move the game into the rout column.
The idea of statement games is overblown, and you’d have a hard time convincing a statistician that momentum counts for more than a hill of beans in pro sports, but this was as good a Game 1 as the Jays could have hoped for.
They thumped the Rangers’ best big-game pitcher and their best players came up with big hits. Donaldson had four hits and a walk and every Toronto starter reached base. Upton was only playing on Thursday because Gibbons wanted his speed in the outfield to chase down the fly balls that Estrada typically surrenders, and he roped the homer to left and a warning-track shot to right.
In the ninth inning, when Bautista capped the carnage with a three-run homer to left, he dropped the bat gently to the ground, but he said there was no message sent with the overt non-flip.
“Most of the time I do that,” Bautista said. “It’s just been blown out of proportion because of the moment last year. So I don’t think there was anything too special about laying it down the way I did, because that’s the way that 99.9 per cent of the time I do it.”
But he has probably never hit a home run that felt so good, other than a certain one from last October.