Bautista’s farewell — a 9-5 win
TORONTO — Jose Bautista looked up, tears welling in his eyes, as he thought about his curtain call in the ninth inning of Sunday’s game.
“I think the fans were expecting it and you gotta give them what they want,” he said with a slight smile.
Bautista, in what was likely his final home game in a Toronto uniform, had two hits, drove in one run and scored another to help lift the Blue Jays to a 9-5 win over the New York Yankees in American League baseball play.
The 36-year-old signed a oneyear contract with the Blue Jays prior to the 2017 season, a deal that includes a mutual option for 2018 that’s unlikely to be picked up.
A six-time all-star and two-time silver slugger, Bautista was met by a loud ovation each time he stepped to the plate.
He left the game to a rousing applause, replaced by Ezequiel Carrera in right field after Roberto Osuna got the first out of the ninth.
He hugged each of his teammates on the field and in the dugout before coming back for the curtain call.
Bautista came to Toronto as a relative unknown player in 2008 and blossomed into a star, raising the profile of baseball in Canada as his own popularity took hold.
“I wouldn’t go that far, I’ll take the compliment,” Bautista said when his impact on baseball in the city was brought up by a reporter.
“Maybe I like to think I helped a little bit,” the slugger added.
Bautista walked in the third and scored on a three-run double from Russell Martin, then drove in Teoscar Hernandez with a bases-loaded single in Toronto’s four-run fourth inning.
He nearly scored later in the frame but was tagged out at home plate.
The Blue Jays challenged the call, which was upheld after a video review. But the day belonged to Bautista. “The focus was on Jose today, what he’s done for this town, this country,” manager John Gibbons said.
“He helped rebuild the team, the face of the franchise for a number of years and he did it the right way.”