Lawrie gets a good bounce
BLUE JAYS 8 RANGERS 7: Ninth-inning homer off top of wall wins game
TORONTO — Jose Bautista crushed a no-doubt homer, but the two blasts that meant the most to the Blue Jays on Tuesday night both needed a lucky bounce to get over the wall.
Brett Lawrie homered in the bottom of the ninth inning and Toronto rallied from 5-0 down to beat the Texas Rangers 8-7.
“This was kind of a character win, to get down five runs as we did,” Toronto manager John Farrell said.
Lawrie’s game winner was one of two Blue Jays homers to bounce out after striking the top of the wall. The same thing happened on Kelly Johnson’s threerun shot in the third
“I’ve never seen two of them,” Rangers manager Ron Washington said. “Guess they know their ballpark pretty good.”
After Francisco Cordero blew a save opportunity in the top of the ninth, Lawrie won it in the bottom half with a leadoff homer against Mike Adams, his third.
“It shows a lot about this team and the heart that we have,” Lawrie said. “We’re not going to quit until the end.”
Adams (0-1) wasn’t sure at first whether Lawrie’s drive had enough to clear the fence.
“I thought it might hit off the wall,” Adams said. “Obviously it hit off the top of the wall and continued going.”
Bautista went back-to-back with Johnson in the third, the first time this season the Blue Jays have hit consecutive home runs. Bautista’s towering drive, off the facing of the third deck, was his fourth homer and first since April 23 at Kansas City.
“Hopefully it’s a chance for him to just take a deep breath and take some of the weight off his shoulders,” Farrell said of Bautista. “He’s been pressing, there’s no doubt about it.”
Cordero (1-1) got the win despite allowing Michael Young’s game-tying single in the ninth.