Jays hope to swing it around in May
Toronto wins first series of the season, but gets more bad luck as Sanchez exits early
TORONTO — Just as the baseball gods were in the process of finishing off April with another rude administering of the middle finger, Jose Bautista and the struggling Blue Jays offence fired back.
And with that, a month soiled by poor play, late collapses and rotten luck at least ended on a high note Sunday at the Rogers Centre with a dramatic 3-1 comeback win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
The victory finally gave the Jays their first back-to-back wins of the season and their first series win, ushering out a month that best be forgotten, but may hover over them for the remainder of this season.
It didn’t begin well. Jays starter Aaron Sanchez, whose return from surgery to repair a blister on his throwing hand, lasted all of 13 pitches after splitting the nail on his middle digit, necessitated a huge effort from the Toronto bullpen.
There was a much-needed Bautista RBI double off the wall in the eighth inning, which tied the game at 1-1. The blast was no doubt fuelled in part by Rays starter Chris Archer, who threw behind the back of the Jays slugger in the first and drew an icy stare from the fiery Bautista.
Bautista’s hit, off Rays reliever Alex Colome, drove home Darwin Barney, who began the inning with a walk. Two batters after that, suddenly hot Jays catcher Russell Martin singled to right field to bring home the winning run.
“I believe in that,” manager John Gibbons said when asked if Bautista might have had additional motivation from the Archer cheap shot. “I’ve been around Jose a while now. He’s got the flair for the dramatic. He’s got so many big hits around here.
“I’ve also seen him have balls thrown at him and he answers back with a big home run, too. Around the league, he’s viewed as a villain, there’s no doubt. I think that’s partly because he’s such a good player and he’s burned so many teams. He’s got that edge about him.”
The win just might be the impetus the Jays need as they improved to 8-17 and just avoided the worst March/April start in club history (7-15 in 1979 and 2004 take that cake.) The victory also allowed Gibbons’ team to avoid a series loss to the Ray. The Jays are now 1-6-1 in the eight series played thus far as they move on to New York to face the Yankees.
Bautista, who had a single and a double to reach 1,000 hits as a Jay, believes that despite the injury to Sanchez and the late-arriving offence, it could be just the momentum the team needs.
“I certainly hope so,” said Bautista, whose April struggles were symbiotic with the team’s record. “Like I’ve said for the whole season so far, we’ve been playing good games. We’ve just been coming up short and the wrong side of some of these results. Hopefully we have more of these coming up.”
Meanwhile, Sanchez knew he was in trouble midway through the fateful first when he looked down at that bloody middle finger on his right hand. But the much-maligned bullpen came through with its biggest effort of the season.
First up was Ryan Tepera, who went a career-long 31/3 innings and struck out five. He was succeeded in order by Aaron Loup, Dominic Leone, Joe Smith, J.P. Howell, (who got the win), and Roberto Osuna (who got his third save and second in as many days.)
“It was tough for me to have to put these guys through a situation like that, but it was one of those things that we didn’t know this was going to happen,” Sanchez said. “(The bullpen) stepped up and did their part.”
Suspend him
Home plate umpire Jim Wolf issued a warning to Archer after the first-inning misfire, but Gibbons wants a suspension.
In the bottom of the first, Archer threw a pitch behind Bautista’s back, prompting a lengthy stare from the Jays slugger and later some words as Bautista jogged past the pitcher after a fly-ball out.
Wolf issued warnings to both dugouts given a day earlier the Rays’ Steven Souza Jr. was hit in the hand by a pitch from Jays reliever Joe Biagini.
“I would expect that there’s got to be some sort of suspension,” Gibbons said. “Since (Wolf ) issued a warning, maybe he felt something wasn’t right. I would imagine the league would step up like they do most of the time. I’d be disappointed if they didn’t.”
Sanchez nailed again
With his finger bloodied, the frustration level is escalating for Sanchez, who just can’t get past the blister issue that has been dogging him for a couple of seasons now.
Officially, he’s listed as day to day and the team won’t confirm Sanchez will miss his next start. That said, he’ll be evaluated by the surgeon in Kansas City, who performed the procedure on the finger nail April 17.