Blue Jays’ bats come alive in nick of time
TORONTO — Josh Donaldson signalled his intentions early Tuesday.
The Blue Jays MVP third baseman spoke from his heart during a team meeting prior to a do-ordie Game 4 against the Cleveland Indians in the American League Championship Series. He wanted their attention. “I mean, everybody knew coming into today how important today was,” he said later. “But at the same time I just wanted to kind of reiterate that and let the boys know that I was coming to play today.”
Donaldson’s solo homer in the third inning put the Jays in front for the first time in the series. He also made two sparkling fielding plays as Toronto downed the Indians 5-1 to stave off playoff elimination with their first win of the series.
“Big-time players make bigtime plays in big-time games,” said Toronto starter Aaron Sanchez, who threw six strong innings. “There’s nothing more I can say about J.D . ... I’m glad he’s on our squad.”
With Donaldson leading the way, the Toronto bats finally woke up. The Jays, who had totalled 17 hits in the first three games, outhit Cleveland 9-2.
Edwin Encarnacion drove in a pair of runs before a sellout of 49,142 under the roof at the Rogers Centre that finally had something to cheer about. Ezequiel Carrera went 2 for 4 with a thundering triple and drove in a run. There could have been more offence but the Jays left eight men on base and struck out eight times.
Four Toronto pitchers limited the Indians to two hits.
The Jays still face three more do-or-die games, two in Cleveland, if they are to survive the best-ofseven series, and history is against them. Since the introduction of the best-of-seven format in 1985, only one of 31 teams has rallied from an 0-3 deficit to win the ALCS (Boston, 2004).
Still the Jays are the first team since the 2004 Red Sox to be down 3-0 in LCS play and not be swept.
“We’re still alive, no doubt,” said manager John Gibbons.
“It was definitely good focus and the right things were said today,” he added. “But that’s one game. We’ve got another game [today]. So see what the heck happens.”
Added reliever Jason Grilli: “When our backs are up against the wall, it seems like we turn it up a notch. Come out swinging, that’s what we’re doing.”
On the plus side for Toronto, the injury-riddled Cleveland starting rotation is not deep. Game 5 goes today with Marco Estrada against Indians rookie Ryan Merritt.
Cleveland manager Terry Francona was able to spare Andrew Miller and Cody Allen so his bullpen aces are in play for today.
Donaldson, for one, is not ready to go home.
“I feel like we have the players in the clubhouse to be able to win the series,” he said.
The Indians like their numbers, however.
“We’re up the series, we still have the upper hand up 3-1,” said reliever Bryan Shaw. “We’ve got to win one, they’ve got to win three.”
After scoring just three runs in the first three games, the Toronto offence got out of first gear in a game that was a mirror image of the previous three. This time Toronto outpitched Cleveland and got the timely hits.
The loss snapped the Indians’ nine-game win streak dating back to the regular season and Cleveland’s franchise-record run of six straight post-season victories.
The Jays picked up solo runs in the third and fourth, two more in the seventh and one in the eighth to keep the scoreboard ticking.
Sanchez (1-0), inducing a string of Cleveland groundouts, gave up just one hit in his first four innings before yielding a run in the fifth when he threw 25 pitches. The 24-year-old right-hander, whose arm has been closely monitored in his first year as a starter after pitching in the bullpen, was well rested having last pitched Oct. 9 — his first career post-season start.
He gave up one run on two hits with two walks and five strikeouts in a 95-pitch performance that featured 54 strikes.
Brett Cecil, Grilli and Roberto Osuna delivered equally solid work in relief.