JAYS FINE AT FENWAY
Blue Jays notch 10th straight victory as Martin’s solo shot in 11th inning tames slumping Bosox at Fenway
BOSTON— Russell Martin was both hero and anti-hero.
With the Blue Jays now racking up wins at a torrid pace — 10 and counting — let’s focus on the former, yes? And what Martin did so grandiosely in the 11th inning on a sultry Saturday afternoon at Fenway.
Score knotted 4-4, because on this day it was the Red Sox who’d staged a gritty comeback surge from fourin-the-hole, Martin went to the plate smarting from his previous three at-bats.
“It’s not the only opportunity that I had today,” noted the catcher, who’s become very much a lodestone of the club this season, game-changer in that rollicking rally victory the night before with a bases clearing triple. “I’d gotten really good hitting counts and wasn’t able to come up in a couple of at-bats. But in extra innings, I’m really happy about hitting a home run to take the lead, for sure.”
A 2-0 pitch from Matt Barnes, mid-thigh, that Martin tattooed, clanging the ball off the far light standard for his 10th homer as a Jay. A single shot, but that’s all that was ultimately required for the 5-4 victory, fifth loss in a row for the reeling Bosox.
“Just a challenge fastball that was right down the middle. I’d had two other at-bats where I got a 3-0 fastball and another 2-0 fastball and I didn’t do anything with it. Fool me once, fool me twice, but the third time I’m gonna get you.”
Just as the Jays have got Boston’s number in this series, no matter what combination of pitchers and home-run pop the home side has thrown at them.
On Saturday, it was R. A. Dickey on the mound for Toronto, seeking just his third win of the season and denied again, exiting with a fifth no-decision.
Dickey’s knuckleball was lively and confounding, except nearly as much so for Martin as the Sox hitters. Two passed balls — along with three singles and a walk — in the fourth advanced Boston runners around the bases, as the hosts scored three runs, one of them unearned.
“His knuckleball was definitely dancing today,” said Martin. “It was tough back there. I feel like I was helping Boston out a little bit in the early innings. But I guess, seal the deal in the end, right?”
Dickey was removed after six fairly sturdy innings and pointedly remarked he could have gone longer. “I felt like today should have been a day where I was able to go more than six innings. I had a really good knuckleball and I felt in control of the game for most of the game — outside of that one kind of tumbler.”
That would be the 2-0 offering to David Ortiz bashed into the seats just to the right of the visiting bullpen, eighth four-bagger for the (purported) 39-year-old DH.
Before that, it had just been a modest drip-drip of singles off Dickey. “Rarely do you give up seven baserunners and four of them score in the whole game that you’re in,” he sighed.
On the Ortiz front, Big Papi — 11 Grand Slams on the career resume — choked on high-heat from reliever Liam Hendriks in the seventh, striking out with the bases loaded. Jays manager John Gibbons said he’d never contemplated calling on a lefty from the ’pen and no southpaw had been warming up.
“I would have been frustrated,” said Hendriks, if the skipper had taken him out at that point. “I got myself into the jam, I wanted to get myself out of the jam. I appreciate them leaving me in there. I was able to get out of it without anybody crossing the plate, which is huge.”
A collective victory for the bullpen — four of them summoned, W to Aaron Loup and back-to-back saves for Brett Cecil.
Mostly, though, it was a day of hot singles.
Toronto picked up quickly and seamlessly where they’d left off the night before. Three tidy singles leading of the second had the bases loaded for Kevin Pillar, who scored Edwin Encarnacion, loading ’em up again. Ryan Goins connected with — wait for it — a slick single that brought home Chris Colabello (some 200 friends and family in the stands, by the way, to hail the local Massachusetts boy) and Martin.
Four strokes of the bat off starter Clay Buchholz and — swish-swishswish — a 3-0 lead, nudged up to 4-0 in the fourth, Pillar scoring when Goins stroked one through the hole into left field.
The eighth and ninth hitters have roughed up Boston in the first two games of the weekend series. The bottom third of the order has accounted for 11 hits.
“Which is great,” enthuses Jose Bautista, who could smile at the outcome despite an 0-for-4 afternoon, with one walk.
“If they can get on base, it’s just going to get us (better) pitches to hit (at the top of the order) and that’s the name of the game.”
Whatever his frustrations at the plate on Sunday, Bautista was responsible for the most jaw-dropping play of the game.
Rusney Castillo had drilled a Dickey knuckler that went back-backback, surely headed for homer territory — except Bautista hot-footed it to precisely the correct spot, reaching over the bullpen gate, almost tipping into it, and making a backhanded stab. Then raising his glove with the trophy-ball, almost nonchalantly.
“I’m glad it looked that way,” said Bautista of the smooth catch. “That’s not how I felt. It’s one of those plays where you kind of see the ball, you’re running after it. In your mind you think you have a chance. You see it develop.
“I peeked to the wall a few times. I knew I was getting close. I didn’t know I was that close. I was lucky I timed it perfect where I jumped and I hit the wall and kind of reached over. “It was a good catch.” At the moment, they’re all entitled to boast a bit.