Dickey, Jays’ offence combine to maul Mets
Toronto starter three-hits visitors over eight innings, Colon gets hit hard, often
The Blue Jays’ Kevin Pillar likely isn’t going to the all-star game next month in Cincinnati.
That honour should go to teammate Josh Donaldson, with possible extensions to slugger Jose Bautista and catcher Russell Martin.
In fact, it’s likely Pillar’s slide into second base to break up a doubleplay in the fourth inning of Thursday’s 7-1 Jays win over the visiting New York Mets won’t be celebrated in some memorable way.
Yet for the win-conscious Jays, who needed to enter a big-time weekend series with arch rival Baltimore on a winning note, that slide meant the difference between a tight ball game with the Mets and a multi-run cruise.
Toronto took off after the slide for five runs with two outs in the inning; it was a relatively awe inspiring display — the slide and the offence that followed — and underlined the socalled “little things” that lead to big things in sports.
“It comes down to where the ball is hit,” Pillar said. “When it’s hit to first, you know the shortstop (is taking the throw) . . . you take a wider route, you don’t want to do anything malicious, but you want the play to work. Typically, you try to get in the way (of the relay throw to first), and I had a good lead off first, so I got there in good time.”
For the Jays, it also triggered a sweep of the two-game mini-series in Toronto that followed a two-game Mets sweep in New York that halted Toronto’s win streak at 11 games.
R.A. Dickey certainly had a night to remember, exiting with one out in the eighth inning on a three hitter — one of them a Lucas Duda solo homer — and a120-pitch effort that saw him overcome several rough spots in the early going.
Dickey, 40, also matched up against the Mets for the first time since the big Jays-Mets trade in 2012, and against another fine forty-something pitcher in Bartolo Colon, 42.
“I’m happy the young buck won,” Dickey said with a laugh.
Once again, Toronto’s crazy run producing offence put up the numbers: Jose Reyes, Josh Donaldson and Jose Bautista followed the slide with consecutive base hits to cap a five-run inning.
Toronto has been making a habit this season of demolishing scoresheets and opposition pitchers, and Thursday’s win was their eighth consecutive on home turf, a span in which they’ve outscored the opposition 57-19.
But key to Thursday’s run barrage was that Pillar slide, as it prevented a double-play that would have ended the inning with no runs across.
Pillar was out on the play, but he did what every player should — he hurtled himself at pivoting shortstop Wilmer Flores and sent him airborne without a chance to make the throw to first. It’s the hard-nosed play managers from Little League up wants their players to execute.
Toronto bagged six hits in that inning, giving another display of their monster offence that is the talk of baseball at the moment. It will, however, be put to a true test this weekend with the Orioles at the Rogers Centre.
“It’s no secret we’ve had some problems with (Baltimore), we don’t like them, they don’t like us, but them and Boston are all big games and these are games where you can separate yourself from in the division,” Pillar said.
Dickey totalled five walks through three innings, 47 pitches after two innings, and 65 through three; but he hung in there into the eighth, and bagged his third win of the season.
The last time both starting pitchers were 40 years old or more came on Aug. 15, 2008, when Philadelphia’s Jamie Moyer matched up against San Diego’s Greg Maddux.
Maicer Izturis, who the Jays signed to a rich three-year contract in 2013, had season-ending shoulder surgery Tuesday. That likely marks the end of his Jays career.