Bats, bullpen boost Blue Jays
Donaldson finds the seats twice as team battles back in Philly
PHILADELPHIA— Josh Donaldson may be in tough to unseat Mike Trout as American League MVP, but the Blue Jays’ all-star third baseman seems determined to at least give the reigning champ a run for his money.
As usual, it was Donaldson who led the way for the Jays on Tuesday night, hitting a pair of homers — including a go-ahead, three-run blast in the sixth inning — as the Jays slugged their way to an 8-5 victory over the last-place Philadelphia Phillies.
Donaldson, who hit his 32nd and 33rd homers of the season, now leads the majors with 91 RBI. What may be more impressive is the fact that of the 29year-old’s 33 home runs this season, 21 have either tied the game or given the Jays the lead, as both did on Tuesday.
He has made a routine of coming up with a big hit in the clutch.
“I’m not even going to say he’s in the zone,” said starter R.A. Dickey, who was bailed out of a rare-of-late clunker on Tuesday night.
“I feel like that’s how he always plays. He may be perpetually in the zone. It’s been special to watch him have a good year — and we need it, we need it for another two months.”
Donaldson mostly shrugs off the notion that he excels in the clutch, suggesting it’s just a matter of taking advantage of opportunities. He did, however, note the importance of confidence in his game.
“You have to expect to get the job done,” he said. “If there’s any doubt, if there’s any question whether you’re going to do it, you’re probably going to fail. It’s important to have confidence and belief in yourself and belief in your teammates at the same time.
“Every time I come up I expect myself to not only have a good at-bat, but to help my team win the game and I expect that out of any one of my teammates as well.”
While the Jays’ league-leading offence has had many contributors — Edwin Encarnacion extended his hit streak to 15 games with a solo homer of his own in the sixth, for example — no player has had an impact equal to Donaldson’s.
His heroics on Tuesday salvaged a disappointing outing by Dickey, who has been spectacular since the all-star break and very good since June.
The 40-year-old knuckleballer entered the game with a second-half ERA of just 1.41 and had not allowed more than three earned runs in his last seven starts.
No starting pitcher in the majors has allowed less “hard” contact than Dickey since the all-star break — according to Baseball Info Solution’s quality of contact stats — but he was remarkably hittable on Tuesday night, giving up five runs in four innings, his shortest outing of the season. “Shoot, he’s been so good lately he’s entitled to one of those,” manager John Gibbons said.
While he was still able to reach his upper-register velocities — a main driver of his recent success — Dickey said his signature pitch didn’t have the same “finish” that it has had over the last two months. “But I’m not alarmed, the velocities were still there. It was just a lazy day for it and you’ve got to take it because it’s part of the pitch. But I’m optimistic that it’s just a speed bump.”
Prior to Donaldson’s game-winning homer, another momentum-shifting turning point came a half-inning earlier when Dickey loaded the bases with none out in the fifth inning and was lifted for reliever Liam Hendriks, who limited the damage to just a single run on a ground-ball doubleplay and strikeout.
“You can’t underscore how important that inning was,” Dickey said. “If that spirals out of control you know it’s a much more difficult psychologically to come out of that.”
In all the Jays’ rebuilt bullpen — which has been the best in the American League since the all-star break — pieced together five scoreless innings. “That’s our revamped bullpen,” Gibbons said.
The Jays have lately leaned on their starting pitching to win games, but with that facet faltering they got a boost from their bats and their pen.
“It seems like every night somebody new is stepping up in a big way,” Dickey said. “. . . Another fun night for the Blue Jays.”