Blue Jays get homer-happy in the Bronx
Five round-trippers give Toronto the first game of crucial weekend series
NEW YORK— David Price admitted on Thursday, after his scheduled seriesopening start against the Yankees was postponed due to rain, that he sometimes feels sorry for opposing pitchers who have to face the Blue Jays’ relentless lineup. “Younger guys more so, probably,” he said.
So as Price sat in the visitors’ dugout Friday night watching as his teammates teed off mercilessly on Luis Severino, the Yankees’ 21-yearold rookie right-hander, was he compelled to sympathy?
If he did feel anything for his fellow pitcher, he didn’t show it as the Jays’ ace lefty paced the Jays to a decisive, 11-5 victory, on the back of a five-homer outburst.
So in the opening game of their biggest series of the season the Jays lived up to their billing as baseball’s most fearsome offence. They took a 5-0 lead in the first inning — before many of the Yankee faithful had even filtered into their seats — and continued to pound their way from there.
Russell Martin, who had been mired in a miserable slump since the beginning of August, slammed two homers at his old stomping grounds, while Josh Donaldson, Justin Smoak and Edwin Encarnacion each added two-run shots of their own.
With the win the Jays extend their lead to 2 1/2 games over the Yankees, who in addition to facing an upward battle in the American League East are now also dealing with seasonending injuries to Mark Teixeira and Nathan Eovaldi, arguably their top hitter and starting pitcher, respectively.
Whether or not the Jays sensed any vulnerability in their opposition on Friday, they were certainly poised to pounce early and often.
Donaldson, who has spent the last month-and-a-half solidifying his MVP case, keyed the five-run, gameopening rally with his franchise-record 13th first-inning homer of the season. Three hits and three runs later and the rout was on. Severino — who has been something of a saviour to the Yankees’ rotation in the second half — was chased after just 2 1/3 innings, the shortest outing of his young career.
The only blip for the Jays on Friday came when manager John Gibbons curiously lifted Price after five innings. Price had thrown 96 pitches and the Jays held a comfortable, seven-run lead at the time, but with a doubleheader tomorrow it seemed strange not to try to get at least an- other inning out of his durable ace. With Price gone, the Yankees took immediate advantage, tagging reliever LaTroy Hawkins — who hadn’t pitched since Sunday — on a threerun homer by shortstop Didi Gregorius.
But a half-inning later Martin hit his second homer in as many at-bats to pull the Jays away again. The added bonus of Friday’s pounding for the Jays is how it depleted the Yankees’ bullpen the night before a doubleheader. Before the game, Jays mamager John Gibbons was queried about whether he was approaching this series any differently than any other. He didn’t think it would lead him to manage any differently, and he certainly wasn’t going to give any motivational speeches to his charges. “I haven’t said a word to them. I don’t think there’s a need for it,” he said. In fact, Gibbons said, he hasn’t addressed them all season. To start now would be strange.
“I have zero concerns how they’re going to respond,” he said. “It doesn’t mean they’re going to play good every night, but they’re going to be ready to play, you know?”
Gibbons says he’s “never been a big talker,” but with this group he has found it even less necessary. “It’s a very focused group,” he said
Previous teams Gibbons has managed in Toronto haven’t been “near as focused,” he said. The change started with the off-season additions of Donaldson and Martin, while the deadline acquisitions of Troy Tulowitzki and David Price merely added to the established culture.
Price did recently make a bold impact, purchasing for his teammates a set of plush, royal blue bathrobes inscribed with Jays’ insignia and each of their last names and numbers, uniform-style. The new threads give the team a kingly — if a little cartoonish — swagger, even inside a visiting clubhouse. After Friday’s onslaught it was a fitting look.