>JAYS 3, RAYS 2
Timely hitting
Ezequiel Carrera’s eighth-inning, pinchhit homer lifts Toronto past Tampa,
At this tension-riddled point in the baseball season, with emotions running hot even among noncontending teams, it doesn’t take much to set tempers aflame. On Monday night, in fact, after the Blue Jays barely held on to beat the Tampa Bay Rays 3-2, the fuse was lit with a compliment.
After the Rays’ Steven Souza Jr. came a few feet shy of a go-ahead home run in the top of the ninth inning, a relieved Russell Martin told Souza that he “crushed that ball.”
But amid the noise of the gamewinning air horn and the crowd, Souza couldn’t hear Martin. He assumed something more villainous and took a defensive posture. “He was probably thinking that I’m saying something like that he didn’t run out of the box or something,” Martin explained afterward. “But that’s not what I said. I just told him he crushed that ball — I thought he got it — and before I could really get my message across, Tulo jumped in and was like a ball of fire. But in the end I got to tell him, ‘Hey, you did crush that ball.’ He said ‘Yeah, I know.’ And that was it. We went on our way. It was just a misunderstanding.”
Despite the quickly mended fences it still made for a bizarre end to what was another nervy game for the Jays, who thanks to a pinch-hit home run by an unlikely hero in Ezequiel Carrera — who also hit the team’s last pinch-hit homer more than a year ago — ensured that they remained just two games back of Boston for the division lead, while moving a game up on Baltimore, who lost at Fenway Park Monday night.
But as if it was foretold in a twisted parable, the win wasn’t in hand until the air horn sounded twice. The first was a false start as Jays closer Roberto Osuna, as well as the airhorn operator, thought he had made the final out. Neither saw Martin drop Souza’s foul tip. So Osuna turned away from the mound and began his post-win, sign-of-the-cross ritual only to be snapped back to reality.
Given the way things have gone for the Jays lately, coupled with the 21year-old’s accidental early celebration and his penchant for superstition, Osuna admitted that doubt crept into his mind.
“I was thinking, ‘I hope I don’t miss in the middle and lose this game.’ ”
Two pitches later, Souza “crushed” Osuna’s 96 m.p.h. fastball sending it deep to centre field.
Osuna admitted afterward that he thought the ball was gone, and with it the Jays’ lead.
“To be honest, yeah. I looked at Pillar and he was like, back, back, back. I was like, ‘Oh no.’ But then we won.” Osuna grinned, relief in his eyes. Martin was thinking the worst as well. “It looked like he caught it flush. Normally a ball squared up at 96, when it takes that trajectory, you’re thinking ‘Ah crap, here we go again.’ ”
Martin was thinking of his own inability to squeeze the previous pitch. “I was thinking, ‘I hope it’s not one of those situations where you think the game’s over and the next thing you know the guy hits a two-run homer to take the lead.’ That’s what’s going on in the back of my mind.”
In the end, the win was salvaged and the Jays were able to make good on a solid outing from Francisco Liriano, who was making his first start in 17 days after being squeezed out of the Jays’ crowded rotation last month. He cruised through six scoreless innings before giving up the Jays’ slim lead on back-to-back homers in the seventh.
“He was outstanding,” manager John Gibbons said afterward. “Really under tough circumstances.” In the final few weeks of the season Liriano could supplant R.A. Dickey as the Jays’ fifth starter. For now at least Gibbons says he’ll get another start later this week in Anaheim.
“Let’s just enjoy this one,” Gibbons said, heaving his own sigh of relief.