Bautista homering in clutch
Of further lip-smacking merit was a liner off the bat of Mike Napoli in the seventh that Goins speared to turn a double-play with Devon Travis and Justin Smoak, stretching his full six-foot-four length to make the second out.
“Honestly, at first I was just thinking about going to first,’’ Goins said. “Then instincts just kind of told me to go to second. From there, Devon had a good turn, Smoky with a good stretch there at first.”
And let’s not leave out Goins bedevilling Odor again in the ninth, shift on, scooping up a dribbler, glove-flipping on run, shovelling it to Smoak.
“Making a play any time is fun for me,” said Goins, who was restored to short with Troy Tulowitzki getting a day off from a manager still cautious about prime players just returning from rehab stints. “Go out there, flipping, diving, whatever. It’s always fun to take them away, for sure.”
“That double-play in the seventh inning was a hell of a play,” manager John Gibbons said. “The play on Odor in the ninth . . . He’s shading that side of the bag and had to come a long way because Odor can really run. On the popup, I think he just dropped it on the transfer.
“Other than that he had a tremendous day. He’s had a tremendous month, gave us some big home runs, big hits, great defence. We wouldn’t be in this spot, trying to get back to the top, without Go-Go.”
The Jays moved a game above .500, 12-11, at the Rogers Centre while extending their overall winning streak to five.
Jose Bautista, back to his Joey Bats self after a wretched April, pretty much took care of all the offence the Jays needed with his three-run swat in the fifth inning when Toronto finally cracked Texas starter Yu Darvish. After Luke Maile walked and Travis lined a single, Bautista jumped all over a first-pitch slider Darvish hung over the plate. It was his ninth jack of the season and his sixth with runners in scoring position, tying Yankees DH Matt Holliday for the AL lead. Six of Bautista’s long balls have either tied the game or given Toronto the lead.
While there had been considerable moaning and groaning about Bautista through his .178 April, that now seems a distant memory with his terrific May (.298 average, seven homers, 1.011 OPS).
“I feel a little bit better rhythmwise,” he explained of the turnaround he never doubted would come. “I feel like I’m manipulating the bat where I want to more often now than I was a few weeks ago. Because of those reasons I’m jut not missing that often. So I’ve just got to go up to the plate with that feeling and continue to execute my game plan.”
For the sellout crowd at Rogers, the middle game of this weekend the bloom came off the rose early — oh, about three seconds in — as starter Marco Estrada gave up a first-pitch home run to Shin-Soo Choo, who cranked an 88-m.p.h. fastball some 434 feet over the centre field wall.
“I woke up this morning in a really good mood,” Estrada said later. “Just mentally prepared for this game. Came out to the ballpark, bullpen went really well. Then Choo swung at the first pitch and crushed it. Which sucked, obviously.”
Maile, who started the game catching with Russell Martin playing third, had actually called for a changeup, Estrada’s bread-and-butter pitch.
“It kind of caught me off-guard. I thought he was joking with me.” Pause. “I probably should have thrown it.”
Estrada had a three-strikeout inning after that homer. And then he got really serious, holding Texas hitless until a single and double in the fourth — he got out of that jam — and allowing just four hits overall through six, racking up eight strikeouts en route to his fourth win.
Estrada has turned into a K-king, with 78 on the season, third in the AL.
“It’s not like I’m looking for them,” he shrugged. “I think it’s just being healthy, not having a sore back, I’ve been able to reach out and finish pitches. I know my (velocity) is up a tick. Makes it a little tougher for hitters, maybe.
“I know 90-91 isn’t a blazing fastball but when you throw a decent changeup, it makes it look a lot faster. Maybe that’s what it is.”