JAYS-YANKEES
Ryan Goins gave fans their money’s worth with a grand slam and hidden ball trick in an 8-1 win. More,
All that the Blue Jays have left for bragging rights is to act as spoilers against the Yankees and Red Sox, against whom they play all their remaining games. On Friday night, the Jays did their part, downing the Bronx Bombers 8-1 at the Rogers Centre behind the pitching of newly-extended Marco Estrada and the bullpen.
Chief spoiler among the Jays was Ryan Goins, who stroked his second grand slam of the season in the sixth inning. It was his 10th hit of the year with the bases loaded, tying Carlos Delgado for the franchise record. He is now 10-for-14 (.714) with the sacks full and hitting .337 with runners in scoring position.
In addition to the slam, Goins adroitly pulled off the rare hidden ball trick. After Jose Bautista made a nice running catch into right-centre field, Yankees baserunner Todd Frazier scurried back to second as Goins accepted the throw from Bautista. Goins made the full motion of throwing the ball back to Estrada, but tucked the ball into his glove and stood patiently by the bag as Frazier rocked forward off the base, then was tagged out. Goins had it going on this night.
Teoscar Hernandez and Russ Martin also homered, while Bautista played the hell out of right field and drew a pair of walks.
Meanwhile, in his first start since signing an extension for the 2018 season, Estrada threw seven strong innings, allowing a first-inning homer to Aaron Judge but then shutting the Yankees down through seven innings.
Estrada, now 10-8, has won 10-plus games for the second time in his career and trails Marcus Stroman by two for the club lead.
There had been question marks surrounding the organization’s direction until about three days ago, when they agreed to terms with Estrada and insinuated that Josh Donaldson was not going to be shopped. Instead of rebuilding, that indicated the Jays are interested in winning even as they await the development of top prospects Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette.
“The Estrada signing was huge for us,” manager John Gibbons said. “It takes away the need to fill another hole, the fact that we know him. He’s been very productive here. I don’t know who’s available free-agent wise, and trades are tough to make to bring in that kind of guy. I think that would have been a big hole for us.”
There are several interesting ripples the Jays can pay attention to, spreading across the pond as their season winds down without a playoff berth for the first time in three years. For Gibbons, it is only his second full season with fewer than 80 wins in eight years with the Blue Jays. That is almost stunning.
In two partial seasons — in 2004, when he replaced Carlos Tosca, and 2008, when he was fired in June and replaced by Cito Gaston — Gibbons also had sub-.500 records, but only one full season with fewer than 80 wins, in 2013.
Gibbons understands that he is a better manager now than when he was given a second opportunity that year by GM Alex Anthopoulos. That team, following trades for Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey, plus all-star shortstop Jose Reyes and starting pitchers Mark Buehrle and Josh Johnson, went into the season as odds-on favourites to win the American League. They failed miserably as perceived front-runners with a record of 74-88.
The 2017 season was also filled with promise, but winds down with vanished hope. Moving forward, however, Gibbons has more faith in a return to contending status in 2018 than he did heading into 2014.
“This is a better team than in 2013, in my opinion,” Gibbons said. “We didn’t play as well this year as we thought we were going to. Every year’s different. The longer you do it . . . when you first start out doing these jobs, the game moves faster than you expect it to at this level. More things you’ve got to keep an eye on.”
Gibbons has watched with interest the turnaround of the Twins, who were in town recently and have gone from 103 losses in 2016 under Paul Molitor to sitting as a second wild card this year. The hall of fame player has led a similar, emerging young group to the verge of the playoffs without a major rebuild.
“It was three years ago they were right in it till the end and they missed out on the wild card,” Gibbons pointed out. “It just teaches you that every year’s different. If you’re playing good, or you acquire one guy or two guys, that can set you off in the right direction. I admire what (Molitor) has done over there.”
Gibbons is not naive enough to believe this group of injured and underachieving Blue Jays, along with September call-ups who have each made an impression, is enough to compete for the playoffs in 2018. Changes?
“There’s got to be a couple of changes,” Gibbons said. “Especially when you come off a tough year, you have to inject something new in it. If you’re coming off a pretty good year, you don’t want to mess with things. But when you have a tough year, maybe a little new life to this or that, a couple of new faces, that’s important. But as far as a tough year, I think you have to change something up a little bit.”