Jays blow three-run lead in ninth, rally to win in 10th
BUFFALO— Hyun-Jin Ryu is, by all accounts, a wild and crazy guy.
Maybe something is lost in translation. As, indeed, the Blue Jays’ off-season tiffany acquisition relies on a personal interpreter to communicate.
“From the beginning, I could tell he was a funny guy,” Jays manager Charlie Montoyo insisted prior to the big South Korean taking to the mound against the Marlins. “He’s a great teammate. He’s always having fun. Of course he’s a really good pitcher. I like him a lot, I really do. “I laugh every time I see him.” Ryu made things fun early in Tuesday’s 5-4 extra-inning walk-off win by Toronto, won on Travis Shaw’s line drive with two out that brought home pinch-runner Anthony Alford.
It was a low-wattage celly, however, with the Jays probably recognizing that things should never have got that far, costing Ryu a well-deserved win.
The 33-year-old has shown both his confounding and unconfounding side since taking up with Toronto. This was his fourth bump gig Tuesday, this one as an “opening day” starter some five months after he was announced as the Jays’ opening day starter before baseball took a pandemic furlough.
The dross had been, rather, in the bats of Toronto’s hitters, a mealy offence that leaned heavily on Ryu’s two-hit, six-inning stoicism — until a wake-up three-run crush of a fastball by Bo Bichette off Marlins starter Elieser Hernandez in the sixth inning turned the tables. The Jays added another run in the seventh, 4-1.
All of which was erased, along with Ryu’s second win of the season, when a clearly struggling Anthony Bass, summoned to close, gave up a lead-off double, a walk and a cookie. His 31st pitch in the top of the ninth, to Francisco Cervelli, sailed over Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s head, three-run buh-bye.
Ryu had watched in satisfaction as Bichette went yard.
“That was a huge inning for us. Our hitters did a good job putting this together. Bo absolutely capitalized on it for us.”
It’s true that Toronto hasn’t seen the best of Ryu yet but he’s getting there. That changeup waywardness versus the Nationals on July 30 is a fading memory, a lead-off jack by Brian Anderson on Tuesday notwithstanding. He struck out seven Tuesday, surrendering only an infield single apart from the one big bop.
Toronto’s bats have been flaccid for a good fortnight and, Tuesday, was mostly a one-inning phenomenon.
But Shaw, who had cracked the game open with a first single, brought it to a successful walk-off conclusion with another in the10th. Danny Jansen had sac bunted Alford to third, Cavan Biggio walked and Bichette was given an intentional pass.
“It felt pretty good,” Shaw afterward. “Tough ninth inning, down to their final out. We’ve lost a couple of games late this year so it was night to come back there in the bottom of the 10th.”