GLORY JAYS
Gurriel Jr. hits grand slam in 22-7 blowout over Orioles to cap wild weekend series. And just like that, playoffs are in reach.
The sheer, unadulterated wild-and-wackitude of Saturday’s doubleheader couldn’t possibly be topped. Two games against the Orioles, trailing going into the last inning in each one, and two Blue Jays wins, the second wrapped up with an 11-run final frame.
There was no way for the drama to be matched in the series finale in Baltimore, and it wasn’t. But the level of bonkers certainly was, as the Jays carried over that hot-hitting final frame from Saturday night and scored five runs Sunday before recording their first out.
As if that wasn’t enough, they added a 10-spot in the third to move out front 16-3. That made it 27 runs scored over four innings, including Saturday’s final frame, something that has never happened before in major-league history.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s firstinning slam was his fourth this season, setting a club record. When Teoscar Hernández turned the trick in the third, it marked the first time in the 45-season existence of the franchise that they had hit two home runs with the bases loaded in the same game.
“It’s pretty indescribable,” said winning pitcher Steven Matz, who left after six innings with a 22-5 lead. “Twentyseven runs, it speaks for itself. It’s insane.”
I asked Charlie Montoyo if he had ever seen anything like it.
“No,” answered the Jays’ skipper, “but I saw it today.”
It was an easy coast to a third win in four games in Baltimore, wrapping up a 7-1 road trip that moved the Jays from four games back of the second wild-card spot in the American League into a tie for the first, but as the series began it didn’t appear as though it was going to be that way at all.
After a four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium, the Jays went to Maryland and took one on the chin in Friday’s opener, down 3-0 in the first inning after having not even trailed in
any game for an entire week. They would tie it up, but wound up losing on a seventhinning home run by Anthony Santander.
The Jays started Saturday’s doubleheader down 10-5 after four innings of the first game, and at that point it seemed as though the best they could hope for from the weekend series against the AL’s worst club was a split.
Then the floodgates opened. From that point, over the final 19 innings of the series, they
outscored the Orioles 39-9.
“The last three (games) — and I’ve been in the game for 35 years — I’ve never seen anything like that,” said Montoyo, “back-to-back (days), to score that many runs.”
Matz was right there with his manager.
“I definitely did not expect that,” the lefty said, thinking back to his team’s predicament on Saturday. “Obviously we know we have an amazing lineup, but that was pretty special what we managed to do the last three games.”
“This is a very resilient team,” said outfielder/DH George Springer, who sat out Sunday after going 3-for-8 on Saturday, including the game-winning homer in the opener. “To get down early but to keep scratching and clawing every game is huge for us.”
The Jays were down early in both games of the doubleheader, but those two and Friday’s loss are the only games in which they’ve trailed at any point over their last 10.
“It’s a reflection of what this lineup can do,” said Gurriel, who reached base five times Sunday, walking thrice to go with two home runs. “I never have (seen anything like this) before, this is the first time, but I’m enjoying seeing everybody get hot at the same time.”
Gurriel drove in seven runs on Sunday alone, and scored nine times in the series with 10 RBIs.
The icing on the cake of what was a jaw-dropping two days was applied by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
The 22-year-old’s 44th home run of the season came in the second inning Sunday, tying his Hall of Fame father’s career high, set in 2000 with the Montreal Expos. It also tied him with the Angels’ Shohei Ohtani for the league lead.
Guerrero leads the AL with a .319 batting average and is five RBIs shy of the White Sox’s Jose Abreu for top spot in the final jewel of baseball’s triple crown.
Not only has an 11-1 September vaulted the Jays right into the thick of the playoff race — they are the wild-card leaders by percentage points heading into a three-game series against the East-leading Tampa Bay Rays at the Rogers Centre, starting Monday night — but it’s also served to send a message to their opponents.
“We know what we’re capable of,” Matz said. “Now the rest of the league is starting to see that. I think it just puts pressure on other teams, and that’s what we want. We want guys to be backed into corners when we come in for a series, or they come to play in Toronto.
“We want them to have the pressure on them because they know that within one inning we can score 10 runs.”
They did it twice in a span of about 16 hours this weekend.