TORONTO – Bases loaded, full count, the stadium alive with the crowd on its feet in a one-run game – forget what the standings say, the bottom of the seventh Tuesday night really felt like it mattered for the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Rogers Centre exploded after Jose Bautista laced a 96 mph Neil Ramirez into the left-field corner for a three-run double that propelled his team to a 9-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs, and you could only imagine what it would have sounded like had the crowd been double the 17,903 actually on hand.
To the fans’ credit, they filled the place with an energy beyond their numbers as the Blue Jays (75-69) won for and eighth time in their past 10 games to keep their faint post-season dreams alive.
“For sure, it helps,” Bautista said of the atmosphere during his pivotal at-bat. “The pressure is on (Ramirez) in that situation with the bases loaded and a full count, so I’m more relaxed than anything, just trying to get a good pitch to hit and I was able to lay off a couple of close ones and swing at the one that had the heart of the plate. At that point he was basically cornered, he had to make a decision whether to challenge me or try to go with an off-speed pitch, I placed on my bet on he was going to challenge me and he did throw me a fastball and I was able to connect.”
The victory pushed the Blue Jays past the Yankees into sole possession of second place in the AL East and ahead of New York and Cleveland in the wild card race, although they’re still 4.5 games off the pace with 18 games remaining.
That’s a boost for their infinitesimal post-season chances – projected at 1.6 percent at the start of the day.
“I disagree that the post-season odds are that bad. I don’t think so, not with us having four games against Seattle and (six) against Baltimore,” said Bautista. “Who knows what can happen but if we end up sweeping all three of those series it will be interesting to see what happens. Our destiny is within our control, we just have to play good in every game that we have left but especially in those (nine), and then in the other ones hope for them to lose a couple here and there and for us to keep getting wins.”
Bautista’s double, extending his hit streak to a season-high matching 13 games, gave the Blue Jays their first lead of the night at 4-2, capitalizing on a rally started by a Kevin Pillar single, a Colby Rasmus pinch-hit base hit and a Munenori Kawasaki walk.
The Blue Jays pushed things into laugher territory in the eighth on an RBI single by Dioner Navarro, a two-run single by Kawasaki and run-scoring fielder’s choices by both Jose Reyes and Bautista.
That erased a strong opening in this one for Jake Arieta, who allowed just a bloop RBI single by Reyes in the fifth through the first six frames, and the Cubs (64-81), who devolved into, well, themselves during the seventh and eighth innings.
They squeezed a solid Mark Buehrle for two runs – one in the first on Jorge Soler’s sacrifice fly another in the fifth on Wellington Castillo’s RBI single in the fifth – but managed little else against the left-hander, who pushed his season total to 182 innings with seven solid frames.
With three starts remaining, Buehrle is on track to reach the 200-inning plateau for the 14th straight season.
“If you’re starting to worry about personal stats and try to get different numbers that’s when things aren’t going to happen,” said Buehrle. “I’ve always said, 200 innings, if it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, it’s not meant to be this year.
“I’m going out there trying to go deep into games and if they have to pull me in the fifth inning because I’m getting tired or I get into a jam and I don’t get to 200 innings and we win the game, that’s what matters. I think Gibby’s more worried than I am about getting to 200. It’s awesome that he cares about it but it has to come to an end sometime.”
Aaron Sanchez delivered a three-up, three-down eighth to keep things in check before things got out of hand, while Daniel Norris, making his home debut, handled the ninth, working around a walk and a single to strike out Luis Valbuena to end it.
The Blue Jays go for the sweep Wednesday when Drew Hutchison starts against Kyle Hendricks, hanging on to contention by a string, doing their part to make the highly unlikely even remotely possible.