ANAHEIM, Calif. – Even as their sights remain set on the New York Yankees and top spot in the American League East, the Toronto Blue Jays must be cognizant of threats from behind them in the wild-card standings, which is why their six-game swing through Anaheim and Arlington is so important.
The last thing they want is to allow teams chasing them to pick up any momentum, and Friday’s 9-2 victory over the Los Angeles Angels marked an important opening salvo in that regard.
Grinding out Hector Santiago for three runs on four walks, a hit and an error in a 48-pitch first inning set the tone, David Price continued to dominate and the end result was never in doubt before a crowd of 41,110 at beautiful Angel Stadium.
The win moved the 67-55 Blue Jays four games ahead of the 63-59 Angels for the wild card lead, while a 7-3 Yankees loss to the Cleveland Indians cut the deficit in the AL East to a half game. Given how much season remains, there’s nothing too significant there, but as manager John Gibbons noted before the game, a run like the one they just had by any of the other contenders can really shake the standings up.
The Blue Jays can’t afford to enable that.
“We’re neck and neck with those guys in the wild card right now,” said Gibbons, “so that’s a big win for us.”
Price certainly did his part in his fourth start since being acquired from the Detroit Tigers, allowing two runs on six hits and a walk over eight dominant innings, striking out nine.
Neither a long wait to take the mound in the first nor pitching on six days rest because of the two off-days this week affected him one bit, as he was crisp from the outset and never let up.
“I know my fastball is good, but whenever you have that extra rest, that’s when guys tend to fall in love with their fastball, and I’ve definitely done that before, just because I’ve felt that strong with it,” said Price. “Tonight I went out there and threw my game, mixed in all my pitches, executed some really good changeups, some really good cutters and a couple of curveballs, as well. That’s what I wanted to focus in on.”
A Chris Iannetta roller down the first-base line for an RBI double in the fifth and Kole Calhoun’s solo shot in the eighth was the only damage against him, and the ace left-hander needed to pitch out of trouble just once, when the first two Angels reached to open the sixth.
Three 97 mph heaters sat down Mike Trout looking for the first out (as the all-star centre-fielder looked aghast), Albert Pujols hit a lazy fly ball to right for the second and C.J. Cron went down swinging on another 97 mph fastball to end the frame.
That was all, folks.
“In that situation if I was going to get beat, I wanted to get beat with my best pitch and that’s my fastball,” Price said of the Trout at-bat. “I wanted to challenge him, I didn’t necessarily execute that third fastball, but I’ll take the result. He’s the best player in baseball right now, so it always feels good to get that guy out.”
The Blue Jays, to their credit, didn’t let up at the plate after taking an early lead on Russell Martin’s bases-loaded walk and Kevin Pillar’s soft flare that clanked off a sliding Shane Victorino’s glove that brought home two, wringing out Santiago for 95 pitches in just 3.2 innings. Josh Donaldson’s first of two RBI doubles made it 4-0 and ended the lefty’s night, while his sacrifice fly in the sixth made it 5-1.
In the seventh, a harmless Edwin Encarnacion popper to short right was played into a single by second baseman Ryan Jackson, extending his hit streak to 17 games, and Justin Smoak followed with a laser beam to centre for a 7-1 advantage.
Donaldson’s second RBI double cashed Troy Tulowitzki’s double in the eighth while Ben Revere’s fourth hit of the night, a single in the ninth, plated Kevin Pillar. For Revere, the RBI was just his second since joining the Blue Jays while the multi-hit game was just his fourth since arriving.
“As a leadoff guy batting in the bottom of the order, it’s all about the rhythm thing, and confidence, definitely confidence, baseball is all about confidence, but it can be a rhythm thing, too and I found my rhythm,” said Revere. “That’s what I was telling the guys, I might have hit bottom of the order maybe for a couple of games and go back to the top, but now I’m down there and now I get my rhythm going. If I can get that going, I’ll be fine.”
Put all together, the Blue Jays delivered a well-rounded offensive performance with contributions up and down the lineup, making for a good start to a noteworthy stretch.
“That’s always important,” said Gibbons. “These ballparks out west, they’re nothing like ours in the east, you’ve got to earn every home run in places like this, so you don’t expect to hit a lot of home runs, especially at night time.
“It’s a big outfield so you’ve got to take your gap shots, that’s what Donaldson did, Smoak got the big home run. We do hit home runs, but it doesn’t happen all the time, so you’ve still got to get other type of hits, too.”
Now they need to keep them coming.