TORONTO – Droning on about “doing the little things” and “playing the game right” can be hackneyed and cliché, but with one pivotal slide that won’t be found in Monday night’s boxscore Michael Saunders demonstrated why fundamentally sound baseball is so important.
With the bases loaded and one out in the seventh inning, Justin Smoak hit a weak comebacker to the mound that was fielded easily by reliever Dylan Floro, who quickly relayed home for the second out. As Bobby Wilson readied a throw to first to attempt a double play, Saunders slid into the catcher’s ankle, preventing a throw and keeping the inning alive. Wilson collapsed to the ground in pain but stayed in the game, watching helplessly as Devon Travis followed with a go-ahead single before a two-run Jose Bautista double propelled the Toronto Blue Jays to a 7-5 win over the Tampa Bay Rays.
“It’s always been a part of baseball and just because there’s a new slide rule it doesn’t mean you still can’t go in hard, as long as it’s clean,” said Saunders. “In that instance, luckily the pitcher bobbled that ball and gave me a couple of extra steps to get on Bobby in the box, and he just left his back foot next to the plate. That was my intent the entire time, you go over plays in your mind before they happen and one of them was on a groundball if they’re coming home, I’ve got to make sure to take out the catcher so they can’t turn two, especially with Smoakie running up first.
“Due to the new slide rules, I think things get a little sensitive, but as long as you’re playing clean, it doesn’t mean you can’t still go in hard.”
The three-run seventh capped a seven-run outburst that matched the Blue Jays’ entire output over the weekend in Kansas City, where they dropped two of three to the Royals. The decisive blows by Travis and Bautista came after the Blue Jays had gone 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, and while they did a much better job of creating opportunities against the Rays, they still finished just 3-for-16.
Melvin Upton Jr., had struck out before Smoak’s fielder’s choice, which made Saunders keeping the inning alive all the more important.
“That was a great baseball play right there,” said Travis, who finished with a career-best four hits, something Troy Tulowitzki pointed out to him. “I’m happy Bobby’s all right though.”
While he was sore physically, Wilson wasn’t sore at Saunders when the Canadian came up to the plate again in the eighth.
“He said, ‘Nice slide man’ – basically, no hard feelings,” recalled Saunders. “He even asked me if he left his foot there for me, but he was the first one to say nice, clean slide.”
Said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons: “It was key. We’re in a great situation, bases loaded, no out, they get the strikeout and the comebacker – you don’t see that comebacker too often, and they got it. Michael put that huge slide that kept the inning alive and turned it over to Devon, who’s doing his thing. And a big one, too, Bautista with those add-on runs, those are always very important.”
The breathing room came in handy in the ninth, when Logan Forsythe ended Roberto Osuna’s scoreless innings streak ended at 14.2 with a one-out solo homer in the ninth. Osuna then quickly wrapped up his 25th save in 27 chances.
Given all their chances to score, the Blue Jays could very easily have been into the double digits before a crowd of 43,812 at Rogers Centre that lived through a series of misses at the plate and a couple of impressive escapes on the mound.
Joaquin Benoit delivered the most important out in the top of the seventh to keep the game 4-4. After allowing a walk and a double to open the seventh, he recovered to strike out Evan Longoria, got Brad Miller on a flyout to right – Logan Forsythe didn’t test Bautista’s arm on a tag from third – and Mikie Mahtook on a fly ball to centre.
The Blue Jays killed another potential Rays rally in the sixth when Steven Souza Jr., led off the inning with a double and took off for third on Tim Beckham’s grounder to second. But Travis relayed to Josh Donaldson at third to get Souza and Wilson then hit into his second 5-4-3 double play of the game.
“I’ve never done that play before,” said Travis. “I’ve seen it done, [Jose] Altuve did it in Houston, I thought it was pretty cool, I looked up and Donaldson was taking off for third and was ready for it and thankfully it worked out for us.”
The Blue Jays wasted little time ending Jake Odorizzi’s scoreless streak of 20.2 innings as Travis led off the first with a triple – his first of a career-high four hits – and promptly came home on Bautista’s sacrifice fly to open the scoring. An out later, Edwin Encarnacion extended the lead to 2-0 with his 31st homer of the season – and 299th of his career.
R.A. Dickey, after escaping a bases-loaded jam in a touchy first, held things there until the fourth, when Miller and Mahtook opened the inning with consecutive doubles and Beckham added a two-out double that tied things up.
In the bottom half a two-run single by Encarnacion – set up by Donaldson reaching first base on a wild-pitch strikeout – put the Blue Jays back up in front. But Dickey gave that lead up in the fifth when the Rays went Forsythe single, Kevin Kiermaier fly out, Longoria hit-by-pitch, passed ball, Miller two-run double.
Joe Biagini took over and prevented further damage over 1.2 innings of work, his 11th straight appearance without allowing a run.
Dickey allowed four runs on six hits and three walks in 4.1 innings.
“I feel great, I feel like I’m right on the edge of running off some really consistent starts here,” said Dickey. “Tonight was a very weird night for me, I feel snake-bitten from time-to-time, making really good pitches, balls slapped off the end of bats, fooling guys – infield singles, it’s just been a year where a lot of the breaks have not gone my way. But there’s no time to pout about that, I’ve got a really good knuckleball right now, so I’m going to keep working, keep trusting the process.”
The Blue Jays took care of process, and were rewarded for it, from Donaldson running out a strikeout, to Travis throwing out the lead runner, to Saunders sliding hard to keep an inning alive.
“A lot of little things were done tonight that are the signature of a good baseball team, no play bigger than Michael Saunders taking out the guy at home, and then Devon Travis with a clutch hit,” said Dickey. “A lot of great walks, we laid off some really tough pitches. Devon Travis’ throw on Souza going from second to third. We did a lot of things that we’re going to have to do to win a championship. It was a good sign.”