BOSTON – The Toronto Blue Jays are making the most of a favourable schedule out of the all-star break, and with four games coming up versus the Houston Astros before things get real, there are still some wins sitting out there for them to bank.
Wednesday night’s 6-1 victory over the awful Boston Red Sox, completing a three-game sweep of the defending World Series champs amid their messy public auctioning of beloved ace Jon Lester, was their 10th in 13 outings since play resumed.
The current run – all against the cellar-dwelling Red Sox and Texas Rangers save for taking two of three from the Yankees – pushes the Blue Jays’ record to 59-50, and gives them a three game cushion over New York and the Seattle Mariners for the second wild card.
A visit to Minute Maid Park, which starts Thursday night with Drew Hutchison facing Jarred Cosart, is another opportunity to bulk up against one of the American League’s weaker links before a six-game homestand next week against the East-leading Baltimore Orioles and Central-leading Detroit Tigers.
They must keep making gains through others’ pains.
“We’re playing good baseball, man,” said manager John Gibbons. “I don’t care who you’re playing, big-league teams, man. We wouldn’t be winning if we weren’t executing.”
The Blue Jays did that beautifully against the Red Sox (48-60), taking six of seven from them over the past week. They’re 10-3 this season against the divisional rival, including 6-0 at Fenway Park, where large groups of Blue Jays fans stood and cheered each victory.
Mark Buehrle allowed one run over 6.2 innings to earn his first win since June 1, a stretch of nine starts, while Dioner Navarro delivered RBI singles in each of the first, fifth and sixth innings, Juan Francisco knocked in a pair and the steadily improving Anthony Gose used his legs to create another run.
The catalyst for the current stretch, Buehrle believes, came last Saturday with a 6-4 win that ended a 17-game losing streak at Yankee Stadium. The good times have continued since.
“Just the way we went back and forth in that game, there was a different feeling in the dugout during that game,” said Buehrle. “It was just a feeling, it’s hard to explain. We were up, they tied it, and it was just a back and forth issue and we ended up winning the game, maybe it was because we hadn’t won there in so long, just being in the clubhouse, there was just a weird feeling that I don’t feel like we’ve had the whole year.
“From that game, it feels like it’s carried over.”
The Blue Jays caught a break as Lester was supposed to start Wednesday but was scratched with the Red Sox engaged in active and trade talks with multiple teams. His looming departure overshadowed all other events around the team, which dealt an unhappy Felix Doubront to the Chicago Cubs before the game.
That cleared a roster spot for Brandon Workman, who was grinded for five runs, two earned, over five innings against the Blue Jays.
Navarro’s RBI single and Francisco’s run-scoring fielder’s choice staked Buehrle to a 2-0 lead in the first and the same duo drove in runs in the fourth after Gose singled, stole second and scored when Workman threw away Jose Reyes’ sacrifice bunt.
“He’s doing a lot of good things and he’s gaining confidence, too,” Gibbons said of Gose. “That’s a big part of it.”
Doubles by Xander Bogaerts and Christian Vazquez in the fifth represented the only damage against Buehrle, who was never in any real danger.
“I had a few bad starts and the older you get, I still get a little concerned about confidence, and I didn’t pitch good and I didn’t want everybody giving up on me,” Buehrle said of his win drought. “Today was a big day, we scored runs early, had some good defensive plays, a couple of guys got on early and I got out of it before they scored.”
After Aaron Loup threw a clean 1.1 innings, including a strikeout of Brock Holt with two on and two out to end the seventh, Dustin McGowan finished things off in the ninth, amid simultaneous chants of “Johnny Lester” and “We want Lester” from the Fenway faithful.
He never emerged from the dugout, the Red Sox instead slinking back to the clubhouse after McGowan struck out Vazquez to end the game.
As for the Blue Jays? They’re once again riding high, looking at the eventual returns from injury of Edwin Encarnacion, Brett Lawrie and Adam Lind not as a life preserver, but as fortifications that will push them to another level.
Until then, in the words of Navarro, “we’ve got to keep doing our thing.”