TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays got back over .500 and put themselves into a position to both sweep the Boston Red Sox and shake off a 3-7 road trip with a 5-1 homestand by once again getting a solid starting pitching performance and scoring a bunch of runs in front of almost 43,000 on Saturday afternoon.
Drew Hutchison, who had failed to make it out of the fifth inning four times this season despite having a big lead in each of those games, almost got tripped up again, but bulldogged his way through a nervous fifth.
Handed a 5-0 lead heading into that fateful frame, Hutchison gave up a run before loading the bases with two out, having topped the 100-pitch plateau for the first time this season. But manager John Gibbons wasn’t coming out with the hook this time, and Hutchison popped up Mike Napoli to wiggle out of the jam.
The big lead was provided in large part thanks to a huge day from The Gauntlet — the Blue Jays’ slugging trio of Josh Donaldson, Jose Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion.
Donaldson has been the only one of the three who has performed to expectations so far this season, and the Blue Jays lead the major leagues in runs scored despite the slow starts of Bautista and Encarnacion, but on Saturday all three were locked in, and all played a big part.
They all reached base in the first inning against shaky Red Sox starter Joe Kelly — Donaldson hit a little two-strike squibbler to short right field for a one-out single and both Bautista and Encarnacion drew walks behind him to load the bases. Donaldson would score the game’s first run on a sacrifice fly by Russell Martin.
Donaldson drove in the Blue Jays’ second run of the day with a hard single to left in the second inning, cashing Chris Colabello, who had walked.
In the fourth, Bautista drew a two-out walk and stole second on the back end of a double-steal with Devon Travis. Encarnacion followed by pretty much putting the game out of reach (as it turned out) by belting a 1-2 pitch into the seats in left field for a three-run homer, his fifth big fly of the year. It was just the second home run by a Blue Jay this season with more than one runner on base.
The Gauntlet came to the plate again in the bottom of the sixth and they all got hits. Back-to-back-to-back two-out singles by Donaldson, Bautista and Encarnacion led to the Blue Jays’ sixth run.
By the time the trio came to bat again, the game was well in hand. Donaldson was retired to end the seventh, Bautista and Encarnacion to begin the eighth.
For the game, The Gauntlet combined to go 6-for-11 with four walks, hitting .545/.667/.818 with four runs scored and five RBI. It was an outstanding afternoon for the three sluggers and a look at what’s possible when all three of them are hot at the same time.
CRIKEY!
Blue Jays’ righty Liam Hendriks continued his strong season with his best outing of the year so far. Hendriks took over for Hutchison to start the sixth and completely mesmerized the high-octane Red Sox offence. The Aussie needed only 33 pitches to record nine outs; he allowed just one hit — a ground ball off the third-base bag by Pablo Sandoval.
In 13 innings of work so far this season, Hendriks has allowed 11 base runners (nine hits, two walks) and has struck out 13. The move to the bullpen seems to have done him a world of good.