TORONTO — It’s been a while since they had a night like this.
In 2015, the Toronto Blue Jays scored 10 runs or more 26 times, including 10 games in August and September as the club barrelled towards the post-season with a brick on the gas pedal. In 2016, it’s been the pitching that has carried this club to first place in the American League East, with an AL-best 3.76 team ERA making up for the fact the Blue Jays haven’t scored as prolifically as they did last season. Coming into Friday night, the Blue Jays had scored 10 runs or more only 12 times this season, and just once since July 20.
But this is much the same lineup (even more similar with Friday’s acquisition of Dioner Navarro) that had all those big nights in 2015. And if there was any question as to whether the Blue Jays were still one of the MLB’s most potent offensive threats, it was laid to rest Friday, as Toronto’s hitters bombarded the Minnesota Twins pitching staff in a 15-8 rout.
"I feel like day in and day out we have good approaches. As a team, we just haven’t gotten it going and caught on fire," said Justin Smoak, who went 3-for-5 with a home run while driving in five. "Hopefully tonight will help us out a little bit."
It started early as the Blue Jays jumped all over Twins starter Pat Dean, breaking the game open with a five-run second inning. Troy Tulowitzki and Melvin Upton Jr. led off with back-to-back singles and were brought in by Smoak’s towering home run to deep left field. Then Jose Bautista singled and came in to score when Josh Donaldson jumped all over a full-count slider for his 30th home run of the year. It was the 11th time this season that Donaldson has homered in a two-strike count.
The Blue Jays added another with two out in the third when Smoak sent a first-pitch slider into left field, driving in Upton Jr. from second. It was Smoak’s first multi-hit game since July 17 and the second inning home run snapped a 0-for-29 skid with runners in scoring position.
By his own admission, this has been a disappointing campaign for Smoak, who’s batting .227/.316/.415 with 14 homers, 35 walks and 105 strikeouts in 313 plate appearances. Part of what makes it difficult is that the Blue Jays have been using their designated hitter spot as a rest bay for many of their banged up regulars, like Josh Donaldson, Russell Martin and Jose Buatista, who will severely cut into Smoak’s playing time down the stretch as he continues to recover from a knee sprain.
Friday night was just Smoak’s second start since Aug. 15, and while he’s completely accepting of his role on the Blue Jays, any ballplayer will tell you it’s difficult to maintain your timing and contact ability when you have such long breaks between plate appearances.
"It’s definitely not easy," Smoak said. "Your goal is to be in there every day. But I feel like I know my role on this team and whenever my name’s called upon, I’m going to do what it takes to help us win ballgames. And that goes for everybody in this clubhouse."
While Dean battled Toronto’s dangerous lineup, Blue Jays starter Francisco Liriano battled himself, struggling to find the strike zone throughout a laborious outing. The left-hander allowed just two hits over his five innings, but walked four, three of which came around to score.
Liriano was strong over his first two frames, allowing only a solo shot to Trevor Plouffe on a two-seamer that hung up over the plate. But he led off the third by walking Kurt Suzuki, allowing Eddie Rosario to reach on an error after an 11-pitch at-bat, and eventually loading the bases with a four-pitch walk to Robbie Grossman. Plouffe came up next and hit a sacrifice fly to deep right field to plate Minnesota’s second run.
Liriano got out of the inning, but he walked two of the first three batters he faced in the fourth and watched both runners score when Suzuki hit a two-seamer over the plate into the right-centre field gap for a double.
Liriano dug in for the fifth, striking out a pair, which gave him seven on the night. But with his pitch count up to 102 (59 for strikes), the fifth inning ended up being his last. In all, Liriano threw a first-pitch ball to 13 of the 22 batters he faced and located just 58 per cent of his pitches for strikes. It was the 12th time in 25 starts this year that Liriano has walked four or more, and the outing raised his MLB-leading BB/9 to 5.22.
"Walks are never good in this game. They don’t always, but they have a tendency to come back to haunt you," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "You can get in those kind of grooves, too. Just like you can be in a nice groove where you can stick it wherever you want to. Sometimes it can desert you, and that’s tough to overcome."
Liriano says he’s been working on his mechanics in an effort to improve his command and pitch more consistently in the zone. He describes those adjustments as a "challenge" but also says he’s hopeful they will take. His first three starts as a Blue Jay were a step in the right direction as he walked only two in each outing. But Friday night’s start begged the question again: what’s it going to take to get Liriano back in the zone?
"I ask that question to myself every day," Liriano said. "Every time I go out there it’s a challenge for me to do it. I try to do it. Hopefully it’s going to work."
Joe Biagini took over for Liriano and worked through his own troubles in the sixth, giving up a pair of first-pitch singles and hitting Suzuki on the hand to load the bases with one out. Biagini was able to limit the damage to a Rosario sacrifice fly, striking out Brian Dozier to end the inning. But the Twins had cut a once substantial Blue Jays lead down to one.
Alas, Minnesota’s comeback was short-lived, as Darwin Barney led off the bottom half of the inning with a wall-scraping solo shot to put the Blue Jays back up by two. After Smoak nearly added another with a loud fly out that fell just short of the right-centre field wall, Ezequiel Carrera reached on an error, stole second base as Bautista struck out, and advanced to third on a throwing error by Suzuki. That brought up Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion, who both worked two-out walks against Twins reliever Pat Light, loading the bases.
Russell Martin stepped to the plate and worked a 3-0 count himself, forcing Light to come in to the zone with a 96-mph fastball that the Blue Jays catcher hammered to the gap in left-centre, cashing all three runners and putting his team back up by five. The Blue Jays wound up sending nine batters to the plate in that sixth inning, needing just two hits to score four runs.
Things only got more out of hand from there, as the Blue Jays plated five more in the seventh thanks to five hits in the inning, including Martin’s 15th home run of the year, a two-run shot that put Toronto up by 10.
The Twins clawed a pair of runs back in the top of the eighth, and another in the ninth, all against Blue Jays reliever Aaron Loup. It was that kind of night, as neither team could find effective pitching from their starters or bullpens. Of the 10 pitchers who appeared in this game, only two escaped the night without allowing at least a run—Joaquin Benoit, who pitched a clean seventh for the Blue Jays, and Alex Wimmers, who mopped up the eighth for the Twins.
"That was one of those crazy games where I didn’t feel good for the entire nine innings. Even with the big lead," Gibbons said. "But the guys stepped up. It was a nice win."