TORONTO – Well now, if the New York Yankees thought the Toronto Blue Jays were coming in hot when they met last weekend in the Bronx, they’re going to need some new adjectives for their rivals when the return engagement opens at Rogers Centre on Friday night.
The new American League East leaders – the first time they’ve been able to say that this late into a season since 1993 – are on a club-record tying 11-game win streak for the second time in 2015 after beating the Oakland Athletics 4-2 on Thursday afternoon to complete a three-game sweep.
Behind seven innings of two-run ball from Mark Buehrle, a Kevin Pillar RBI single that opened the scoring and a Ryan Goins three-run homer immediately after to put things out of reach, the 64-52 Blue Jays became the first team with multiple 11-game streaks in the same year since the 1954 Cleveland Indians.
Impressive stuff.
They’ll try to make it 12 against the Yankees on Friday when David Price starts against Ivan Nova in the first of three between the rivals. Fresh in the minds of both teams will be what happened last weekend in New York, when Blue Jays pitchers allowed just one run over the three games, all Toronto wins.
"I don’t think the feeling is any different," said Goins. "I don’t think it’s going to matter the rest of the season who’s in the other dugout. We’ve got to come here and play our game, we’ve got to pitch, we’ve got to hit and we’ve got to play defence. I don’t think who’s in the other dugout is going to matter at all."
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The last series rapidly ate into what two weeks ago was an eight-game Yankees lead atop the division, and first place will be up for grabs in this one.
Two more series loom between the clubs in September.
"It’s such a close lead, I don’t think it matters much," manager John Gibbons said of the change in dynamics ahead of this clash with the Yankees. "I just know our guys are feeling good, we’re confident right now, we’re on that nice little roll and it means something.
"It’s a different bunch in there, very professional, I don’t think they get caught up in all that, and we have a lot of veteran players who have been through it," he continued. "They understand you can’t get too high and I think everyone understands you go through your lows, too. Really, be happy with the way you’re playing but don’t get carried away because there’s a lot of baseball left."
Right now, things certainly keep coming up Blue Jays, from Seattle’s Hishasi Iwakuma no-hitting the Baltimore Orioles, an AL East and post-season rival, on Wednesday, to back spasms sidelining all-star starter Sonny Gray ahead of his scheduled outing Thursday.
Jesse Chavez moved up a day and though overpowering at times – he struck out nine in six innings of work – was undone by four straight hits in the second inning, capped by Pillar’s opposite field single and Goins’ fourth homer of the year.
The Athletics, on the other hand, couldn’t capitalize when they loaded the bases as Pillar lost a ball in the sun and Jose Bautista couldn’t haul in a Brett Lawrie liner as he crashed into the right-field wall with none out in the first.
Buehrle recovered to induce a weak comebacker from Danny Valencia that led to a 1-2-3 double play before second baseman Cliff Pennington corralled Josh Phegley’s grounder off Buehrle and barehanded the ball to first to end the frame.
"He’s a magician out there, always has been," Goins said of Buehrle.
The Athletics also had two on and one out in the top of the second, but Buehrle escaped that, too, and didn’t threaten again until Billy Burns’ RBI triple in the eighth ended the left-hander’s afternoon.
Buehrle exited to a standing ovation from the sell-out crowd of 46,902, and though Butler came home on Mark Canha’s RBI groundout off Aaron Sanchez, he was full value.
Pitching on two extra days rest after not feeling at his best in his last start, he allowed seven hits and two walks with two strikeouts in collecting his 13th win.
"Felt a lot better today," said Buehrle. "Hopefully it was just one of those bumps in the road when you’re not going to have your best stuff on certain days. I felt good today and we’ll go from here."
Even the Brett Lawrie comebacker that caught him flush on the right wrist in the sixth inning didn’t do too much damage. He’s been a magnet for balls up the middle of late, and was lucky to be able to continue.
"The rest of my body parts are healing up from getting worn out, so I figured I need to hang out with the trainers a little more, get some treatments," he quipped, "so I had to wear it off another body part."
Sanchez finished out a clean eighth while Roberto Osuna closed things out in the ninth for his 12th save, the Blue Jays pitching carrying the load and locking things down, as they have throughout this 11-gamer.
During the last one June 2-14, the Blue Jays outscored their opponents by a collective total of 88-40, while this time the margin is 59-22. Five of the wins have come in games where they’ve scored fewer than five runs, something they’d done only seven times all year before this current stretch.
What does that say about this team?
"We need to get our offence going and start scoring more runs," Buehrle joked. "I feel like we’ve had a good pitching staff here, obviously adding Price to it makes us better, but we’re going out there, catchers are putting down good signs down, everything is working. When you have win streaks like this, you need the ball to bounce your way, offensively, defensively, everything. Pitching has found its groove right now, we’re winning good games, it’s fun."
The Blue Jays, no doubt, are having plenty of that.