TORONTO — The line-up that the Toronto Blue Jays started in Thursday night’s series finale against the Los Angeles Angels didn’t exactly inspire confidence.
With Devon Travis fighting a sore left shoulder/collarbone, Jose Bautista still limited to DH duties because of a sore right shoulder, Jose Reyes beginning his rehab assignment with the Buffalo Bisons (he went 1-for-4) and Michael Saunders back on the disabled list with knee problems, the Blue Jays are playing short-handed.
Add to that the fact that R.A. Dickey was on the mound for the home nine, meaning Josh Thole got the start behind the plate, and there really wasn’t much going on as far as threatening bats were concerned beyond the top of the order trio of Josh Donaldson, Bautista and Edwin Encarnacion.
And yet, the Blue Jays wound up putting up eight runs against the best pitching team in the American League, which is pretty much baseball for you.
Who got the offence going? Why, the bottom of the order, of course.
After Angels righty Matt Shoemaker retired the Blue Jays in order in the first and second innings, Danny Valencia got the ball rolling. He led off the third by sneaking his first home run of the season just inside the right-field foul pole. Valencia came into the game hitting just .231/.259/.385 against right-handers this season, but he got enough of that pitch to tie the game.
Ryan Goins followed, and hit a ground ball to first that took a weird hop as it hit the edge of the dirt cut out around the bag and just ate up Halos first baseman Marc Krauss. Goins wound up at second with a double and Steve Tolleson, in for Travis and hitting just .118/.118/.235 against righties his own self, was asked to bunt the runner over.
Tolleson got a good bunt down and Shoemaker came down off the mound, picked it up and threw it away, allowing Goins to score and giving the Blue Jays a lead they would never relinquish.
Shoemaker then retired the Blue Jays’ top six hitters in order once again.
Next time around, after Valencia struck out to open the fifth inning, Goins drew a hard-fought walk and Blue Jays’ manager John Gibbons put on the hit-and-run as Tolleson stepped up. The result? A hard line drive single to right field that sent Goins to third, paving the way to a big inning that put the game away.
This time, Shoemaker didn’t have as easy a time with the top of the order. He got Donaldson to pop up, but Bautista followed by using the Angels’ defence against them, hitting a little ground ball through the wide-open right side for an RBI single.
Edwin Encarnacion had no use for such subtlety, pounding a three-run home run — just the Blue Jays’ second of the season (Edwin has both) — to cap a four-run frame.
That was more than enough for Dickey, who became the first Blue Jays’ starter to throw a pitch in the ninth inning this season, going the route on a five-hitter. The Angels never threatened to make it a game after that.
For the night, the bottom three hitters in the Blue Jays order combined to go 5-for-9 with a home run, two doubles , three walks, five runs scored and a run batted in — and you can even throw in a stolen base by Tolleson for good measure.
There have been a few lineups posted by the Blue Jays over the past couple of years that have led one to wonder how they were going to compete in a ball game and it seems that just as often as not, the Blue Jays have surprised. They did it again on Thursday and wound up with a series split.