ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The display of pitching and defence by the Toronto Blue Jays on Wednesday night was simply clinical. Mark Buehrle, sitting 82-83 m.p.h. on his fastball, stood on the mound like he owned the joint, and was masterful. Brett Lawrie, Jonathan Diaz, Colby Rasmus and even Edwin Encarnacion stole hits to help out, and Jose Bautista sealed the deal by smashing two balls halfway to downtown St. Petersburg.
Yup, this 3-0 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays was something pretty impressive to watch, and suddenly the Blue Jays are in position to win a series at Tropicana Field for the first time since April 2007, a span in which they’re now 17-43.
Brandon Morrow starts the series finale against Chris Archer on Thursday and what a morale boost it would be for the right-hander upon whom so much rests to step on Tampa’s throats to help seal the deal. No matter how it plays out, the Blue Jays have looked like a different team since Monday’s slopfest, and that it’s started on the mound is the most critical part of it all.
“It’s awesome, you feel like you’re on defence for a short period of time and on offence for a long period of time,” Bautista said of the confidence a commanding starter gives his teammates. “It puts pressure on the other team to execute not only on defence, but on offence, and play the game in a complete aspect with the pressure of executing the small details.”
Buehrle, who struggled into May last year, carried over a strong spring into his first outing of the season and struck out 11 batters, just the second time he’s reached that plateau and one off his career best. Even more impressive: he got Sean Rodriguez, Jose Molina and Yunel Escobar looking in the eighth, underlining how helpless the Rays were even after multiple looks at him.
“I think it was the movement,” said Buehrle. “I looked up there and the velocity was continuously dropping as the game was going – that’s why I think my ball was moving. I don’t know what the scouting report is against me, but I felt like I was working both sides of the plate with good movement. I guess it’s good that they were taking pitches, and it wasn’t like the strike zone was twice the plate.”
Still, he didn’t do it alone. Diaz, subbing in for the injured Jose Reyes, made back-to-back nifty pickups in the hole at short to keep the third clean, Lawrie leapt to rob Rodriguez of an RBI double in the fifth, Encarnacion started a nifty 3-6-3 double play in the seventh, and Rasmus tracked down a handful of drives in centre to keep trouble from brewing.
Lawrie couldn’t squeeze a Ben Zobrist liner with two out in the ninth (it went for a single), and that prompted manager John Gibbons to let Sergio Santos close things out. He walked Evan Longoria before Brett Cecil struck out Matt Joyce to end it before 10,808. The Blue Jays have won two straight in Tampa for just the second time since 2008.
“I’ve known the history,” said Buehrle. “It kind of felt like when I was with Chicago and we went into the Metrodome in Minnesota and if we won one game a year it was like we won the World Series because we could not win there for some reason.
“Come in and say we’re going to take two of four from these guys, I think we’d take it, but hopefully we come out better.”
One important thing that certainly seems to be clicking is his relationship with new catcher Dioner Navarro, which is noteworthy because of how long it took for him to develop a rapport with J.P. Arencibia last year. Buehrle never shakes so it’s on the catcher to have a good game-plan for him, and Navarro’s work has drawn notice across the clubhouse.
“Certainly it seemed like Navarro has been getting in a groove with both starters, it seemed like they were in sync and there wasn’t a lot of shaking going on, seems like they were comfortable with Dioner back there, and throwing the ball where he wanted it. It seemed like they were on the same page,” said Bautista.
“I could really get used to the chemistry that I see between our catcher and our pitchers,” he added later. “If they manage to keep that going for an extended period of time, we’re going to have a lot of fun playing this year.”
Bautista did the heavy lifting offensively against Matt Moore, opening the fourth with a massive solo shot to left-centre ahead of Navarro’s RBI single, while he pounded a ball off the outer roof ring in the seventh for his second of the season.
The slugger also walked twice and after narrowly missing two other homers on the wrong side of the foul pole in the first two games, it’s safe to say he’s ready to hit the ground running.
“The best evidence for me is if I’m taking my walks, and I’ve been able to do that in the first three games,” said Bautista. “I’ve got to start recognizing better when teams aren’t giving me anything good to hit. … Usually when that’s happening, and I feel that’s been the case in the first three games, teams are not really trying to challenge you so I’ve got to remain patient in those situations. I feel like I’ve done that, and when you do that, eventually they’ve got to come over the plate at some point and I’ve been able to take advantage of a couple of pitches.”
As Bautista later noted, the collective sample size is small, and everyone knows Buehrle won’t strike out 11 on too many nights, but already the Blue Jays have some real positives to build on. Teams can sometimes take on the personality of their starting pitchers, and if the past two games are any indication, there’ll be plenty to like in who they become.