TORONTO — Really, the Toronto Blue Jays should be savouring a four-game sweep of the Los Angeles Angels right now. They won the opener handily and were in control of the middle two games before coughing them up late, a turn of events that left them in urgent salvage mode for Thursday’s finale.
Behind a resurgent R.A. Dickey, who like his team was desperate to turn around some recent struggles, they got it done with an 8-4 victory, one that was more swig of Pepto-Bismol than glass of Cristal. After nine losses in 11 games they needed relief, and for their knuckleballer to find his way again.
By no means is everything OK — a late burst of offence made sure some close and late work from the bullpen wouldn’t be needed — but the Blue Jays can begin their three-game series with the visiting Seattle Mariners with a fresh set of relievers and a fresh set of minds.
“We needed that,” said manager John Gibbons. “I hate to keep saying that … but we did. [Dickey] gave us a big lift.”
Dickey was thumped hard for seven runs over five innings by the Houston Astros in his last start, and admitted he was a little lost in the search for answers afterwards. He even considered consulting with mentor Charlie Hough but instead pitching coach Pete Walker identified a mechanical flaw the two worked on between outings.
A knuckleball that had been so flat against the Astros began to dance again, and Dickey used it to generate the type of awkward misses that have been so rare for him this year.
“A lot of it is about tempo,” Dickey said when pressed about details of his adjustment, “a lot of it is about stuff I don’t want to talk about.”
He threw one 63 mph knuckler that blooped in so slow all Mike Trout could do was laugh after fouling it off. Others came in at 77 or 78 and darted hard to one side or another, leaving the Angels befuddled.
Mark Krauss’ first inning solo shot was an outlier as one of the few balls hit hard all night. By the time all was said and done, Dickey delivered the Blue Jays’ first nine-inning complete game of the year, allowing four runs, including a garbage time David Freese two-run shot in the ninth, on five hits and two walks with seven strikeouts. Thirteen outs came on the ground, many off weak contact.
“Changing speeds, just like conventional pitching, is integral to success,” said Dickey. “Being able to add and subtract within the frame work of my mechanic paid off. I threw some really good slow ones, had a really good fight with [Erick] Aybar where he saw a multitude of speeds and different breaks, and the mechanic for me was the same throughout the whole at-bat. Those are the things you look for, and you hope to build that consistency into your mechanic so you can produce it from game to game.
“This was a step, I’ve got a lot of work still to do, so does our team; this is a good place to begin.”
For a change, the Blue Jays didn’t squander the gem, despite a lineup that was more Buffalo Bisons than Blue Jays.
Danny Valencia tied things up with an opposite field homer, his first this year, to open the third and Ryan Goins followed with a karma double on a grounder that skipped oddly off the turf and around Krauss at first base.
Steve Tolleson then dropped a sacrifice bunt and Matt Shoemaker threw the ball away to allow Goins to score the go-ahead run.
“It’s been a tough week, if that’s what it takes to get us going — it created some life in our dugout,” Tolleson said of the sequence. “I feel like to start every game we have very good intentions as far as energy and talking to [Josh] Donaldson, him being an all-out player all the time, seeing that first-hand, as a team we said we’ve got to pick up our energy. Every player has got to be more vocal, do more cheerleading, just things to try to get the team going.
“We’re rallying as hard as we can in here,” he continued, “we’re not happy with the way things have gone the last week or so, even the whole season, to kind of put that out there. But there’s a lot of baseball left, it’s a very talented group, it’s just a matter of time before we click.”
Protecting 2-1 leads isn’t exactly the Blue Jays’ forte, so a four-run fifth was like a burst of oxygen.
Goins walked with one out, Tolleson followed with a single and after a Donaldson pop up, Jose Bautista punched a grounder to right field against the shift to make it 3-1. Edwin Encarnacion followed with a three-run homer and it was done.
“It’s huge, that really got things going,” Gibbons said of the Bautista single. “He’s done that before, when he struggles and gets into a rut, he’s a little bit too aggressive and flies off the ball a little bit too early. That’s generally what power hitters do though. A simple adjustment like that, even the ball he hit to deep centre [for a sacrifice fly in the seventh], he stayed on that ball thinking middle of the field. …
“He’s vital to our team, let’s be honest. If we get him and Eddie going, we’re definitely that much better off.”
So the Blue Jays salvaged a split despite outscoring the Angels 23-15 in the series, with Dickey steadying himself in the process. They now must look to reclaim lost ground and firmly turn the page on their struggles on what remains of their 10-game homestand.