TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays are a team built to hit their way out of trouble, and thanks to Josh Donaldson that’s exactly how they returned to the .500 mark Friday.
Playing in open air for the first time in their 2016 home schedule, the Blue Jays made their share of mistakes in front of a near-sellout crowd of 46,470. But Josh Donaldson hit two home runs, including the game winner, to give the Blue Jays a 7-5 win against the first-place Boston Red Sox.
Not only did Donaldson record his first multi-homer game of 2016, he doubled, singled and drove in five. After grinding through leg soreness the first couple months of the year, Donaldson says he’s starting to feel better physically.
“I know how my body’s moving when it’s right,” Donaldson said. “The entire year I haven’t felt right. Honestly I’ve been kind of grinding, trying to get there, trying to get there and maybe at some points trying to do a little too much at times.”
In recent days, Donaldson has felt stronger. Yet he’s working to steady himself mentally.
“My instant reaction is to kind of get excited,” he said. “That can work as a negative against you as well.”
On Friday it was all positives for Donaldson. He even contributed defensively, starting a double play that helped Sanchez escape a jam.
“He was in a little bit of a rut for him, especially coming off of what he did last year,” manager John Gibbons said. “But he’s a special player. He can beat you so many ways: with the bat, with the glove … good baserunner too.”
The Blue Jays had to overcome a handful of defensive miscues Friday, starting when a Troy Tulowitzki error led to an unearned run in the second. Six innings later, left fielder Michael Saunders let a catchable fly ball land for a double when he appeared to defer to Kevin Pillar instead of making a routine play himself. One batter later, Travis Shaw hit a seemingly playable ball to the right side, but it snuck past Justin Smoak and Devon Travis for a game-tying single.
Thanks to Donaldson’s big day and some stellar pitching, those mistakes didn’t cost the Blue Jays the game.
Aaron Sanchez allowed just three earned runs on five walks and two hits in 6.2 innings while striking out six and neutralizing the best offence in baseball. Considering that the Red Sox arrived in Toronto averaging just shy of six runs per game, the Blue Jays couldn’t have hoped for much more.
“I thought he was really good,” Gibbons said. “He had as good a curveball as we’ve seen — consistently throwing it in the strike zone. I thought it was a super outing for him.”
It’s no secret that Sanchez’s primary pitch is the sinking fastball that touched 96 mph and generated 10 ground ball outs against Boston. That’s why his off-speed pitches are vitally important if sparingly used. On Friday he kept hitters off-balance with change-ups and a curve he considers his best so far this year.
“For it to finally come, seeing the progression it’s made, seeing the swings and misses I got on it and the weak contact I had, it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” Sanchez said.
Joe Biagini picked up Sanchez in the seventh inning, standing a runner at first. Two innings later Roberto Osuna entered the game for the third night in a row and recorded the save. He’ll presumably be unavailable Saturday, when the Blue Jays could contemplate replacing an infielder with a seventh reliever.
The starting lineups didn’t feature David Ortiz, who’s arguably been baseball’s best hitter in 2016, or Jose Bautista, who served a one-game suspension in style, wearing a Toronto Raptors jersey and making a cameo on the public address system. Before the game Bautista explained that he didn’t agree with MLB’s decision to uphold his suspension.
“It’s so unfounded. It doesn’t have any basis,” he said. “I can’t figure it out. The reasons that I read in the letter to me are so — I don’t know — they don’t fit. It doesn’t match. I don’t understand it.”
Ultimately Bautista’s suspension didn’t cost the Blue Jays, nor did their lapses on defence. The reigning MVP made sure of that.
“We’ve got an unbelievable lineup and this is just the beginning,” Osuna said.