TORONTO – First, the Toronto Blue Jays played cheerfully with a pair of cubs, one a lion, one a tiger, brought to their clubhouse for a pre-game visit Wednesday. Then they mauled the far-less adorable Chicago Cubs for a third straight night, taking full advantage of a gift September series in their schedule.
An 11-1 victory that was tight until a three-run sixth and five-run seventh broke things open positioned the Blue Jays well for a three-game set against the Tampa Bay Rays that opens Friday, their last weaker-sister opponent of the season before things get real.
After that, the Blue Jays (76-69) are looking at three games in Baltimore and four at the New York Yankees before returning home for four versus the Seattle Mariners and three against the Orioles.
If they’re going to defy the odds and return on the 2.6 percent probability of reaching the post-season they started Wednesday with, that’s where the heavy lifting lies.
"We still have a few games left," said catcher Dioner Navarro, who knocked in a pair and has hits in 14 of his last 16 games. "Our goal as a team is to make that push to make it to the playoffs."
And visit from the cubs?
"It works for Tampa," manager John Gibbons quipped in reference to counterpart Joe Maddon’s unique exercises with the Rays.
At minimum the Blue Jays are holding up their end of the deal, beating up a Cubs (64-82) squad that at times looked like it was new to baseball. Sure, they have some gilt-edged talent like Jorge Soler, whose solo shot in the seventh accounted for all their offence, and Javier Baez, but minus the injured Anthony Rizzo and Starlin Castro, they’re quite awful right now.
Drew Hutchison, with 6.1 outstanding innings, capitalized to become the fourth Blue Jays starter to reach double digits in wins. He allowed just a run on four hits and a walk while striking out 10 and over his last four starts; he’s surrendered just five earned runs over 25.1 innings, with 32 strikeouts.
Not bad for a guy written off as being out of gas last month.
"My command’s been good," Hutchison said. "I’ve been commanding the baseball with all three of my pitches, my slider’s been good to both sides of the plate lately, that’s been a big reason why I’ve pitched well."
A brilliant defensive play in the first saved him a run, as Luis Valbuena doubled to right and looked set to plate Baez, but Jose Bautista made a strong relay to Ryan Goins, whose laser home turned the rookie shortstop back. But Baez strayed too far and Dioner Navarro threw him out at third for a rally-killing out.
The Cubs never threatened again.
"That’s tough if you’re on the other side, potential big inning and now you come up empty-handed," Gibbons said of the play. "A lot of times defensive plays go unnoticed, especially early in the game, but defence is a big part of it."
The Blue Jays scratched out a run in the third as Kevin Pillar doubled, took third on Goins’ groundout and scored on Anthony Gose’s sacrifice fly. They pushed things out of reach in the sixth when Gose scored on a Jose Reyes blooper and a Soler error, an RBI single by Adam Lind and a run-scoring double by Danny Valencia.
Then the floodgates opened in the eighth, as two-run singles by Edwin Encarnacion and Navarro plus an RBI single by Valencia made it a rout.
They eked out two more runs in the eighth on an RBI groundout by Dalton Pompey in his first big-league plate appearance and a run-scoring Steve Tolleson infield single, as even their bench wore out the Cubs.
"I was nervous, I’m not going to lie," Pompey said. "My arm was shaking before I went up to bat, and I just tried to collect myself, take a deep breath, and stick with my approach. It was hard, even the first pitch, I didn’t really see it. I tried to put the ball in play and good things happened."
The Blue Jays enjoy their final off-day this season Thursday before starting a 17-game sprint to the finish, one with virtually no margin for error, the need for some help, and the chance, albeit a very, very faint one, at the playoffs.
NOTES: The Blue Jays are considering pushing Marcus Stroman back a day from Sunday against Tampa Bay to Monday in Baltimore, allowing Mark Buehrle to remain on his normal five days. While the primary goal is to get Stroman an extra day of rest, an added bonus would be that Buehrle is 2-0 with a 2.08 ERA over 34.2 innings over five starts versus the Rays this season. … Pompey joined Brett Lawrie as the second Canadian player in club history to record an RBI in their first big-league at-bat. … Brandon Morrow struck out the side in the ninth, hitting 100 mph with a pitch. He also unleashed his first sliders since returning from the disabled list, at last finding an opportunity to use his finishing pitch. "I’ve had good life on the fastball and even a little bit of downward movement," he said. "If you don’t need (the slider) there’s no point in changing it up." … The notoriously heavy-footed Navarro stole his third base of the season in the fifth inning, advancing to third on Welington Castillo’s throwing error. "Watch out," he quipped. "I’m going for five."