MILWAUKEE – The news arrived via email blast at 2:10 CT – Spider-Man will be at Rogers Centre on Saturday to help a fan throw out the ceremonial first pitch ahead of the Toronto Blue Jays’ meeting with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Really, though, the promotional stunt is a waste of the web-slinger’s superpowers because just like Bonnie Tyler back in the day, it’s the sinking Blue Jays who are Holding Out For A Hero right now, as the point of no return lurks over their season of fading promise.
Just as things looked most bleak for them Wednesday afternoon, a handful of heroes emerged to deliver a tension-breaking 9-5 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers, a positive end to a mostly grim 2-6 road trip that’s part of a 5-12 month.
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Josh Thole started a pivotal five-run rally in the sixth – the club’s biggest since a nine-run sixth on July 28 against the Boston Red Sox – and scored on Munenori Kawasaki’s double. Jose Reyes had three hits, including a go-ahead RBI single in the sixth. Melky Cabrera had two hits, scored on both, and knocked in a run. Jose Bautista clubbed a three-run homer that opened up a four-run lead and provided some margin for error that would be needed. Steve Tolleson made a clever play up the middle to steal an out and help prevent Milwaukee’s eighth from blowing up on Brett Cecil. Dustin McGowan then snuffed out the comeback attempt by inducing a 1-6-3 double play. And Colby Rasmus added a two-run shot in the ninth that ensured the game remained out of reach.
The collective effort is exactly what the reeling club needed because as manager John Gibbons noted in the morning, “there’s no magic bullet, there really isn’t.”
“It’s great to have a community win like that, especially (because) this has not been a good road trip for us,” said starter R.A. Dickey, who allowed five runs in 5.2 innings but didn’t bury the offence early. “That home run by Jose was the difference in the game. There was this collective sigh on the bench, was like, ‘OK, finally, here we go.’
“We’re going to try to build on this. We get to go home, and we’re not out of it by any stretch of the imagination, so we’ll gird up our loins and go attack.”
The victory sent the Blue Jays (65-62) into their off-day with some reason to feel good about themselves after splitting a pair with the Brewers (71-56) before a nine-game homestand opens Friday with the first of three against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Their offensive awakening – nine runs is their largest output since a 14-1 win against Boston that July 28 day – will be tested in that series with Drew Smyly, Jeremy Hellickson and Chris Archer all on the docket. But regaining the DH, meaning Adam Lind will get back into the lineup against righties, and with Edwin Encarnacion collecting an RBI single hinting at his continued return to form after his quad injury, the Blue Jays will be close to whole and at the ready for the challenge.
“You hope so,” Gibbons said. “We’ve done it before. We’re looking forward to getting home, we definitely play better there (33-26 versus 32-36 on the road). We’ve had so many off-days lately, at one point you can’t wait to have one, now you’d like to go out and play again tomorrow after today’s game. But we’ll get rested up, it’s a big homestand.”
Of course some strong starting pitching would help, too, and while Dickey didn’t deliver the type of lengthy shutout outing his team could have used Wednesday, he kept things from getting out of hand while waiting for the offence to erupt.
A bloop double by Jean Segura in the second put the Brewers up 1-0 and a Mark Reynolds double to the left-field wall that eluded Cabrera in the fourth made it 2-0, but the Blue Jays tied it up in the fifth on Cabrera’s RBI double and Encarnacion’s single.
The Brewers eked out another run in the fifth on Ryan Braun’s fielder’s choice, but after a Danny Valencia throwing error left men on first and second with none out, Dickey got a double play from Aramis Ramirez and a fly ball from Scooter Gennett to avoid further damage.
The Blue Jays then exploded in the sixth, and after Dickey gave up a two-run homer to Carlos Gomez in the bottom of the frame, he was removed and the bullpen held things from there.
“I feel like we’ve been overdue for that,” said Dickey of the five-run sixth. “That’s kind of our calling card, being able to put up big innings, and we haven’t had one in a while.
“That was great timing for it, that’s why it’s so frustrating when you go out there and you don’t have a shutdown inning, just because you know how hard those guys at the plate are battling to have an inning like that for the team, and you go back out there and give up a couple, it’s tough, it stings. But at the same time, you know, I didn’t give up too many.”
Crucial in holding the advantage was the clever play made by Tolleson in the eighth, when he ranged up the middle to collect Khris Davis’ grounder and made a nifty backwards scoop to Reyes at second for the out. Gomez followed with a single before McGowan replaced Cecil and induced a 1-6-3 double play.
“The play of the game was Tolleson up the middle,” Gibbons said. “Otherwise we have some trouble brewing.”
Casey Janssen wrapped matters up in the ninth, capping an impressive rebound against the NL Central leaders. The Blue Jays didn’t need Spider-Man to save the day this time, they were able to do it all themselves.