ARLINGTON, Texas – Before we get to the club record 20th double-digit outburst at the plate for the Toronto Blue Jays – highlighted by an Edwin Encarnacion grand slam that ran his hit streak to 21 games – let’s first give David Price’s pivotal fourth-inning escape the appropriate due.
With Mike Napoli and Elvis Andrus aboard to open the frame for the Texas Rangers in a game just tied up by his team, the ace left-hander responded by striking out Ryan Strausborger, who failed to get a sacrifice bunt down, Chris Gimenez and Hanser Alberto, in an eight-pitch duel, to keep things level.
Justin Smoak responded by sending a rocket into the upper deck off Colby Lewis with Jose Bautista on board after the third of his four walks in the fifth, the Blue Jays opened things up with a six-run sixth and then cruised their way to a 12-4 victory Wednesday, their fifth in a row and 21st in the last 26 games.
Given the lopsided final, the Blue Jays may still have won this game even if the Rangers put a few runs up on the board during that rally in the fourth. Then again, momentum may also have swung differently had that happened, and perhaps things play out differently.
"If you’ve got runners on first and second with nobody out, I don’t know what the numbers are, the percentages, but one of those guys is going to score more often than not," said Price. "We were able to make some pitches, and that’s what you’ve got to do in those situations."
As things turned out, the Blue Jays (71-55) moved two games ahead of the New York Yankees, 6-2 losers to the Houston Astros, atop the American League East, while the Rangers (64-61) fell a half-game behind the Minnesota Twins for the second wild card.
And apart from how Price escaped trouble while Lewis did not, another decisive contrast in this one before 20,572 at Globe Life Park was how the bottom third of the Blue Jays lineup did damage and the Rangers’ couldn’t.
"Jose told me yesterday that when our 7, 8, 9 guys get on, it will be a lot of damage, because you can’t pitch around Tulo, J.D., Jose, Eddie, Smoakie, Russell all those guys," said Revere. "We’ve started to get walks, stolen bases, hits, now we go from a ridiculous team to an unbelievable team, it’s going to be crazy."
No. 9 hitter Ryan Goins’ RBI single in the second to score seven hitter Ben Revere in the second cut into the 2-0 lead Adrian Beltre staked Texas to with his two-run homer in the first. After Smoak’s groundout in the third knotted things up and his homer in the fifth opened up a 4-2 lead, Kevin Pillar opened the sixth with a solo home run, Ryan Goins walked and scored on Josh Donaldson’s RBI single and after another Bautista walk, Encarnacion launched his 26th homer of the year over the wall in left-centre.
Reliever Spencer Patton, who took over from Lewis after the Pillar home run, allowed five runs on three hits and two walks without recording an out.
"I’m trying to look for my pitch, trying to be aggressive in the strike zone, and it’s been great the way I’ve been seeing the ball the last couple of weeks," said Encarnacion.
The big lead allowed manager John Gibbons to pull Price after just six innings and 95 pitches, saving the left-hander’s bullets for another day when they’ll matter more.
Price allowed just two runs on five hits and a walk with eight strikeouts, but was made to work much harder by the Rangers than his line would suggest.
"They were grinding him," said Gibbons. "This is never a really easy place to pitch, the ball flies, maybe not as much as it used to, but you never really feel comfortable, it’s kind of like a park in our division. He battled it, he got through that fourth, and I figured with a big lead, give him a blow, he was closing in on 100 pitches. Well done, on his birthday, nice performance."
A tremendous leaping Revere catch against the left-field wall to rob Delino DeShields of extra bases to open the third, and a Donaldson snare of an Elvis Andrus chopper in the sixth helped him out, underlining a point GM Alex Anthopoulos made earlier in the day about how the team’s improved defence carried over across the board.
"I don’t think I used this word at the time, because I didn’t want to disparage the club, but I did think we underachieved a little bit going into the (July 31 trade) deadline and that was reflected in the won-lost record, run differential and things like that," he said. "We just needed to tighten some things up."
Those areas have tightened up, and the Blue Jays’ pitching staff, before play started Tuesday, ranked second in the American League in both ERA at 3.23 and WHIP at 1.15 since June 1. Adding Price while bolstering the bullpen has only strengthened that.
"What he does is he allows everyone to fall into place, and that takes some pressure off," R.A. Dickey said of Price. "We don’t try any less hard, but it’s nice to know that if you stumble, you’ve got a stopper behind you somewhere. It’s the presence. … We’re all capable of doing that, but consistently, he’s a little more capable. That’s why you go out and get him – he’s your guy."
Before yet another offensive onslaught, Price very much was precisely that once again.