TORONTO, Ont. – It was a frustrating afternoon for Blue Jays’ watchers for most of Sunday, but the crowd went home happy and Toronto wound up with a four-game split with the Baltimore Orioles.
Here are three things that stood out to me about the dramatic victory:
WALKING IT OFF
The Blue Jays haven’t been all that big on clutch come-from-behind victories this season, and when Matt Wieters hit a two-out, two-run double in the ninth to stretch the Orioles’ lead to three runs – especially after the Blue Jays had loaded the bases in each of the two prior innings and scored only once – it appeared as though all was lost.
It wasn’t.
The Jays torched Baltimore closer Jim Johnson for four runs in the bottom of the ninth, starting the comeback with three straight hits to lead off the inning – a double from Edwin Encarnacion and singles by Adam Lind and J.P. Arencibia. All three hits came with two strikes.
With a run in and men on the corners, Brett Lawrie flied out to medium-depth right field and Lind was wisely held at third (though Lawrie didn’t seem to agree with the decision). Anthony Gose was next, and had two strikes on him when he drew a walk to load the bases and move the tying run into scoring position.
Mark DeRosa also had two strikes on him when he hit a ground ball to shortstop that was hit hard enough only to get one out, scoring Lind to cut the deficit to one.
That left runners on the corners with two out for Munenori Kawasaki, who had singled in a run with the bases loaded in the bottom of the eighth – only the Blue Jays’ fourth hit all season with the sacks juiced.
As did all but one of his teammates before him in the inning, Kawasaki got to a two-strike count against Johnson, and with DeRosa running on the full-count delivery, the light-hitting shortstop stroked a line drive into the gap in left centre to win the ballgame.
It was only the Blue Jays’ second walk-off win of the season, both coming in this homestand.
VALIANT EFFORT
Chad Jenkins was in pretty close to an untenable situation, asked to start against a good-hitting lineup having not gotten into a game in two weeks. Add to that the fact that Jenkins’ start a fortnight ago was only the second start he’d had all season, having had only one rehab start in the minors coming off shoulder inflammation in the spring.
With all that rest, Jenkins was shaky early, retiring only one of the first seven hitters he faced. Luckily, Melky Cabrera threw out a runner at the plate in the first (with help on the relay from Kawasaki) and the one batter Jenkins retired happened to line into a double play, so the result of all those Orioles reaching base was only one run. A second scored when the eighth Orioles batter of the game, Danny Valencia, grounded out to cash J.J. Hardy from third.
It appeared at that point that things were about to implode, but Jenkins got two more ground balls to get out of the second inning, then ran between the metaphorical raindrops to throw three more shutout frames and leave having given up only those two runs.
Given Jenkins’ situation – how long he’d been off and how little he’d pitched all year – two runs allowed over five innings is a lot better than most could have hoped for.
BASEBALL JONES
Adam Jones became only the second player ever to hit a home run in every game of a four-game series against the Blue Jays with his seventh-inning big fly (The other is Julio Lugo. Yeah, me neither). Every one of Jones’ four home runs in the series came in his fourth at-bat of the game, and they were all solo shots.
Jones has hit more home runs at Rogers Centre than any other opponent over the last two seasons, but he’s much more than just a bat.
Jones also made what was the play of the game on defence until O’s reliever Tommy Hunter’s bare-handed grab of Jose Bautista’s comebacker with two out and the bases loaded in the eighth, with a sensational grab that stole a potential triple from Anthony Gose in the fourth.
With the Blue Jays down 2-1, a runner on second and one out, Gose belted a line drive to deep centre field and Jones, who was playing shallow, had to get on his horse to track it down. He did, sprinting straight back towards the wall and having to leap and stretch at the last moment to snare it. Jones won his second-career Gold Glove last year, and showed us why.