TORONTO – Oh yeah, the Toronto Blue Jays played a game Thursday, too.
Hours after the acquisition of David Price blew up and with the excitement over the bold deadline move still everywhere, Marco Estrada delivered 5.2 solid innings of two-run work while Dioner Navarro, Russell Martin and Josh Donaldson each went deep in a 5-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals.
Troy Tulowitzki was hit by a pitch and scored on a Jose Bautista fly ball in the first while LaTroy Hawkins pitched a scoreless seventh as the Blue Jays got contributions from their other newcomers this week in taking the opener of a four-game set versus the defending AL champs.
"What a team," Estrada said of all the moves. "Alex (Anthopoulos, the GM) put together a great team, I thought even before he even made the moves we were a really good team, and we just got better. Adding LaTroy, Tulowitzki and now David Price, that’s pretty incredible.
"We’re all pretty excited and ready to get this thing going.
Johnny Cueto, Kansas City’s big deadline addition, makes his Royals debut Friday against Drew Hutchison, putting more onus on the first game, and while it didn’t start well for Estrada, who surrendered a two-out, two-run double to Kendrys Morales in the first, both he and the Blue Jays settled in quickly afterwards.
Bautista’s sacrifice fly in the first cut into K.C.’s lead, while Navarro’s two-run drive in the second – his first home run since June 23 – gave the Blue Jays the lead.
"I knew I needed to be aggressive, especially having not played for a little bit," said Navarro. "I’m just trying to take advantage of every opportunity I get. I think it was a big part of the game. But solid work by Estrada, that’s the No. 1 thing."
Solo shots from Martin in the third and Donaldson in the fourth – prompting Royals starter Danny Duffy to throw his hands up in the air – pushed the lead to 5-2 and Estrada and four relievers held it right there.
Estrada, coming off a frustrating outing in Seattle in which he allowed five runs in four innings as an emergency sub for Drew Hutchison, allowed just three hits and a hit-batsman in this one, leaving after Lorenzo Cain’s two-out single in the sixth.
He retired 15 in a row between the hits by Morales and Cain, realizing he was rushing his delivery against the Mariners and slowing down the pace against the Royals.
"Just a tad," he said. "In Seattle, I was rushing, maybe overthrowing a little bit because I knew I wasn’t hitting my spots, I think I tried to do a little too much and today I changed it. I went back to what I’ve normally done, you can’t go out there overthrowing, especially a guy like myself who doesn’t throw very hard to begin with. I don’t know what got into me that outing, it’s just the way it goes."
Brett Cecil came on and got Eric Hosmer to ground out, Hawkins handled the seventh, Aaron Sanchez the eighth and Roberto Osuna a six-pitch ninth for his sixth save, the revamped bullpen working to vision.
"Things are started to fall in line," said manager John Gibbons, adding later: "It makes it easier on the manager, that’s for sure. We decided to put Sanchie back there, we knew he was going to throw the eighth or ninth inning, he can still do both, Osuna really settled into that. With the emergence of (Bo Schultz), that’s helped strengthen that, and then Hawkins of course, that’s a big pick up for us. …
"Those middle innings are crucial, those sixth and seventh innings depending on what your starter does, because normally they’re at the tail end in those innings, you’ve got to be able to have guys who can come in and shut something down. I feel better about that now."
Price is expected to join the Blue Jays on Friday, having already given his team a boost in morale.
"I think it can work both ways, really," Donaldson said before the game. "It can be one of those things where you make a trade and you get so excited that you get caught up in the excitement too much. The end of the day, when he’s out there, you saw with Troy (Wednesday) he made an immediate impact. He’s one of those guys that can be very similar to that when he’s out on the mound that day he’s going to make an immediate impact and our job is to play good defence behind him and score runs for him. Hopefully that equals wins."
