BOSTON – There’s opportunity in the details, which is why Toronto Blue Jays third base coach Luis Rivera took note when Chris Sale pitched out of the windup despite having runners at second and third base.
A favourable lefty-lefty matchup for the Boston Red Sox ace with Billy McKinney up and two outs in the fourth inning meant the Blue Jays were more willing to take chances, especially after a passed ball allowed Danny Janssen to scoot home with a gift run. Lourdes Gurriel Jr., advanced to third on the play, and as Sale zeroed in on McKinney, Rivera told his baserunner to watch for a full windup.
"If you can take it, take it," Rivera said.
That’s what Gurriel did, stunting further and further up the third-base line with the count 1-1 before breaking on Sale’s first move. Stunned, the lefty yanked his pitch to the backstop as the 25-year-old slid into the plate with the sixth straight steal of home in franchise history.
Gurriel popped up with a hand clap – "I was very emotional in the moment – I was going crazy," he said – while the Blue Jays dugout erupted.
"Adrenaline," Rivera said of what he felt watching it happen. "I said, ‘Oh, he’s going, oh … yes!’ You get a little anxious over there."
Few plays in baseball can compete with a steal of home in terms of daring, intensity and, really, sheer gall. Gurriel’s dash is, perhaps, the best moment of the Blue Jays season thus far. But more intriguing than the steal is what the thinking behind it says about the type of baseball manager Charlie Montoyo wants his team to play.
Throughout the spring, he talked about not being afraid to try different things in an attempt to win ballgames, using any means necessary. Four-man outfields, catcher wristbands with info sheets and match-up based batting orders are a few manifestations of that so far.
In Tuesday’s 7-5 win over the Red Sox, Montoyo employed the hit and run, called a sacrifice bunt (the Blue Jays already have two this season, compared to record-low five last year) and green lighted the club’s first three stolen bases of 2019 (Gurriel’s swipe of home was the first).
That’s a lot of risk-reward ball over nine innings.
"What’s funny is when you do things like that and the guy gets thrown out people second-guess you, but we said we’re going to be bold, we’re going to take chances and we did," said Montoyo. "(Gurriel’s steal) was a good time to take a chance. You don’t just do it to do it."
Factored into the club’s decision-making was the wider context of how their offence had struggled during a four-game sweep in Cleveland – they scored only six runs all series and in three of the losses, managed only three hits – and had run cold since opening day.
Blessed with some traffic on the basepaths early on, the Blue Jays decided to get aggressive. By pitching out of the windup and being slow to the plate, Sale gave them some opportunities to exploit. Once he did, they didn’t sit around and wait for a three-run homer.
"I saw the opportunity and I went for it," said Gurriel.
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Still, reckless is only a small step away from aggressive. Outs are the most valuable commodity in baseball. Montoyo insists there will be a balance between being bold and being smart.
"It depends on who’s on the mound, how good the team is doing," said Montoyo. "You go game by game. You don’t want to give outs away, so it depends on how the game is going."
Heading into Tuesday’s game, the games hadn’t been going well. Beyond the mess in Cleveland, the Blue Jays had lost six of seven and Montoyo was troubled by the team’s approach at the plate, something that was noticeably different against the Red Sox.
Four of their seven hits off Sale went to the opposite field, as rather than trying to launch-angle every pitch into the seats, they simply took what was given to them. While the game’s best pitcher certainly wasn’t himself, they put constant pressure on him.
"We did a good job of going the other way, hitting sliders and fastballs," said Montoyo. "It was more us making an adjustment."
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Now, what matters is that the approach holds. One game does not make a turnaround, especially when there were several bad ones that preceded it.
But in showing some daring on field, the Blue Jays may have showed themselves something, while giving opponents something to worry about.
"They’re going to be a little uncomfortable," said Rivera. "They can’t just think I’ve got to get this hitter. They’ve got to think about the runners on base, are they going to take chances. If I try to concentrate on getting my windup down and this guy out, we may take advantage of that. Maybe they can make a mistake, we can score a run. We put that in their minds now.""
