ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Toronto Blue Jays aren’t in a position to be picky about wins. Right now they’ll take what they can get.
But Friday’s 6-1 win at Tropicana Field was more significant than most. Not only did the Blue Jays’ slow-starting offence show signs of life with four home runs, Aaron Sanchez dominated the Tampa Bay Rays with one of his best starts yet.
“I’ll tell you what, he was as good as it gets tonight,” manager John Gibbons said.
Sanchez was at his sharpest against the Rays, hitting the lower half of the strike zone with a fastball that touched 97 mph with late sinking action.
“When I have that I know it’s going to be fun,” Sanchez said. “I’m going to have the chance to be really good and I did tonight, just attacking.”
Sanchez struck out six over seven scoreless innings, allowing six hits and two walks. Unable to adjust to the movement on Sanchez’s fastball, the Rays collected just one extra-base hit.
“I like that,” Sanchez said. “If I get late movement that’s huge.”
His curve was just as effective.
“That’s probably the most consistent I’ve seen it this year,” Gibbons said. “That’s big. Then you can’t just narrow him down to one pitch, the heater. You’ve got to cheat a little bit to get to it anyways, so if he can drop that in and put something else on their minds (it helps). That’s really a must for him to be a great starter that we think he can be.”
No one but Logan Forsythe looked comfortable against Sanchez, so it’s telling that Gibbons left the 23-year-old right-hander in there to face Forsythe for a fourth time in the bottom of the seventh. Sanchez responded to the vote of confidence by generating a ground ball out to cap off what was arguably his strongest outing of the year.
“For (Gibbons) to allow me to go back out and continue to do what I’ve done, that talks big about what he sees in me, and that gives me confidence knowing that he has confidence in me,” Sanchez said.
Or, as Gibbons put it, “When a guy’s good, a guy’s good.”
Sanchez wasn’t nearly as sharp in his previous start against the Athletics, when he struggled to keep pitches down. The work he put in between starts to pitch on a downhill plane appears to have paid off with better location. Of his 103 pitches, 71 were strikes.
“I was bad against Oakland,” Sanchez said. “I was flattening out. I wasn’t staying on top of the baseball. Tonight was totally different.”
The Blue Jays’ lineup hasn’t been as productive as it was in 2015, when 10-run games seemingly became the norm, but it provided Sanchez with enough support Friday. Michael Saunders led the way with two home runs, an especially encouraging sign considering he missed time with a sore hamstring last weekend. The homers, both solo shots, give him a .983 OPS — not bad at all for a leadoff hitter.
“I’m definitely feeling good,” Saunders said. “Confident, most importantly and I’m healthy. That’s the biggest thing. I’ve got my legs underneath me this year and I’m seeing the ball well. Hitting in front of the guys that we have — J.D., Bautista, Encarnacion, Tulo — that obviously helps.”
Russell Martin ended a streak of nine consecutive strikeouts by hitting a seventh-inning single. In doing so he avoided an unwanted place in the history books alongside Rick Ankiel, the lone position player to strike out 10 times in a row.
Josh Donaldson and Ryan Goins also homered, as the Blue Jays matched their offensive output from this week’s three-game series against the Chicago White Sox on one night. They did much of the damage after Drew Smyly — the third consecutive tough lefty to face the Blue Jays — left the game. Smyly struck out eight over six strong innings before giving way to a vulnerable Rays bullpen.
It wasn’t all positive for the Blue Jays, as Drew Storen allowed a home run on the second pitch he threw, a 92 mph fastball to Brad Miller. Storen struck out the next batter, but his early-season struggles make it harder for the Blue Jays to bridge the gap to closer Roberto Osuna.
Ultimately that wasn’t a problem Friday, as the 11-13 Blue Jays closed in on the .500 mark with a much-needed win.
“Our starting pitching’s been great,” Saunders said. “We need to put some runs on the board for them and I feel like it’s only a matter of time before we click on all cylinders.”
