TORONTO – These types of rallies really aren’t routine, even if the Toronto Blue Jays are making it seem otherwise. Over the past three days, they have twice erased 6-2 deficits, and also come back from 4-1 down. On Aug. 12 against the Miami Marlins, they came back from down 8-0 in a game they eventually lost. Eight days later they rallied from 7-0 down against the Philadelphia Phillies to win. The last two games were without leading slugger Teoscar Hernandez, who is on the injured list with a left oblique strain, joining Bo Bichette, the team’s best offensive player out since Aug. 17, on the sidelines.
To be honest, it’s pretty nuts.
Monday’s outburst against the New York Yankees, a season-best 10-run bonanza in the sixth inning capped by Danny Jansen’s grand slam in a stunning 12-7 win, was the latest remarkable eruption for the Blue Jays, now two games clear of their more heralded guests for second in the AL East.
This one came after Sean Reid-Foley, in for some mop-up duty behind a grinding Hyun-Jin Ryu, was dreadful after allowing a two-out single to Thairo Estrada, walking three straight batters to bring the second baseman home for a 6-2 edge. The Yankees looked set to cruise from there.
Then came the Blue Jays’ biggest inning of the season, and biggest since Aug. 31, 2010.
Santiago Espinal started things off with a 10-pitch walk off Chad Green. After Jansen flew out, Cavan Biggio walked and Randal Grichuk singled to load the bases for Rowdy Tellez, who capped another 10-pitch at-bat with a chopper to first Luke Voit booted to bring in a run.
On came Adam Ottavino, who promptly surrendered a two-run single to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who stole second – Surprise!! – before Lourdes Gurriel Jr. delivered a single that tied things up.
After Jonathan Villar walked to again load the bases, Travis Shaw ripped a two-run single to give the Blue Jays their first lead of the night, and after Joe Panik, batting for Espinal, worked a seven-pitch walk, Jansen unloaded on a 3-1 heater in the happy zone to make it 12-6.
The Yankees looked like they just got hit by a bus.
Now, piling up 34 runs over five games against the four-A pitching of the Boston Red Sox over the weekend is one thing. There’s a lot of good hitting on that pitching staff. Doing it against the Yankees, even if they’ve been thinned out by injury, is a different story.
Beating up on Green and Ottavino, two of New York’s valued leverage relievers who help shorten games, in a game of import with playoff positioning at stake, is wild stuff.
Still, it’s no accident, as demonstrated by the at-bats in that inning. The outbursts are a byproduct of a sound approach, relentless tenacity and clever opportunism, exemplified by Espinal, Tellez, Guerrero, Panik and Jansen in that sixth.
“We’re such a good team that it brings it out of a lot of players knowing you have to lock it in more because of where we’re at,” Tellez said of the club’s approach before the game. “When you start winning more often, guys really start investing more time, really start investing in a belief in themselves that gets them going.
“You see with teams that aren’t playing well or losing teams, they have a lot of individualistic guys that just want to hunt their numbers. In the long run, when you just focus on playing for the next guy, playing for the next at-bat – we always talk about having unselfish bats – we’re taking those walks, maybe getting down to two strikes and (seeing) eight pitches. You might get out, but if the lead-off hitter sees eight pitches, that’s awesome for everybody else to know what the guy has.”
In doing so, they continue to outhit whatever issues arise during the game.
This time, it was Ryu allowing five runs in five innings, including a two-spot in the fifth that ceded control of the evening to the Yankees.
The Blue Jays needed him to get deep but he couldn’t in this one, forcing Reid-Foley, added to the roster some 20 minutes before game time, to work the sixth. More was needed from him, but after the rally, Julian Merryweather stepped into the void with two frames before Anthony Bass finished things off in the ninth.
