TORONTO – Standing on the very same field where 10 years earlier he took Sam Dyson deep, flung his bat to the sky and won a playoff series with his signature moment for the Toronto Blue Jays, Jose Bautista is initially reluctant to talk.
This new moment of majesty, as Monday night bled into Tuesday morning and a 4-3 Game 7 win secured a place in the World Series, belonged to George Springer and No. 19, name on the Level of Excellence and all, is reluctant to infringe. Eventually, though, he’s compelled by reasoning that having been in a nearly identical spot, rallying in the seventh inning of a winner-take-all game, and delivering the same blow to the same area of the Rogers Centre outfield, a three-run homer to left, he possesses unique insight on Springer’s big swing.
“But promise me,” he requests, “that you won’t share this tonight.”
Of course, Jose, and embargo over, his description of what it takes to deliver within the pressure-cooker of the October stage offers an intriguing window into how Springer keeps coming up big when it counts most.
“The only thing it takes is trying to do something right for your team,” Bautista, hoarse from celebrating Springer’s drive, said. “I heard him say that he was only trying to get the runner in from third. That’s exactly what I was thinking. And the baseball gods will reward you if you have a good approach, have a plan, know what you’re looking for. You keep it simple. You try to execute and that’s what he did. When you do that, sometimes you get a result better than what you expect, better than you hope for. And it was what we needed and he got us into the World Series.”
Sound mindset and that all makes sense.
But in a sold-out stadium buzzing with anticipation, amid the stakes of a World Series berth and the real-time emotions that creates, it’s not that easy.
“It’s not that easy,” Bautista agreed. “But it’s that simple.”
Bautista’s fateful seventh in the decisive Game 5 of the 2015 ALDS versus the Texas Rangers was a slow burn, starting with three errors, a groundout and a Josh Donaldson soft popper that brought home the tying run before Bautista’s epic smash.
Springer’s fateful seventh, on the other hand, escalated quickly. Addison Barger worked Bryan Woo for a leadoff walk, followed by an Isiah Kiner-Falefa single and Andres Gimenez sacrifice bunt. Rather than walking him, the Mariners instead brought in Eduard Bazardo, who also pitched in Sunday’s 6-2 Blue Jays win, getting Springer on a grounder to third to end the sixth inning.
The pressure was far different Monday, however, and Springer’s presence could easily have shifted it onto Bazardo.
“Yeah, and the fact that he pitched (Sunday) I think helped because the guys got a few looks at him,” said Bautista. “When you haven’t seen a guy who’s that good for a few days, it’s harder, it takes a few more pitches to kind of get that feeling and see the ball. But the momentum did shift, the pressure was on them, and I think ultimately that helped whoever was at the plate for those at-bats, specifically George, to just relax and let it out.”
Let it out he did, and a sellout crowd of 44,740 made Rogers Centre shake the way it did when Bautista unloaded before 49,742 in 2015 and when Edwin Encarnacion’s three-run homer in the 11th inning walked off the 2016 wild-card game against the Baltimore Orioles before 49,944.
One difference is Springer gets a trip to the World Series, along with the enduring spoils that await him.
“He’s got a lifetime of happiness every time he comes back to Toronto,” said Bautista. “That’s a big home run in the franchise’s history. He deserves to enjoy it and the fans are going to love him for it.”
