TORONTO — If the Blue Jays maintain taking part in like this, they might kiss .500 goodbye for the final time.
Thursday afternoon’s 7-6 walk-off win was one other snapshot of the Blue Jays at their best, finishing a three-game sweep of the Padres to maneuver to 25-24. This group has been caught round .500 all season, by no means straying removed from it in both course, however we haven’t seen them play like this but.
Nathan Lukes was the hero within the backside of the eleventh with an RBI single by the left facet of the infield, saving Jeff Hoffman from the cruel highlight after the Toronto nearer allowed a two-run shot to Gavin Sheets to tie the sport at 4 within the prime of the ninth. Lukes’ massive second additionally saved one ugly inning from tainting the three finest days of the Blue Jays’ season through which they outscored the Padres, 24-6.
A day after starring in Wednesday’s 14-0 blowout, Lukes was proper again in the course of this one, proving once more that he not solely belongs within the massive leagues however can contribute commonly to a group he’s extraordinarily assured in.
“That was the Blue Jays,” Lukes stated Wednesday. “That was the lineup, and people have been the hitters that we’re.”
What’s vital right here, even after the wild celebration to cap this sequence, is how all three of those video games match collectively. That is what momentum appears like. That is how profitable streaks are constructed, when one recreation’s dominance spills over into the following.
Bowden Francis wasn’t sharp Thursday, permitting his league-leading fifteenth house run, however this was an ideal instance of skipper John Schneider having the ability to handle a recreation with each possibility in entrance of him. After Chris Bassitt gave the Blue Jays one other nice begin to open the sequence on Tuesday and Kevin Gausman was dominant in Wednesday’s win, needing solely José Ureña to scrub up the blowout behind him, Toronto’s bullpen was as contemporary because it’s been all season. That’s why Francis was lifted after 4 innings and 77 pitches (48 strikes) as a substitute of being requested to trudge by one or two extra frames.
In got here Yariel Rodríguez, the correct transfer on the proper time by Schneider. Rodríguez has been on a roll, however Thursday could have been his most interesting second within the massive leagues as he struck out the facet within the fifth. Most spectacular of all? He acquired Luis Arraez to swing by strike three on a 97.8 mph fastball properly inside. It was the kind of swing we virtually by no means see from Arraez, baseball’s king of contact who now has Rodríguez in charge for simply his fourth strikeout of the season.
Mason Fluharty, Chad Inexperienced and Yimi García bridged the hole to Hoffman, so whereas these choices all rolled out simply because the Blue Jays hoped, Hoffman’s efficiency was the squeaky wheel. This buildup all began in video games one and two of the sequence, although, leaving Toronto completely positioned to name an audible if something went sideways within the finale.
“We’re taking part in rather well,” Schneider stated. “That was a loopy recreation. You all the time wish to take a two-run lead into the ninth and you are feeling such as you’ve carried out what you want to do to get there, nevertheless it didn’t work out. The fellows simply stored coming, stored coming and stored coming again. Between that at this time and the large day yesterday in opposition to a extremely good group, if that’s our greatest baseball? I don’t know whether it is, nevertheless it’s fairly shut.”
That is what Daulton Varsho and so many others within the Blue Jays’ clubhouse maintain speaking about. A yr in the past, a two-run deficit felt like 10 runs at occasions. This yr, the mindset is extra cohesive and aggressive. There’s a newfound confidence that they will chase groups down and steal video games again from them, even when one thing went flawed alongside the best way.
“The boys fought by the entire recreation,” Varsho stated. “The protection was nice. The pitching was superior.”
Toronto performed one dangerous inning on this sequence, nevertheless it didn’t let that sink the 28 nice innings.
That is how good groups stack wins collectively, and if the Blue Jays can carry this into Tampa and Texas on their subsequent highway journey, the lengthy dance with .500 could lastly be over.
