PHILADELPHIA – Road trips such as the eight-gamer the Toronto Blue Jays opened Tuesday night – three cities, three time zones with three off-days – can be fraught with peril. Body clocks can be disrupted, too much down time can distort timing and rhythm, and recently at least, bad things tend to happen to this franchise out west.
There are challenges to be faced that extend beyond just the baseball.
That’s why capitalizing on a two-game set against the lowly Philadelphia Phillies at the front-end of their journey is vital, and what made Josh Donaldson’s two home runs, including a decisive three-run drive in a five-run sixth, in the opener so important for the Blue Jays in an 8-5 victory.
They’re now halfway to having both games in their back pocket before heading out west for three against the Los Angeles Angels and three more versus the Texas Rangers, both post-season contenders, with Mark Buehrle set to start Wednesday versus fellow lefty Adam Morgan.
Not bad considering the Blue Jays (66-54) were nearly in salvage mode, as R.A. Dickey only made it through four innings and left his team down 5-3 until the all-star third baseman took charge.
"The game of baseball is very mental," said Donaldson. "You have to expect to get the job done, if there’s any doubt, any questioning of whether you’re going to do it you’re probably going to fail in this game. So it’s important to have confidence and belief in yourself and belief in your teammates at the same time. Every time I come up, I expect myself to not only have a good at-bat, but to help my team win the game. I expect that out of every one of my teammates, as well."
Pivotal in limiting the damage was Liam Hendriks, who took over from the knuckleballer in the fifth with the bases loaded and none out, induced a 4-6-3 double play from Jeff Francoeur that scored a run and then struck out Ryan Howard to end the frame.
"If you can get out of a bases loaded, none out jam with only one run scoring, that’s a win," said Hendriks. "I think it stunted their momentum and swung the bats well the next inning."
The Blue Jays then responded in the top of the sixth, as Ben Revere led off with a walk, advanced to second on Cliff Pennington’s bunt attempt and scored on Chris Colabello’s pinch-hit RBI single. Troy Tulowitzki followed with a base hit before Donaldson, swinging 3-0 against Jeanmar Gomez, sent No. 33 over the wall in left-centre for a 7-5 lead.
"That’s the plan," Donaldson said of successfully attacking a 3-0 pitch. "It differs really, on the pitcher, that guy has a really good sinker, my whole intention was I was zoning a pitch up in the location it was kind of at, just really trying to hit a ball in the air because I don’t want to swing 3-0 and hit a groundball, and possibly be a double play, because that’s what he does. Fortunately he left it a bit up for me and I was able to get it just enough."
Edwin Encarnacion added his 22nd of the season an out later for an 8-5 edge, and the Blue Jays bullpen did the rest from there, Brett Cecil, LaTroy Hawkins, Aaron Sanchez and Roberto Osuna, handling the ninth for his 14th save, delivering a scoreless inning each.
"That’s our revamped bullpen and that’s what they’re capable of," said manager John Gibbons. "They’ve been on a nice little roll, they’ve all been pitching good."
Donaldson opened the scoring in the first with a 454-foot rocket to the second deck in left field, the fifth straight home run he’d hit in the first inning. The multi-homer game was the third of the season and sixth of his career, and 21 of his 33 home runs this year have either tied the game or given the Blue Jays a lead.
Little wonder then that a vocal contingent of Blue Jays loyalists among the crowd of 26,547 at Citizens Bank Park broke into "M-V-P M-V-P" each time he stepped to the plate.
"I’m in a position in the lineup to do that," said Donaldson. "I’m not saying I’m the only that can do it, because there are a lot of guys in our lineup that can, but I’m in a position in the lineup where I need to be able to come through and fortunately I’ve been able to do it for the most part, this year."
Donaldson also walked in the third and scored on Ezequiel Carrera’s two run single that gave the Blue Jays a 3-1 lead.
But Dickey couldn’t hold that lead, as after surrendering a Francoeur solo shot in the second, he gave up a two-out RBI single to Cesar Hernandez in the bottom of the third and then an RBI single to Cody Asche and a run-scoring triple by Freddy Glavis in the fourth, also with two out, that put the Phillies up 4-3.
Prior to that, opponents were just 9-for-56 with two outs and men in scoring position against him this year.
"I threw a pretty good knuckleball to Hernandez and he hit a groundball up the middle, sometimes you have to tip your hat," said Dickey. "I didn’t have a horrible one, I just didn’t have a consistent breaking knuckleball tonight, so I was feeling for it a lot. Some nights it’s like that. Thankfully over the last two, two and a half months, those have been few and far between, so I have reason for optimism."
Having ended the club’s record run of 20 games with starters allowing three earned runs or less, Dickey then didn’t make it out of the fifth, with Hendriks’ fine work setting the stage for the decisive rally, picking up his fourth win of the season.
"I’ve got more wins as a reliever this year than I did as a starter in four years," he quipped, "so that’s always good."
Same goes for the Blue Jays, who are in position to accomplish what they need to do before crossing the continent.