TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays are a hell of a drug.
Even when they lose, as they did to the Cleveland Indians Monday night by a score of 4-2, they’ll give you at least a couple moments of knee-shaking, hair-raising exhilaration.
Like in the eighth, when they loaded the bases with two-outs, thanks to a Jose Bautista single, an Edwin Encarnacion double and a Troy Tulowitzki intentional walk. Down one and with Justin Smoak at the plate, the 46,643 at Rogers Centre all stood and roared, elevating the moment beyond anything that’s been experienced on a late-August Toronto weeknight in quite some time.
Or in the ninth, when Josh Donaldson came to the plate with two out and two on, representing the go-ahead run, with that same crowd going nuts once again. Both Smoak and Donaldson struck out, and the Blue Jays lost for just the sixth time in their last 30 games. But there was no denying that dramatic, exciting and important late-season baseball is being played on Bremner Boulevard.
“That was a battle. We kept the pressure on in the last couple innings — we had the bases loaded in the eighth and two guys on in the ninth. We made a run at it, just couldn’t get that big hit. Good pitching played a big part in that,” said Blue Jays manager John Gibbons. “When you look at this year, if there’s a guy you want up there [in the ninth,] it’s gotta be [Donaldson.] I think he’s spoiled everybody around here because he’s come through so many times.”
Alas, the Blue Jays finish their torrid August with a loss, while still recording the highest winning percentage of any month in club history at .778. It was an opportune time for the defeat as the New York Yankees also fell Monday night, meaning the Blue Jays didn’t lose any ground in the AL East standings, a fact you can be sure is not lost on Toronto fans who packed the Rogers Centre once again, giving the club it’s eighth-consecutive sell-out.
“It’s awesome. I’ll tell you what — these fans are incredible. They’re getting after it,” Donaldson said. “Today we came a little bit short but we know we’re going to come back stronger tomorrow.”
Still, there has been an underreported byproduct of the Blue Jays remarkable August run and the team’s nightly outbursts of offence: it’s been a long while since the Blue Jays were in a pitchers’ duel. That’s how things went Monday night as David Price and Danny Salazar went toe-to-toe, both throwing seven-inning, high-strikeout gems.
Cleveland had earned an early lead when Jason Kipnis doubled on the second pitch of the evening and came around to score two groundballs later. But from that point on Price pitched like Price, earning swings-and-misses with his fastball, cutter and changeup as he dotted his pitches all over the zone and finished with nine strikeouts.
On Cleveland’s mound, Salazar was just as dominant, making Blue Jays batters look as mortal as they have in quite some time with a wicked split-change, as he struck out seven through his first four innings and finished with 10.
“He’s one of the best in baseball, that’s no secret,” Gibbons said. “He’s got a good, quick, overpowering arm.”
But in the fifth inning, Josh Donaldson happened.
Blue Jays nine-hitter Ryan Goins singled with two-outs before Ben Revere ran out a grounder that deflected off Salazar’s glove to put two runners on. That brought up Donaldson who, with “M-V-P! M-V-P!” chants ringing around him, worked his way to a 3-1 count and swung through a fastball up in the zone.
Donaldson backed out of the box for a moment to adjust his helmet and elbow guard, and think about his approach.
“The entire at-bat, I was sitting on something off-speed, because my at-bat before he punched me out on a splitter,” Donaldson said. “Swinging through the fastball right there, and them recognizing I was probably a little tardy on it but I took a pretty good swing, I felt like he was probably going to go with something soft.”
As he stepped back in the roar of the crowd grew, and Salazar threw the soft pitch Donaldson was expecting, a change-up on the outer half, which the third baseman attacked with a compact swing, lining the ball the opposite way to the warning track in left-centre. Cleveland outfielder Abraham Almonte chased it down and got the end of his glove on it but nothing more, as the ball fell to the turf and both runners scored.
Donaldson sprinted all the way around to third, sliding into the base with his helmet bouncing behind him and popping up with an emphatic hand-clap while yelling “Let’s go!” into the Blue Jays dugout.
The two runs driven in gave Donaldson 35 for the month, tying him with Edwin Encarnacion and making it the first time in more than half a century that two teammates have had 35 RBI in the month of August. Ted Williams and Bobby Doerr were the last to do that for the Boston Red Sox in 1950, and they’re both in the hall of fame.
Encarnacion, it should be noted, extended his MLB-best hit streak to 26 games in the sixth, becoming the first American League player with a hit streak longer than 25 games since Ichiro Suzuki went 27 games in 2009.
Cleveland responded in the seventh, when Carlos Santana drew a full-count walk before Ryan Raburn doubled to deep right-centre to drive him in. Price struck out Yan Gomes to get to two outs, but then Jerry Sands singled to left, scoring Raburn and giving Cleveland the winning run.
“In those situation, you’ve got to be able to get outs. And that’s not what I did tonight,” Price said. “Raburn’s hit me extremely well, Jerry’s had some big hits this year against me. Those guys, they work hard — that’s part of it.”
The Indians extended that lead in the top of the ninth when Lonnie Chisenhall chopped an infield single off the glove of Donaldson, who then threw the ball into the Blue Jays dugout in an attempt to nab Gomes at third, allowing him to jog home with a crucial insurance run.
“I wasn’t able to make the play at the beginning, but I felt like I had a chance, which I did,” Donaldson said. “When I made the throw it kind of sailed on me a little bit. If I had to do it again, I would do it again. Just make a better throw.”
But the nuts and bolts of this loss are not what is important to take away, as the Blue Jays — who haven’t lost by more than three since July 4 — are likely to have a dozen more just like it over the rest of the season.
What’s more meaningful is the fact this team is about to play meaningful games in September, and is providing intense, dig-your-nails-into-the-arm-rest moments on a nightly basis, the kind that make the sport such a thrilling ride to follow.
The baseball that will be played between now and October matters greatly, and Blue Jays fans haven’t been able to say that in quite some time.