TORONTO -- For three hours, the Blue Jays and Braves held the door open for one another, begging their opponent to walk through it and win.
Danny Jansen, tired of standing outside in the cold, finally decided to barge in.
Toronto’s catcher was the walk-off hero on Sunday afternoon at Rogers Centre, scorching a two-run single through the left side of the infield in the bottom of the ninth to seal a 6-5 win and a series sweep over the Braves. At the end of a game so riddled with imperfections, it was remarkable to see Jansen drenched in water, waving up at a roaring crowd upon stealing the win.
“If you get an ice bath, that means something incredible happened,” Jansen said. “It’s a special day. Obviously, this was my wife’s first Mother’s Day and this was a great way to cap it off.”
The air wasn’t just cold inside the ballpark. It was blowing, and it mattered.
Atlanta botched a handful of routine fly balls in the outfield, with two players often coming together at the last moment as they tried to track a knuckleball through the air. The Blue Jays made their share of mistakes, too, both defensively and on the bases. One was nearly fatal, though, to start the bottom of the ninth inning.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. led off the home half and launched a fly ball to the opposite field that he clearly thought was gone. Guerrero jogged out of the box and eased into his wide turn around first base, but then came a sound as loud as the crack of his bat. It was the thump of the ball hitting off the wall.
He was held to a single, and following the win, manager John Schneider wasted no time saying that his star slugger probably should have been on second base to open the inning. It all worked out in the end, but that play on its own was problematic.
“It’s nice when you win and it doesn’t come back to bite you,” Schneider said. “We all thought he got it, too, and a guy like him usually knows. There were obviously weird conditions with the wind and the roof open today. They had a couple [of weird plays]. I think we should have been a bit more aware of that and a bit more aware on the bases.”
These are the conversations that great teams -- or at least teams capable of greatness -- need to have. There are lessons even within wins, and Sunday’s were blatant.
It doesn’t lessen the importance of sweeping one of the best teams in the National League, but this wasn’t your usual post-game victory celebration.
“You always take a win,” Schneider said, “but you’ve got to reel guys in a little bit starting tomorrow. There’s things that we need to tighten up. I thought the last two days were good and today was a weird day. A lot of guys left on base, errors on both sides, us on the bases. You’ve got to tighten that up.”
The Blue Jays have been the comeback kids this season, pulling off 10 come-from-behind wins, and their bullpen can be thanked for that. Anthony Bass, Jay Jackson, Trevor Richards and Nate Pearson combined to give Toronto five innings of scoreless relief to keep the team in the game after a difficult outing from Yusei Kikuchi, who allowed three home runs and nine hits over just four-plus innings.
Home runs have been a problem for Kikuchi, with his 11 in the season tied for fourth in MLB. But that’s a difficult adjustment to make for some pitchers, because it’s important that Kikuchi doesn’t lose his aggression.
“I’ve continued to attack the zone, and sometimes when you attack the zone, you get hit,” Kikuchi said through a club interpreter. “We’ll go back and check the data and all of that, but I’ll continue to attack the zone moving forward.”
Like everything else that went wrong in Sunday’s game, though, the home runs will be forgotten when we look back on the final score a few days from now.
Consider this a lucky escape. The Blue Jays will take the win, but they know that more is needed with the Yankees and Orioles coming to town, then a date with the Rays waiting after. Tampa Bay, in particular, is far less forgiving when it comes to mistakes, and it won’t be as patient if Toronto hesitates at the door again.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiTGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm1sYi5jb20vbmV3cy9kYW5ueS1qYW5zZW4td2Fsa3MtaXQtb2ZmLWFzLWJsdWUtamF5cy1zd2VlcC1icmF2ZXPSAVVodHRwczovL3d3dy5tbGIuY29tL2FtcC9uZXdzL2Rhbm55LWphbnNlbi13YWxrcy1pdC1vZmYtYXMtYmx1ZS1qYXlzLXN3ZWVwLWJyYXZlcy5odG1s?oc=5
2023-05-14 22:07:28Z
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