Seattle Mariners players, including Franklin Gutierrez, left, sit in the dugout during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Toronto Blue Jays, Tuesday, Sept. 20, 2016, in Seattle. After this series, Toronto has to run the gauntlet of the best teams in the AL East with four against the Yankees, three against the Orioles and the final three games of the season in Boston against the first-place Red Sox. “We did not have a good offensive home stand, and we need to get after them on the road trip”. They’re hardworking people and they love us – good, bad or ugly.
Advertisement
The Jays then got the leadoff runner to second base with no out in the 10th and 11th, but couldn’t squeeze across the go-ahead run before a Donaldson throwing error in the 13th led to the game-winning run. Ben Gamel followed with an attempted sacrifice bunt, and first baseman Ryan Goins appeared to have Heredia at third, but the ball popped out of Donaldson’s glove on the tag.
Cano then followed with a run-scoring fly to left, quieting the decidedly pro-Blue Jays crowd, bolstered for the third straight game by thousands of fans from western Canada.
“We were starving for a win”, Jays manager John Gibbons said. “You’ve still got to finish it off, and Robbie had a nice at-bat”.
Nick Vincent entered a two-on, no-out jam in the bottom of the 10th but escaped by striking out Bautista and getting Martin to ground into a double play.
“Anytime you can contribute makes it worthwhile”, Bautista said. “It was a big moment”.
That might not be hard considering Seattle mustered just three hits in the game and was held without one for the first six innings. I was behind in the count.
“I actually came back up in the tunnel here and threw a little bit with Josh Thole trying to keep my arm loose”, Happ said. The team on the other side got the message in a different manner, namely seven innings where Felix allowed just two hits.
Even bigger, perhaps, was a diving catch by shortstop Mike Freeman in the 10th inning.
After Estrada walked Leonys Martin to open the eighth inning, Jason Grilli walked the bases loaded with two out before Roberto Osuna retired Cano on a deep fly to right.
It was Sanchez’s fourth start in the last 32 days, but Gibbons suggested the 24-year-old right-hander is back to being all-in as far as every fifth day, or whenever he’s needed the rest of the way, including playoffs.
Toronto pitcher Marco Estrada who threw seven shutout innings and allowed just one hit to pick up the win last night, got a standing ovation upon leaving the game According to ESPN.com he said “We felt like we were the home team, and it’s something we can build off of”. “The math is not good”, manager Scott Servais said. Back in mid-August at Yankee Stadium, Encarnacion hit his 34th home run of the season, while driving in his 100th run, during that odd rain delayed game in which the Jays’ offence came to life after it stopped raining. Aaron Sanchez gets the nod, and he’s 13-2 with a 3.17 ERA and 140 strikeouts this season. Carrera added an RBI single two batters later and came around from first base to score on Devon Travis’s pop-up single near the right-field line.Encarnacion, who started the inning with a strikeout before nine consecutive batters reached base, added an RBI double in a frame that saw the Blue Jays pile up eight hits and a walk sandwiched between the first and second outs.Martin’s two-run homer tied the score 2-2 after Cano drove in two runs in the third with a odd, seeing-eye triple.With two outs and runners on second and third, Cano hit a sharp grounder to the left of Toronto second baseman Travis, who slid to make a play on the ball – only to have it bounce off his knee and fly all the way into the right-field corner.Six consecutive Toronto hitters recorded hits to chase Seattle starter Hisashi Iwakuma in the fourth. The Mariners are 4-0 in their last 4 during game 3 of a series and 7-2 in Hernandezs last 9 starts. Mariners slugger Nelson Cruz served as the designated hitter again Tuesday, the 29th consecutive game in which he was Seattle’s DH. If they lose both, they’ll be five games out with 10 to play. Both teams are 2½ games clear of Detroit and three ahead of Seattle and Houston.
Hernandez has never pitched in a postseason game, and most of his September starts over his 11-year career have come with the Mariners out of postseason contention. The M’s will have to battle 19-game victor and former teammate J.A. Happ (19-4, 3.27 ERA).
Advertisement
“I don’t think anyone three weeks ago thought this was going to be easy”, Servais said.
