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Blue Jays offence can’t get it done in extra innings

By Nadia Vocaturo

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128. 6. 39. Final. 7

It all began and ended with Adam Eaton‘s bat in an 11-inning game of baseball between the Toronto Blue Jays and Chicago White Sox on Wednesday night. Fantasy owners are beside themselves.

Eaton hammered a walk-off home run (his sixth of the season) in the 11th inning off Roberto Osuna (1-3) to push the Chicago White Sox to a 7-6 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.

White Sox starter John Danks sat down the top third of the Blue Jays’ order right away, but gave up five straight hits and was chased by the bats by the fifth inning. The southpaw gave up a total of six runs on eight hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Drew Hutchison fared slightly better throwing 87 pitches over five innings of work while striking out six batters – all swinging I might add. He also gave up seven hits, two walks, and four earned runs to the team that trails all American League Major League Baseball teams in runs.

Zach Putnam (3-3) pitched a scoreless 11th for the win, while White Sox relievers hurled 6 2/3 innings giving up two hits. The Blue Jays relievers, on the other hand, gave up nine hits. Refer to the report card below for a little more detail on that.

Chicago got on the board first when the aforementioned centre fielder Eaton took a lead-off walk from Hutchison. He came around on a sacrifice fly off the bat of everyone’s favourite ex-Blue Jay, Melky Cabrera. Adam LaRoche tacked on two more runs scoring José Abreu and Avisail García.

Things got interesting in the top of the third when the Blue Jays wove together a three-single tapestry to load the bases with nobody out. The last of which was a Devon Travis grounder that Danks didn’t cover first base on.

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José Reyes first scored two runners with a single up the middle to leave runners on the corners for none other than Josh Donaldson, who did his DH thing tonight and doubled deep to centre to bring Travis home and Reyes to third. Reyes was brought home on sacrifice fly hit by Edwin Encarnación to put Toronto up 4-3.

Kevin Pillar did lose a routine fly ball in the rain that gave way to a 4-4 game, but Blue Jays fans forgive him because this:

Donaldson gave the Jays the lead back anyway with an RBI double off the base of the wall in right field that surely gave García nightmares to make it a 5-4 game. Bautista would tack on one more run by knocking Donaldson home with a single for a short-lived 6-4 edge.

Carlos Sánchez played comeback kid in the bottom of the 6th for Chicago with a two-out RBI single, and that pesky Eaton made it an even 6-6 with an infield single that cashed in Alexei Ramírez.

The Blue Jays are now 2.5 games behind the New York Yankees, who beat the Oakland A’s 5-4 on Wednesday.

The Blue Jays wrap up their four game series with a day game on Thursday and R.A. Dickey (3-9, 5.02 ERA) on the mound against Jeff Samardzija (5-4, 4.33 ERA).

Game Notes:

  • Drew Hutchison has the highest run support in the AL with 7.65 – his ERA of 5.33 ranks 90th among 97 qualified starters
  • Devon Travis was good for two hits, two runs, a walk, and was retired only once tonight. He’s hitting .291, and has five multi-hit games in his last nine
  • Chicago was 11 games back of the the Kansas City Royals in the American League Central coming into Wednesday’s game
  • The Blue Jays four-run third was their 34th four-plus inning of the season
  • Danny Valencia came into tonight’s game batting .320 off of John Danks but couldn’t hit him tonight and struck out four times
  • Jose Bautista struck out three times tonight but managed an RBI single for a .238 AVG. He had a rocket up the middle in the ninth that was almost good for something, but it was snared by Zach Duke. Cue Jose “Bruce Banner” Bautista.

“C-”. <p>Hutch had six swinging strikeouts, but only lasted five innings and 87 pitches against a team that isn’t particularly offensive. He managed to showed some maturity getting out of a jam the fifth and had help with a 6-4-3 double play ball to end the inning. He really earned his no-decision and deserves nothing better or worse than a C. Minus. </p>. . <b>Drew Hutchison</b>. STARTING PITCHING

<b>Combined effort</b>. “RELIEVER” . “C”. With so many relievers being used, I feel it necessary to spit something out about all of them. Liam Hendricks came into the sixth and struck out home-run threat Tyler Flowers swinging with a 95MPH fastball, which is ideal. Serving up a two-out RBI single to cut the lead to 6-5, not ideal.<p>Aaron Loup was then brought in to <em>not</em> give up the tying run on an infield single to Adam Eaton, but again, not ideal happens.</p><p>Brett Cecil handed Melky Cabrera his only strikeout on the night and proceeded to sit down Adam LaRoche.</p><p>Bo Schultz retired Jose Abreu with a fastball burner the inside corner.</p><p>Steve Delabar had two strikeouts of his own and a 1-2-3 10th inning, but Roberto Osuna only needed two pitches to surrender the walk-off home run. He’s been so very good for the team, and maybe he felt the effects of throwing for the fourth time in four games.</p><p>Nine hits were given up by the Blue Jays bullpen, and at the end of the grade, that just won’t do. </p>.

Really, the Blue Jays have (forgive me) #cometogether in the same inning this season – they’ve scored 4 or more runs in an inning 34 times. They got on the board stringing three consecutive singles together – but Josh Donaldson. He was good for two hits, two RBI, one walk, and one run. His two doubles looked dangerously close to leaving the park, primarily the breaking ball he crushed past Avisail García’s closed eyes and off the right field wall. He may see that again when he closes his eyes later tonight.. . <b>Josh Donaldson</b>. “OFFENCE” . “A-”

Next: Any time now, Alex!

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