Jays Best Red Sox in Electric Homecoming

Blue Jays /

There’s an old saying, “there’s no place home.” For the Blue Jays, no statement could better describe their long-awaited return to the Rogers Centre in Toronto, after 670 days away from their home field. They returned on July 30th for an 11 game homestand, which included a largely impactful 4-game series against the Boston Red Sox. The Jays are still within striking distance of a playoff push, but they needed a series of strong homefield-outings in order to keep their postseason aspirations alive. With a revamped bullpen, José Berríos joining the rotation, and George Springer hitting leadoff homers, the Jays swept the Royals and took three out of four from the Indians. Then, came Boston.

Even though there are still eight weeks left in the season, this four-game series against the Sox was crucial for the Jays. Prior to the series, Boston and Oakland held the first two wildcard positions, and the Jays were 5.0 and 2.5 games behind each of them, respectively. The Jays would need to take at least 3 out of 4 games against Boston in order to stay in the fight and not fall too far behind.

The first game on Friday night started quite slow as the Jays couldn’t muster any offence against Nathan Eovaldi in the early innings. The Red Sox took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fifth, and were threatening to score more as they had the bases loaded, but rookie pitcher Alek Manoah managed to limit the damage. The Jays would quickly tie the game in the bottom of the fifth with a string of doubles by the bottom of the lineup, but the momentum didn’t end there. The Jays went on to score 9 runs in the inning and go on to win the game 12-4. Even though there is a limit of 15,000 people allowed in the Rogers Centre, in that inning, the dome was so electric it felt like a full house.

On Saturday, the Jays had a double-header due to a previously-scheduled game being rained out a few weeks earlier. Game 1 was a pitchers’ duel as the game was 0-0 heading into the bottom of the seventh. Keep in mind, double-header games are only 7 innings long this season, so when Marcus Semien came up to bat in the seventh, it was like watching him step up to the plate in the bottom of the nineth. He wasted little time, as he jumped on the first pitch he saw from Sox-closer Matt Barnes and launched it into the left field bullpen for the first walk-off homerun of his career.

After a tough loss in game two of Saturday’s doubleheader where the Jays only scored one run and lost 2-1 in extra innings, they were hoping to win the final game of the series with a strong outing from Ryu on Sunday. Unfortunately, things did not start well as Ryu clearly struggled, having his worst outing of the season. He only went 3.2 innings, and gave up 10 hits and 7 earned runs. Being down 7-2 after four innings, it looked like it was going to be a terrible end to what was an otherwise very successful homestand. Splitting the four game series with Boston wouldn’t be the end of the world, but after winning the first two, it would have been quite a statement had they won at least one more game. The Jays have been one of the worst teams in baseball at scoring runs in the last few innings of a game, and that made any comeback seem even less likely.

However, the team showed resiliency. Guerrero hit his 35th homerun of the season to cut the deficit to 7-4, but the Sox answered back with a run of their own. The Jays would score a couple more runs in the seventh to cut the lead to 8-6. In the bottom of the eighth, with one on and two out, catcher Reese McGuire battled Matt Barnes and earned himself a walk after nine pitches, which brought George Springer to the plate as the potential go-ahead run. Likely being the Jays’ last chance to comeback, Springer launched a 95mph fastball to centre field for a 3-run homerun and give the Blue Jays a 9-8 lead. The Rogers Centre, which had been quiet all afternoon, erupted, and once again sounded like there were 50,000 people in attendance. Romano would later lock down the game in the nineth, securing one of the biggest wins for the Jays this season.

The Jays went 9-2 on their homestand, and this is exactly what they needed to keep a playoff position within their grasp. The Jays are 3.0 games behind Boston and Oakland, who are now tied, but the Sox could find themselves out of a playoff spot very soon if this downward spiral they seem to be on continues. Unfortunately, the Rays and Yankees have won as much as the Jays as of late, so they haven’t made up any ground on them, but at least they are keeping up. The Jays just need to focus on winning each game and continue to play good baseball. Returning to Toronto was a shot in the arm, and the players are clearly ecstatic to be home. The dome was electric each night, and I’m not sure that the comeback win against Boston would have happened if the team remained in Buffalo, without the overwhelming support of their home fans. Hopefully they can take the energy that they got from Toronto on the road with them, and continue their momentum as we head towards September.

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