ST. PETERSBURG – It had been about two-and-a-half months since the Blue Jays lost three games in a row, but for six innings Sunday, it appeared that’s where they were headed.
After losing the first two games of this three-game series at Tropicana Field, the Jays were being mowed down by Tampa ace Chris Archer. Beyond that, Toronto’s 17-game winner, J.A. Happ, was having a lousy day, unable to get out of the third inning.
Down 3-1 heading to the seventh inning, the Jays were able to get Archer out of the game and then made short work of reliever Brad Boxberger to tie the game on a clutch two-run single by Devon Travis.
That set the stage for Russell Martin’s heroics. With Kevin Jepsen on the mound for Tampa Bay, Dioner Navarro walked on five pitches. Dalton Pompey came on to run and stole second base on the first pitch to Martin.
Two pitches later, Martin had the green light on a 3-0 count and didn’t miss it. The ball landed about 10 rows deep in left field for his 17th homer of the year, making the score 5-3.
That’s the way it stayed. Joaquin Benoit and Jason Grilli each pitched a scoreless inning to set up Roberto Osuna for his 30th save.
It was Happ’s worst outing since these same Tampa Bay Rays flayed him for eight runs in two innings during a 13-2 slaughter back in May. Remarkably, he was able to hold the Rays to three runs, and the bullpen picked him up. Danny Barnes and Scott Feldman combined for 3.1 scoreless innings, and by that time, the Jays had turned the tide in their favour.
After Archer fanned Jose Bautista and Josh Donaldson to start the game, Edwin Encarnacion doubled to the wall in right-centre. He then scored when Dioner Navarro leaked a single between first and second base. On the throw to the plate, Navarro strayed too far off first base and was caught off the base for the third out, but only after Encarnacion had scored to make it 1-0.
It was obvious right from the start that Happ didn’t have it. Logan Forythe and Kevin Kiermaier each singled, then Forsythe scored on Evan Longoria’s double. Kiermaier later scored on a sacrifice fly by Matt Duffy to give Tampa Bay a 2-1 lead after the first inning, which saw Happ use up 30 pitches.
Somehow, Happ got through the second inning unscathed despite issuing a pair of walks and giving up some more hard contact. Once again, he squandered a lot of pitches and needed 61 to get the first six outs.
It didn’t get any better in the third inning. He got two fly ball outs to start, then yielded three consecutive singles, with Corey Dickerson driving in Duffy for Tampa’s third run, signalling the end of Happ’s day. He faced 17 hitters in his 2.2 innings of work and retired just eight of those hitters. The fortunate thing was that the Rays only scored three runs.
Barnes came on in relief and pitched 2.1 innings of one-hit relief.
Yet even though it remained a two-run ballgame, the Jays were getting nothing done against Archer beyond the back-to-back hits by Encarnacion and Navarro in the first inning. Bautista singled in the third inning and Travis singled in the fifth.
In the seventh inning, with one out, Tulowitzki singled to right-centre, ending Archer’s day. Brad Boxberger came out of the bullpen and immediately yielded a single to Michael Saunders and a walk to Kevin Pillar.
That loaded the bases for Travis, who ripped a single between short and third, scoring both Tulowitzki and Saunders to tie the game.
The last time the Blue Jays lost three games in a row was more than 50 games ago, on June 18, 19 and 21. The first two losses were against Baltimore and the third was to Arizona. Since that time, they haven’t lost more than two in a row.
Martin saw to that with his ninth home run in his last 18 games to avoid a sweep at the hands of the pesky Rays.