Jose Bautista says goodbye (maybe): Longtime Toronto Blue Jays star singles twice in what could be his final home game
TORONTO — Joey Bats went out with a bang.
Playing in almost certainly his last home game as a Blue Jay, longtime Toronto slugger Jose Bautista gave the Rogers Centre faithful a memorable farewell as the Jays manhandled the New York Yankees 9-5 on Sunday afternoon. Every time Bautista came to the plate, the fans rose to their feet and cheered. And he responded.
Heading into Sunday’s game, Bautista was in the midst of an 0-for-18 hitting slump, and was batting .077 (3-for-39) over his last 11 games. On Sunday, he smacked a pair of singles, walked, scored and picked up an RBI, though his final at-bat, in the eighth inning was somewhat anti-climatic, as he popped out to Yankees third baseman Todd Frazier.
Manager John Gibbons pulled Bautista from right field with one out in the top of the ninth for Ezequiel Carrera, allowing the crowd to give him a emotional sendoff. Bautista hugged a number of his teammates as he made his way off the field, ran to the dugout, then came out for another wave and was given a standing ovation.
Teoscar Hernandez hit a home run for the third day in a row, becoming the first Jays rookie to homer in three straight games. The blast came in the first inning and was also his first lead-off homer.
Yankees rookie sensation Aaron Judge smashed his 47th homer of the season off Toronto starter Marcus Stroman in the sixth, a line drive shot that got over the left field fence in a big hurry. He later hammered his 48th, again to left, in the seventh off Ryan Tepera with one runner on base, cutting the score to 9-5.
It marked the sixth time in Judge’s career that he has recorded a multi-homer game. He’s now one home run short of Mark McGwire’s MLB rookie record.
Stroman went 5.2 innings, giving up five hits and three runs to pick up his second win in a row and move to 13-8. He left in the sixth with two on and was replaced by Matt Dermody, who gave up a double to Greg Bird, scoring Jacoby Ellsbury.
Stroman’s two strikeouts matched the Jays record for 1,314 K’s in a season, set last year. The Jays broke the record in the seventh when Aaron Loup struck out Didi Gregorius.
Ryan Goins went 2-for-3 with a walk, while Russell Martin had a pair of doubles.
The Jays got a run in the second inning when Darwin Barney smacked a sac fly to centre to score Kevin Pillar, who led off with a double, from third. Martin hit a double to the wall in right-centre off relief pitcher Jonathan Holder in the third, clearing the bases for a 5-0 lead.
The Yanks got to Stroman in the fourth. He walked the first two batters, Chase Headley and Judge, and then gave up a single to Gregorius to score Headley.
Josh Donaldson knocked a single up the middle in the fourth to score Goins with one out, and Toronto continued to pour it on.
Amid screams and cheers, Bautista came up in the fourth with the bases loaded and punched a single to right, scoring Hernandez and giving the Jays a 7-1 lead. In the same inning, Kendrys Morales hit a single to score Donaldson and Justin Smoak, though Bautista was thrown out at home on the same play.
The paid attendance for the last game of the year at Rogers Centre was 47,394, making the final season total 3,203,886.