The Blue Jays struggled out of the gate in 2017, ending any real chance at a postseason berth before the first month of the season had ended. The 2018 Blue Jays are trying very hard not to replicate anything like that feat, and so far, they’re succeeding thanks to back-to-back-to-back come-from-behind victories.
The Blue Jays rallied from behind to win, again
Tuesday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at Toronto’ third come-from-behind victory in a row.
Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
The Jays took down the Yankees in their third and fourth games of 2018 thanks to late rallies in both. On Saturday, it was an eight-inning homer from Yangervis Solarte followed by a steal of home by Kevin Pillar that gave Toronto a 5-3 win, their first of the year. Then, on Sunday, it was an eighth-inning grand slam from Justin Smoak following an intentional walk to Josh Donaldson that gave the Jays the W.
On Monday, Toronto took on the White Sox, but the end result was the same. Down 2-1 in the seventh, Russell Martin hit a two-run shot that scored Curtis Granderson. Aledymis Diaz, acquired from the Cardinals this offseason, tacked on another run with a solo dinger in the next frame. The Jays won, and now find themselves 3-2: they didn’t win their third game of 2017 until April 19, in their 14th game of the season.
Now, it’s not that anyone expected the Blue Jays to struggle to begin the year like they did in 2017, but still there’s comfort in not just winning a few games in a row, but doing so in the way that makes fans feel like you can’t count their team out. The AL East is not going to be an easy victory for anyone, and given the Jays are mostly relying on bounce back campaigns after a losing season while the Yankees and Red Sox continued to load up, it’s going to be especially difficult for Toronto to come out on top.
Difficult is not the same as impossible, however, and these Blue Jays are at least off to the right kind of start.
- Grant Brisbee has a new Monday column, meant to be where he can write about whatever is on his mind, baseball-wise. In this first edition, he covers Shohei Ohtani’s first start, the Simpsons reference that came to mind this week while watching baseball, and A-Rod’s struggles to open a bottle of water meant for mere mortals.
- Yasiel Puig made a catch at the wall in center field in the 14th inning of Monday’s Dodgers-Diamondbacks game. He then logged the other two outs of the inning by making a catch on the warning track in right field, spinning around, and nabbing Ketel Marte as he tried to advance to second. It wasn’t even close, either, as Puig’s throw reached second without even having to bounce.
- Zito Madu attended the canceled Opening Day in Detroit, and what he saw all around him was rain and sadness.
- We’ve found out why Cardinals’ pitcher Miles Mikolas is referred to as “The Lizard King” and all I’ll tell you here is that if you like lizards, you probably don’t want to click.
- Edwin Encarnacion hit an inside-the-park-homer, which is only disappointing because there is no imaginary parrot involved.
- The Astros unveiled their 2017 World Series Championship banner Monday, but it wasn’t without incident. Let’s just say a leafblower needed to be called in to make it happen.
- It’s not time to panic about Evan Longoria, but you should read this column anyway.
- The Royals signed a player believed to be the first under the MLB umbrella with autism.
- Russell Carleton investigated whether the Rangers would be better off if Joey Gallo was always bunting against the shift.
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