Old school baseball carries Blue Jays to top of AL East: 'I think we have a team identity'

CBC

3 days ago

The Toronto Blue Jays made a strong case for old school baseball in their series win over the long ball-loving New York Yankees.
Bo Bichette's two-run homer capped off a wild victory as Toronto held on for an 8-4 win over the visiting Yankees on Wednesday. The Blue Jays' other six runs came from smart baserunning, heads-up plays, and forcing New York into a handful of errors.
"Geez, we can score runs in so many different ways," said infielder Ernie Clement, who went 2-for-4, including a triple, scoring a run and driving in another. "Pitching has been a common theme for the last few years. Those guys just give us a chance to win every single night.
"Now we're rounding it out, we've got a little offence to go along with it. I think we really have a team identity. Whether that's old school baseball or just playing the game the right way, I don't know."
Toronto benefited from New York's four errors and other fielding miscues, eking out runs on walks, dropped balls, wild pitches, and overthrows. Bichette's two-run blast, his 13th home run of the year, was the Blue Jays' cleanest score of the game as Vladimir Guerrero Jr. had led off the inning with a double.
Clement believes Toronto's hard-nosed approach put pressure on the Yankees' fielders to play defence faster, leading to their handful of mistakes.
"They know we play the game hard," said Clement. "There's no doubt that they pick their heads up [after fielding the ball] and we're halfway to first base, head down, running hard.
"As a fielder, that puts all the pressure in the world on you. You've got to be clean. If you bobble the ball at all, I mean, we're safe."
The Blue Jays and Yankees have played seven games at Rogers Centre in the past two weeks, with Toronto going 6-1 to take a four-game lead in the American League East, lock up the season series and therefore the tiebreaker should the two teams end the year with identical records.
"In these two series, we've given them too many outs and it's cost us," said New York manager Aaron Boone. "You can't give good teams extra outs.
"And, again, that's what we've done in these two series."
'Working their butts off'
Chris Bassitt (11-4) was solid for 7 1/3 innings, striking out eight and allowing four runs (three earned) on three hits and no walks. Blue Jays relievers Justin Bruihl and Yariel Rodriguez preserved the win.
"Every single day, they're working their absolute butts off, and then they go out there and they're giving effort," said Bassitt of Toronto's positions players. "Extremely old school, I would say.
"If you know me, I'm a fan of old school. I love this team."
By contrast, New York lives and dies by the long ball.
All four of the Yankees runs came from homers on Wednesday. New York entered the game with a Major League Baseball-best 162 home runs, five more than the Los Angeles Dodgers. Shohei Ohtani had L.A.'s one homer in its 4-3 win over the Minnesota Twins earlier Wednesday.
The Blue Jays travel to Detroit for a four-game series starting Thursday.
The Central-leading Tigers play a scrappier style of baseball like Toronto and it shows in their record. The Blue Jays (60-42) are tied with the West-leading Houston Astros for the best record in the American League, with Detroit a half-game behind them.
"We're going to play a team that does the exact same thing in Detroit, so you have to be ready for it," said Toronto manager John Schneider. "This game is hard; you know what I mean? This game is hard.
"I think that every team is built a little bit differently, so we really pride ourselves on taking care of the baseball."
Eric Lauer (5-2) will take the mound for the Blue Jays in Detroit. Reese Olson (4-3) gets the start for the Tigers (60-43), who have dropped eight of their past nine games.