Blue Jays vs. Giants: Home win streak hits 10 with Bronx Bombers on deck

Hamilton Spectator

20-07-2025

In a season in which the
Blue Jays
seem to have had someone new step up every day, Sunday's spotlight shone on
Tommy Nance.
The right-handed reliever, in just his sixth game on the roster, was thrust into huge leverage and got the job done spectacularly in an
8-6 win over the San Francisco Giants
at the Rogers Centre — the surging Jays' 10th straight victory at home.
'You need everyone when you're trying to go for a sweep,'
manager John Schneider
said after his team completed its third consecutive home sweep, before a crowd of 41,693. 'Couple of guys down, (other) guys have got to step up and they did. Gold star of the day for Tommy, for sure.'
Nance, a 34-year-old journeyman, made 20 appearances with last year's last-place Jays. He was waived through the league at the end of spring training with no takers and spent the first half of this season pitching to a 5.74 ERA in Buffalo.
But with one out in the seventh, the Jays clinging to a two-run lead and a runner on second base, the call went to the veteran to face Giants cleanup hitter Willy Adames, who had homered twice in Saturday's 6-3 Jays win. Nance struck him out on three pitches, then retired Mike Yastrzemski on a weak grounder to first.
Nance was sent back out for the eighth and proceeded to strike out
former Jay Matt Chapman
and Dominic Smith before getting Brett Wisely to hit a lazy fly ball to end the inning. Five up, five down. Yariel Rodríguez retired the Giants in order in the ninth for his second big-league save, leaving the dangerous Rafael Devers in the on-deck circle.
With closer Jeff Hoffman and top left-hander Brendon Little having pitched both Friday and Saturday, the Jays bullpen was thin in the third game after a four-day all-star break. Nance and Rodríguez provided a huge shot in the arm and left-hander Justin Bruihl helped out, too, with a big strikeout of Devers after giving up a leadoff double in the seventh.
'They were ready,' starter José Berríos, who worked 5 2/3 innings and picked up his sixth win of the season, said of his unexpected setup relievers. 'They took advantage and they did their work. That's great for them and also for the team. That's why we're called Blue Jays
team
. Everybody has to contribute to every win.'
The bats contributed early after the Giants scored a fluke first-inning run, on a Jung Hoo Lee fly ball that Davis Schneider lost in the sun for a double and a softly hit RBI single by Heliot Ramos that followed.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
tied it right away with his 13th homer, a two-out solo shot off
Robbie Ray (who won a Cy Young with the Jays in 2021),
and Bo Bichette put the home side on top for good with a two-out, two-run double in the third, just past the outstretched glove of Ramos in left field.
The Jays appeared to put it away with a four-run fifth — they had a four-run inning in each of the three wins over San Francisco — with George Springer belting his team-leading 17th home run and Addison Barger adding his 14th, a two-run shot. But the Giants responded with four runs of their own in the sixth, including a Chapman homer that sent Berríos to the showers.
The bullpen locked it down from there, led by Nance.