Blue Jays use walk-off error to subdue Angels and widen lead atop AL East

Article content

All of the signs were there for a hangover following the Blue Jays exhilarating four-game sweep of the New York Yankees with the visiting Los Angeles Angels in town for a weekend series.

On a night dripping with drama and late-game suspense, not much separated the teams through nine innings, each scoring three runs on five hits, each committing one error. But as they have done throughout their remarkable turnaround, the Jays found a way to prevail, taking advantage of a 10th-inning throwing error to edge the Halos 4-3.

With the win, their sixth in a row and 50th of the season, Jays widened their lead atop the American League East to two games over the Yankees and Tampa Bay Ray, both of whom lost earlier in the day. It was also the Jays’ sixth walkoff win of the season.

As thrilling as the playoff-type buzz generated by the presence of the Yankees was, the series did not feature high-end pitching. Eric Lauer and Kyle Hendricks certainly made up for it on Friday.

Hendricks threw five shutout innings at the Jays before they got to him for three runs in the sixth. Lauer put up six zeros before the Angels erased his 3-0 lead with one swing — a three-run homer by Jo Adell off reliever Nick Sandlin.

And that’s the way it stayed until the 10th. Chad Green retired Mike Trout and Taylor Ward with two runners aboard to get out of the top of the inning.

Myles Straw started the bottom at second base and Angels reliever Sam Bachman issued a semi-intentional four-pitch walk to Nathan Lukes. That brought up Ernie Clement who instead of trying to win it himself, attempted to advance the runners with a sac bunt and let pinch-hitter Vlad Guerrero Jr., waiting in the on-deck circle, get Straw home from third.

But Vladdy wasn’t needed. Clement’s bunt was fielded by Bachman and thrown high over the outstretched glove of Kevin Newman covering first. Game over.

Before those dramatics, Lauer was the story of the night. Through six innings, all the lefty gave up was a first-inning walk to Trout and a double to lead off the fifth by Adell. With his pitch count at 86, he came out for the seventh but immediately gave up singles to Trout and Ward. Enter Sandlin and Adell’s game-tying blast.

Lauer wound up striking out six in his six-plus innings as he solidified his hold on the No. 5 spot in the Jays rotation.

The Jays would get the game’s first runner at third after Will Wagner led off the sixth inning with a double and the announced crowd of 30,119 finally had something to cheer about. A Tyler Heineman sac bunt advanced Wagner, who would score on an Andres Gimenez single. Gimenez then went first to third on a George Springer single but was forced out of the game with an apparent ankle injury. Leo Jimenez pinch-ran and scored on Bo Bichette’s single. Springer then came home on an infield error.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video