TORONTO – Hours after shaking up their roster with the demotion of Adam Lind to triple-A Las Vegas and juggling the lineup, the new-look Toronto Blue Jays returned to action and won a series over an American League East rival for just the second time this season.
Jose Bautista and J.P. Arencibia led the charge with a pair of two-run homers in support of a damage-evading Drew Hutchison, who allowed just a single run over six innings of a 4-1 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday night.
The Blue Jays (21-18), now 6-10 versus divisional foes after completing a two-game sweep of the Bronx Bombers, were nearly as busy before the game as they were during it, optioning down Lind, bringing up Yan Gomes from Vegas and having the first Brazilian-born player to appear in the big-leagues cover for Brett Lawrie, who dropped the appeal of his four-game suspension and began serving the punishment.
On top of that, Arencibia was bumped up to fifth in the batting order, and Rajai Davis was given his first start of the season against a right-handed pitcher, with manager John Farrell indicating he may share in a bit more of the playing time in left field with Eric Thames.
It all turned up aces before a crowd of 31,266, as the Blue Jays leapfrogged the Yankees (20-18) into third place with their first series win over an AL East opponent since taking two of three from the Boston Red Sox April 9-11. They went 2-9 against the Rays and Orioles in between.
"A solid and well-played game all the way around," said manager John Farrell.
Bautista put the Blue Jays ahead 2-1 with his blast in the third – his fifth in seven games -- and Arencibia sealed the deal with his shot in the seventh. Both players homered for the second straight night, providing thump the lineup desperately needs.
"If going deep five times in seven games isn't locked in then we're in for a real treat if he's yet to click in," Farrell said of Bautista. "The one thing Jose continues to do is he didn't waver from his routine, and while some frustration did emerge over the first three, four weeks of the season … getting back to addressing pitches in the strike zone allows him to stay relaxed and confident."
Arencibia, batting higher than seventh for the first time this season, hit his fifth of the season and is now 24-for-75 (.320) with four homers and 15 RBIs over his past 22 games.
"It's nice," Arencibia said of the opportunity to bat fifth. "Those are things you can't control, and I understand that, those aren't my decisions, but for me, my belief and what I've always done my entire life is I've been a middle of the order type of guy.
"At the major-league level it's tough, you've got guys like (Edwin) Encarnacion, Bautista and Lawrie who are pretty good hitters, too. I feel like I've always had a knack to thrive when I need to thrive, I can't explain why or what the reason is, I've always hit well and felt comfortable in that position."
Gomes had a strong debut as well, singling in his second and third at-bats, getting stranded at third base in the fourth. He was pulled defensively for Omar Vizquel in the eighth, promptly making a diving stab on Robinson Cano's liner that wowed everybody, including Gomes.
"I told skip, 'Great substitution there,'" the rookie quipped, shortly after Vizquel presented him with the balls from his first big-league strikeout, and single. "Roller-coaster, crazy emotions. Even when I was in the dugout I was like, what's going on right now. It's been amazing."
Hutchison (3-1) avoided major damage despite allowing five hits and four walks, getting burned only by Cano's RBI double in the first. Otherwise it was a night of bending but not breaking for the rookie.
"If the game is speeding up on him mentally, he certainly doesn't show it outwardly," said Farrell. "One of the reasons why we felt, with limited experience even above A-ball, he could handle this environment (was) because of the poise and composure, and he shows that almost every start he takes the mound because there's been some traffic he's had to pitch around. He went to his sinker in a couple of key spots … and he does a very good job of keeping the game under control."
Hutchison has allowed two of fewer runs in three of his six big-league starts, with the Blue Jays going 4-2 in those outings.
"I think I've thrown the ball pretty well, battled, like I did tonight," said Hutchison. "Got in some situations, battled through it … But four walks for the type of pitcher I am is unacceptable and something I need to address and fix."
Jason Frasor, Darren Oliver and Casey Janssen, pitching another three-up, three-down ninth for his third save, provided some brilliant shutdown relief.
Phil Hughes (3-5) allowed two runs in 5.1 innings, while Cory Wade surrendered Arencibia's homer.
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UNSAFE SQUEEZE: The Blue Jays unsuccessfully attempted a safety squeeze in the sixth, with Rajai Davis's bunt going right back to the mound and Ben Francisco getting thrown out at home after hesitating down the line.
"When he read the ball straight back to the pitcher he kind of locked up a little bit thinking he'd run right into an out," Farrell said of Francisco. "As the play unfolded he continued on and obviously wasn't successful. Ideally you're trying to direct a bunt away from the pitcher, in this case it didn't work out."
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VLAD ON THE MOVE: Having arrived at extended spring training in good condition, Vladimir Guerrero is quickly moving up his timeline for arrival with the Blue Jays, perhaps as soon as the beginning of June.
Manager John Farrell said Guerrero will see his first game action at extended spring Friday, brought forward from sometime next week.
"Just by the way he is taking BP, how he's gone about his work, how he feels physically," Farrell said in explaining the reasoning. "He'll play the outfield 4-5 innings (Friday). There are two games going on and he'll hit in every inning to get a high number of at-bats.
"The way he's come into spring training he's shortened down that initial timeline."
Guerrero's time in the outfield, "is more just to get his body into overall shape. Get his legs under him and just get back to baseball activity," added Farrell.
Given that position players typically need two-three weeks of spring training to feel ready, Farrell added, "we are looking at that overall time frame from the day he reported to maybe three weeks from this past Monday as maybe a point in time that if the opportunity presents itself here and he is perfroming to a certain level of … expectation the decison will be made in and around that time frame."
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MOVING ON: His peace made with Jim Miller, Brett Lawrie decided to drop the appeal of his four-game suspension for inadvertently hitting the umpire with his helmet during.
The Blue Jays third baseman apologized to Miller for his actions prior to Wednesday's 8-1 win over the New York Yankees, and now feels ready to move on.
"It was good," he said of the chat with Miller. "I just walked in there and said, 'I apologize, I never meant to hit you, I would never do that. I've never done that before, hit anybody with anything.' That's all I said to him, I said my apologies, let's go out there and have a good one.
"I think he accepted my apology. If he has watched it or has not watched it, he should and realize that the intention was not to hit him and I think he does realize that now."
Lawrie missed Thursday's game and will miss the weekend series with the New York Mets before being eligible to return Monday when the Blue Jays visit Tampa Bay.
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