LOS ANGELES — In the pantheon of sports clichés, calling something a “team win” is definitely near the top. But after beating the Dodgers, 5-4, on Sunday to avoid a series sweep, that’s genuinely what the Blue Jays achieved.
Toronto used 20 players — 12 batters and eight pitchers — to best the defending champions in what manager John Schneider described as “a back-and-forth hell of a game.” The Blue Jays moved to four games ahead of the Red Sox in the American League East, and now own the AL’s best record (69-50).
“It’s a great effort right there from everybody — really everybody,” Schneider said. “… I think we used everybody except Tommy [Nance] and Buddy [Kennedy] today, so it’s what we can do. When we play our kind of game, we can beat and play with anyone.”
After scoring only one run in each of the first two games, the Blue Jays entered the eighth inning on Sunday with only five hits, trailing 3-2. It was a far cry from the historic 45-run onslaught against the Rockies just days prior, during which Toronto set a Modern Era record with 63 hits in a three-game series.
“You have to kind of take each series as its own,” said Schneider. “Coming out of Colorado and going to a different venue that is not Colorado is a real thing. The ball does a little bit different stuff, and there’s a little bit of an adjustment period.”
By the eighth inning, it would appear the Blue Jays had adjusted. The bats snapped out of their temporary funk with clutch back-to-back home runs from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Addison Barger, followed by the game winner from Ernie Clement in the ninth.
Clement said Guerrero’s homer — which he smoked 422 feet and 109 mph off the bat — served as the jolt of momentum the Jays needed.
“I think that’s when we were like, ‘Let’s go win a ballgame,’” Clement said. “It was just kind of a lull. For some reason it just took us six, seven innings to get going, but I guess better late than never.”
Clement’s homer, a first-pitch shot off Alex Vesia to open the ninth, came after Jeff Hoffman had walked in the tying run with the bases loaded. Hoffman surrendered five of the Blue Jays’ 13 total walks on the day (including two intentional passes to Shohei Ohtani, by Eric Lauer and Yariel Rodríguez).
But Clement, who is slashing .424/.441/.818 over his past seven games, picked up his teammate with one swing.
“Anytime it’s those team wins, that’s kind of what it’s all about,” Clement said. “And it’s kind of been how our season’s been. It’s how we win ballgames, is just relying on everybody.”
And it really has been a team effort. Toronto leads MLB in hits (1,099, 56 more than the second most), batting average (.269) and OBP (.339), is second in doubles (218) and third in OPS (.767). The Blue Jays have also struck out the fewest times of any club (798), despite their 35 punchouts in this series, their season high for a three-game series.
Following Clement’s clutch swing, the fate of the game fell on the shoulders of rookie Mason Fluharty. After Hoffman loaded the bases with one out in the bottom of the ninth, Schneider turned to the 23-year-old lefty, who had never earned a save.
You wouldn’t know it. Fluharty struck out Ohtani on nine pitches before getting Mookie Betts to ground out to end it.
“I was super excited, super pumped,” Fluharty said. “Honestly blacked out, have no idea what happened out there, but just trusting my pitches and attacking guys, that’s all you can do in that situation.”
“That’s so cool for him, just navigating that situation and not backing down,” said Schneider. “For a rookie to be up there and you’re facing Shohei and Mookie with the bases loaded? The thing about Flu is he’s not gonna give in. He gets every ounce of talent out of him, so you feel good about that.”
Even though the Blue Jays lost the series, they can return to Toronto knowing they grinded out a tough win against a fellow first-place team — one they could face again in October.
“This is what you play for,” said Schneider. “You try to put yourselves in those moments, and you try to slow it down a little bit, hopefully knowing that you’re gonna be in those again. Really, really good team. A lot of star power, a lot of good pitchers, but I think we showed we can play with anyone when we play our type of game.”
