Blue Jays salvage a truly miserable day with a gutsy win

Article content

It was a day that started with bad news, and just seemed as if it would never stop coming for the Blue Jays on Wednesday.

Article content

It began down in the minors, where their No. 1 prospect, lefty Ricky Tiedemann, returned from the injured list only to be pulled after an inning with forearm tightness.

About the same time, another top pitching prospect at double-A New Hampshire, Adam Macko, was placed on the seven-day injured list with left forearm soreness.

If that weren’t enough, the Jays had to replace both outfielder Daulton Varsho and Bo Bichette in the early innings of last night’s game in San Francisco.

Varsho appeared to injure his knee attempting a head-long slide into first as he tried unsuccessfully to beat Giants pitcher Logan Webb to the bag on a slow dribbler up the line. He was replaced by Davis Schneider.

An inning later, Bo Bichette did not return to the field. The team eventually explained that their shortstop was dealing with some soreness in his right calf — the same injury that put him on the injured list last month — and was replaced by rookie Leo Jimenez.

Article content

Article content

If the Jays were going to salvage anything from the day, it would have to come from the game itself, and a 10-6 victory over the Giants was a consolation prize of sorts.

But even that didn’t come without some early misery. Starter Chris Bassitt needed 32 pitches to get out of the first inning, eventually stranding two base-runners when he got Mike Yastrzemski to line out to centre, but not before giving up two runs.

A scoreless second inning was better on the scoreboard, but another long 31-pitch struggle before Bassitt stranded the bases loaded when he got former Jay Matt Chapman to foul out.

At 63 pitches after just two innings, and with the bullpen already on fumes thanks to a heavy workload the previous few games, things did not look very good.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Play Video

But Ernie Clement got things started offensively in the fifth with his second three-run homer in as many nights, golfing a Webb changeup over the wall in left to give the Jays a brief 3-2 lead.

The Giants pulled even in the bottom of the fifth, but the Jays blew it open with six consecutive hits to begin the sixth, a frame that wouldn’t end before six runs were put up. All told, 10 Jays came to the plate, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr., getting it started with a double and ending it on a groundout to third.

Article content

Clement wound up as the hitting star, going 3-for-4 with four RBIs, while leadoff man George Springer drove in three more on a 2-for-5 night. Alejandro Kirk also rapped out three of the Jays’ 14 hits. Jimenez had a couple of hits and a run scored while Schneider also had two hits, scoring two and driving in one.

Bassitt struggled early with the pitch clock, which seemed to have him out of sorts, but earned the win on sheer determination, sticking around for five innings, giving up just three runs on five hits and four walks.

Webb, who started strong, allowing only a Kirk single over four shutout innings, also lasted only five and was charged with seven runs.

The Giants did score two in the ninth off Bowden Francis to put a little scare into the Jays, but the baseball gods determined the visitors had already suffered enough.

mganter@postmedia.com

Article content