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TORONTO — The starting pitching is almost a given at this point. What was new was the relentless eighth-inning rally — nine men to the plate, some opposite-field hits and a two-run home run by Scott Rolen.
What was new was Rolen being able to stand in front of his locker after last night's 6-2 win over the Tampa Bay Rays, saying "it was a little closer game than it ended up."
That's six wins in seven games for the Toronto Blue Jays, and manager John Gibbons is no longer worried about the artistic merit points.
"We don't focus on that any more," he said when it was suggested it must have felt good to get all those hits after an offensively impoverished 2-7 road trip.
Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Shaun Marcum follows through on a pitch against the Tampa Bay Rays Wednesday night. (Aaron Harris/The Canadian Press)
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"We're doing enough to win."
Shaun Marcum had a one-hitter through eight innings in front of 19,276 fans at a closed Rogers Centre and simply lost his effectiveness after getting two out in the ninth.
He'd had to sit through a half-hour half-inning in the bottom of the eighth, when the Blue Jays scored five of their runs against three Rays pitchers, and, when Akinori Iwamura and Carl Crawford singled and B.J. Upton sent a ball over Vernon Wells's head to the wall to drive them in and end Marcum's 15-inning runless streak, Gibbons elected to turn the ball over to Scott Downs for the final out.
The win broke the Blue Jays' five-game losing streak to the Rays, in the process ending a streak of 20 games in which they'd scored five runs or fewer.
No other team in the majors had a streak more than six games without scoring more than five runs going into the night, and the last American League team with 20 or more such games was the 2002 Detroit Tigers.
Marco Scutaro had a season-high three hits and drove in the game's first run. Rolen has his second multihit game since coming off the 15-day disabled list.
Wells extended his hitting streak to six games and Aaron Hill had his first multihit game since April 27.
"Very excited," Marcum said about his reaction to the offensive outburst. "You get frustrated some times when you're in your sixth or seventh inning pitched and it's 0-0."
Marcum, 4-2, struck out nine and walked one and now leads the Blue Jays in strikeouts with 44.
Scutaro's offensive contribution was timely. Last night, he became the 16th different shortstop to start for the Blue Jays since 2001, after McDonald and David Eckstein both sustained injuries in Tuesday's 5-4 loss to the Rays. Eckstein suffered a strained hip flexor diving for a ball and left the game in the fifth inning. McDonald — shunted to a backup spot with Eckstein's signing this winter — rolled his ankle in the sixth. Eckstein had an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) examination yesterday and general manager J.P. Ricciardi said the club would wait until today to decide if either player needed to go on the DL.
As a precaution, the club selected the contract of journeyman Jorge Velandia from Triple-A Syracuse and optioned Adam Lind back to the minors, a move that seemed to be simply a matter of time after Gibbons benched Lind this week in favour of Shannon Stewart.
Catcher Robinzon Diaz is also out for two to three weeks after sustaining a high ankle sprain in a collision at home plate at Syracuse. He was due to be called up for interleague games, according to Ricciardi, who revealed he is now actively pursuing another right-handed bat via the trade route.
The team has had internal discussions about Jason Michaels, who was designated for assignment this week by the Cleveland Indians. There are trade partners, to be sure, as teams such as the Indians, Chicago White Sox, Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Cincinnati Reds, Washington Nationals and Pittsburgh Pirates look to add pitching.
And that's the crux of the issue: Any team willing to move a batter wants Marcum or Dustin McGowan in return.
"We've spoken to teams, but the asking price is steep," Ricciardi said yesterday, just hours before Marcum reminded him how steep.
