The Canadian Press
Nick Patch
TORONTO–With his second walk-off grand slam in four days, Steve Pearce lifted the Toronto Blue Jays to a miraculous 11-10 comeback win over the L.A. Angels yesterday afternoon to avoid a three-game sweep.
The Angels held a 10-4 lead entering the ninth inning and many of the 46,852 in the sold-out Rogers Centre crowd already had left the stadium.
But Pearce launched a fastball from Angels’ closer Bud Norris over the left-field wall to complete the biggest ninth-inning comeback in Jays’ history.
Afterwards, he was at a loss to explain his recent flair for the dramatic.
“Feels great. Really hasn’t sunk in yet,” admitted Pearce, who was asked if the grand slam from Thursday afternoon’s win over Oakland gave him any extra confidence.
“You never see those coming with that big a deficit,” noted Jays’ manager John Gibbons.
“Pearce with a ‘granny’ to win it–that’s really rare in this game.”
Pearce became just the third player in MLB history with two walk-off grand slams in one season.
Toronto’s rally came a day after the Angels stunned the Jays (49-56) with a dramatic ninth-inning comeback of their own.
Albert Pujols homered twice for the Angels (51-55), who seemed to be in cruise control until Toronto’s wild ninth inning.
The rally started when Kevin Pillar hit a two-run homer and infielder Rob Refsnyder doubled to chase Angels’ reliever Brooks Pounders.
With Norris taking over on the mound, Ezequiel Carrera and Russell Martin both singled to cut the lead to 10-7.
Then after Justin Smoak grounded out, Kendrys Morales walked to set the table for Pearce’s heroics.
“He missed pretty bad on the first two pitches, so I was really able to lock in on the next pitch,” Pearce said.
Matt Dermody got the win after pitching three innings of relief without giving up an earned run.
Cesar Valdez started for the Jays. But after the journeyman right-hander picked up his first win in more than seven years with a solid start against Oakland lat Tuesday, it was immediately clear he wasn’t going to be as sharp yesterday.
With Mike Trout on base in the first inning, Pujols sent the eighth pitch of the game into the left-field seats to give the Angels a 2-0 lead.
Although Carrera responded with a lead-off homer in the bottom half of the inning, the Jays and Valdez unravelled in a messy third.
Infielder Kaleb Cowart led off with a triple, former Jay Yunel Escobar followed with a double, Trout walked, and then Pujols singled to give the Angels a 4-1 lead.
Before the inning was over, Andrelton Simmons doubled in two more runs to chase Valdez before Ben Revere added an RBI single to put the Angels up 7-1.
Toronto again answered quickly. In the bottom of the third, singles by Carrera, Martin, and Smoak, along with a sacrifice fly from Morales, cut the lead to 7-3.
Pearce then clubbed a double to centre–missing a home run by a few feet–before a Miguel Montero groundout made it 7-4.
Still, the Angels kept coming–adding runs in the fifth, when Revere reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second, took third on a Montero throwing error, and finally sprinted home on a shallow sacrifice fly, and the sixth, when Pujols hit his 16th homer.
Luis Valbuena added a sacrifice fly in the ninth to give L.A. what should have been an insurmountable 10-4 lead.
With the summer they’ve had, the Jays were thankful the wild game leaned their way.
“It’s a crazy day,” Gibbons said. “You don’t see that coming.”
On the injury front, the Jays announced veteran shortstop Troy Tulowitzki has ligament damage in his right ankle, and will need further evaluation.
Elsewhere in the AL, Oakland topped Minnesota 6-5 (12 innings), Tampa Bay beat New York 5-3, Kansas City downed Boston 5-3, Baltimore upended Texas 10-6, Detroit bombed Houston 13-1, and Chicago shaded Cleveland 3-1.
Over in the NL, Cincinnati beat Miami 6-4, Philadelphia edged Atlanta 2-1, L.A. nipped San Francisco 3-2 (11 innings), Chicago doubled Milwaukee 4-2, St. Louis trimmed Arizona 3-2, and Pittsburgh dumped San Diego 7-1.
Washington split a doubleheader with Colorado, losing the opener 10-6 before winning the second game 3-1.
Seattle dumped the N.Y. Mets 9-1 in interleague play.
