3rd bunt's a charm: Jansen, arms lead Toronto

ARLINGTON -- Last year, the Blue Jays were allergic to sacrifice bunts. This season, they can’t seem to get enough of them.

First-year manager Charlie Montoyo has been all about the small ball this year and he was at it again during Friday night’s 1-0 victory over the Rangers. In a scoreless game, it was a bunt with two strikes that shockingly turned into the most important contact of the night thanks to an errant throw down the third-base line.

Prior to the series opener, Blue Jays catcher Danny Jansen had not laid down a successful sacrifice bunt in his first 54 Major League games. Even that didn’t stop Montoyo from calling for the bunt not once, not twice, but three times during the 12th inning. Jansen wasn’t able to put the ball in play during either of his first two attempts, but the third time was the charm and chaos ensued.

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Jansen’s bunt with runners on first and second, which led to the winning run, wasn’t even a good one. He hit the ball directly at Ariel Jurado, who had an easy force at third for what should have been the first out of the inning. Instead, Jurado’s throw sailed down the line and Brandon Drury was able to walk home as the only run of the game. Just like that, Toronto improved its record in extra-inning games to 2-2.

“I see it that you have three chances to get the bunt down,” Montoyo said. “When you tell somebody they've got three chances to do it, it makes it easier to do it. Me knowing that the ball is wet and all of that, the chances of that happening, it's a good chance. The ball is wet. That's why the guy threw the ball away and Danny did a nice job putting the bunt down. Of course, a good throw would have got the guy, but the ball was wet.”

So how much different is this strategy compared to previous years? Last year, under manager John Gibbons, the Blue Jays ranked last in the Major Leagues with five sacrifice bunts. Compare that to the Reds and Braves, who finished last year ranked tied for first with 49. Toronto has already surpassed its total from last year with eight in 2019, which is tops in the American League.

The days of sitting back and waiting for the home run are over. Sacrificing an at-bat to move a runner over is a polarizing topic in baseball these days, but the Blue Jays remain surprisingly committed to doing it more and more. Montoyo has asked his players to start practicing bunting in the cage and on the field before games to prepare for moments just like Friday night. It’s not always going to work out, but for at least one night, it did.

“At that point I’m like, I have to get this down, otherwise I’m just a terrible baseball player,” Jansen said with a laugh when asked about bunting with two strikes. “I had a couple of chances and I didn’t get it done. And I just tried to put it really anywhere at that point, get the ball on the ground and fair.”

Credit the rookie

Trent Thornton enjoyed his best start of the season, but doesn’t have a win to show for it because of a lack of early run support. Thornton tossed seven scoreless innings, which easily qualified for the longest of his career. The native of Pennsylvania struck out five, walked two, and the only hit he allowed was a bloop single in the fifth, which came off the bat of Nomar Mazara and bounced off the glove of Freddy Galvis in shallow left field. Mazara was promptly thrown out at second trying to stretch it into a double.

The rookie Thornton entered this outing in a bit of a rut. He had allowed at least four runs in three of his previous four outings and had not tossed more than five innings since April 5. One of his biggest issues was a lack of aggressiveness with his fastball and too much nibbling on the corners. There was less of that vs. the Rangers, as Thornton attacked early and threw 59 of his 102 pitches for strikes.

“My attack plan early was to get ahead and I didn’t do that as early as I wanted to,” Thornton said. “But I attacked with my fastball, made sure I could throw my offspeed for strikes and that helped me for the rest of the game. They had to honour my curveball and that helped my fastball. I felt pretty good.”