Toronto Blue Jays third baseman Josh Donaldson (20) is congratulated in the dugout after hitting a solo home run during the first inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.Bill Streicher
It was a game where Josh Donaldson crushed two home runs to help the Toronto Blue Jays forge an 8-5 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
But much of the post-game chatter here Tuesday night focused on the continued excellence of a stingy bullpen, and in particular Liam Hendriks, as the Blue Jays continue to dog the New York Yankees for first place.
In the bottom of the fifth inning and leading 4-3, the Phillies appeared on the verge of blowing the game open, loading the bases with none out on Toronto starter R.A. Dickey.
It was at that point that Toronto manager John Gibbons called upon Hendriks, the unsung hero of the bullpen crew, to enter the game to try to bail the team out.
Jeff Francoeur, who had launched a home run off Dickey back in the second inning, was stepping into the batter's box, intent on inflicting further damage, but Hendriks had other ideas.
Hendriks got Francoeur to hit a harmless grounder to Ryan Goins at second base. Goins, combined with shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, turned a double play as the fifth Philadelphia run crossed the plate.
With Ryan Howard sent in to pinch hit, Hendriks blew a third strike past the Philadelphia slugger to end the inning and stop the bleeding at just one run scored.
When Toronto blitzed Philadelphia for five runs in the top of sixth for a lead it would not relinquish, Hendriks earned the win after facing just two batters to improve to 4-0 on the season.
"I've got more wins now as a reliever this year than I did as a starter in four years," Hendriks laughed after the game.
It was an important triumph for the Blue Jays to be able to keep pace with the Yankees, who were 8-4 winners over the Minnesota Twins. New York remains in front of Toronto by one game in the American League East standing.
"Oh man, that was such a huge three outs," Dickey said of Hendriks's great escape. "To limit that to one [run] he deserves the win. He's done such a good job for us all year long.
"It seems like every night somebody new is stepping up in a new way, and you can't underscore how important that inning was. If that spirals out of control all of a sudden you know it's a much more difficult, psychologically, to come out of that."
One again, it was a group bullpen effort that helped plug the leaks.
After Hendriks, Brett Cecil, LaTroy Hawkins and Aaron Sanchez were all paraded out to the mound, holding the Phillies to just two hits over three innings, turning the ball over to Roberto Osuna, who worked a perfect ninth for his 14th save.
Hawkins is a newcomer to the bullpen, added to the group at the trade deadline at the end of July, along with Mark Lowe. Sanchez could also be classified as a newcomer, a former starter who was brought back as a reliever in late July after a long injury layoff.
Donaldson said that although the bullpen has retained the same old hands like Hendriks, Cecil and Osuna all season, it feels brand spanking new since it was revamped almost three weeks ago.
"One hundred per cent it does," Donaldson said enthusiastically. "I mean, we have some guys down there now, some of the additions that we made. Liam has done a great job for us, Cecil's really been airtight lately.
"And I think what's happened over the course of time, our starting pitching's been doing such a good job [that] our bullpen's not having to cover a lot of innings night in and night out. So it's keeping those guys fresh. And they're coming in ready to go."