Jason Kipnis #22 of the Cleveland Indians advances safely to third base on a fielder's choice in the first inning during MLB game action as Josh Donaldson #20 of the Toronto Blue Jays cannot hold on to the ball on August 31, 2015 at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
Prime Minister Stephen Harper was on the field at Rogers Centre prior to the Toronto Blue Jays game Monday night, signing autographs and generally behaving like a politician in the midst of an election campaign.
"Love to meet him, good conservative guy," Blue Jays manager and well-heeled Texan John Gibbons remarked to reporters a bit earlier, never one to mask his own political peculiarities.
Warming to the topic, Gibbons went on to suggest that with the work his boss has done this season restocking the Blue Jays, Toronto general manager Alex Anthopoulos just might want to consider a new line of work.
"After this year's trade deadline, he could have run for Prime Minister," Gibbons said of Anthopoulos.
Even Gibbons could never accuse Anthopoulos of being conservative, not after the GM rocked the league with the five-star trade-deadline additions of shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and pitching ace David Price.
Price was making his sixth start for his American League East-leading club, against the Cleveland Indians on Monday, and it was a terrific pitching matchup against Danny Salazar.
The Indians (64-66) would score two off Price in the top of the seventh, and it was enough for a 4-2 victory for Cleveland, which rolled to a sixth straight victory in the first of a three-game series in Toronto.
With Toronto (74-57) holding a 2-1 margin, Ryan Raburn stroked the big hit for Cleveland in the rally, a double off the wall in right field that scored Carlos Santana with the tying run from first base.
After taking third on the throw, Raburn then scored the winning run on a single by Jerry Sands, much to the dismay of another capacity gathering at Rogers Centre, Toronto's eighth consecutive sellout.
Salazar was Price's equal on this night, allowing two Toronto runs off six hits while striking out 10 to improve to 12-7.
Price (13-5), who lost for the second time in six starts since joining the Blue Jays, surrendered three Cleveland runs off six hits over seven innings while striking out nine.
Prior to the game, much of the discussion in the Toronto clubhouse focused on the news that Mark Shapiro would be joining the Blue Jays as their new president and chief executive officer at the season's end.
Shapiro, 48, is currently the president of the Indians. He will be taking over from Paul Beeston, a day-one Blue Jays employee who stated prior to the start of the 2015 season that this campaign would be his last.
There is much speculation about how Shapiro might want to mould the Blue Jays moving forward, and whether or not Anthopoulos fits into whatever long-term plans he might have.
Anthopoulos's contract expires at the end of the season, and the belief is that nothing short of a playoff appearance for the Blue Jays will guarantee he will be back.
Shapiro has not said much of anything regarding his plans once he takes over for Beeston at the end of the year. Apart from some careful remarks he made to the Cleveland media on Monday about the situation in Toronto being both compelling and unique, Shapiro is imposing gag order on himself until he has started his new job.
However, it would appear that plans are already afoot to bring Anthopoulos back, without Shapiro's input.
According to a report by the Associated Press, Rogers Communications, the media conglomerate that owns the baseball team, is already in talks with Anthopoulos about a contract extension.
"We'd love to extend Alex's contact," one company spokesperson was quoted as saying. "He's done a terrific job."
Cleveland manager Terry Francona was not reticent in discussing the kind of person the Blue Jays have landed in Shapiro. "I can guarantee you, whatever he wraps his arms around, he'll make it better," Francona said.
On the field, the Indians struck first, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Jason Kipnis scored from third after Michael Brantley hit into a double play.
Toronto's Josh Donaldson continued to pad his most-valuable-player resume, stroking a triple in the bottom of the fifth to score two runners that lifted the Blue Jays in front 2-1.
There were no home-run heroics for Toronto slugger Edwin Encarnacion on this night, but he still managed to extend his hit streak to 26 games with a single in the sixth.
Encarnacion is the first AL player with a hit streak longer than 25 games since Ichiro Suzuki went 27 in a row in 2009.
After Cleveland shot in front 3-2, the Blue Jays missed a great opportunity in the bottom of the eighth when they loaded the bases with two out for Justin Smoak. With fans on their feet as one, imploring Smoak to come through, Cleveland reliever Cody Allen fooled him on a nice knuckle curve to end the suspense.
Cleveland scored its final run in the ninth when a throwing error by Donaldson allowed Yan Gomes to come in from third.