R.A. Dickey gave up two runs over seven innings en route to his 14th win of the year.Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images
With the outcome of a late-September baseball game almost rendered meaningless for the Toronto Blue Jays, fans could at least look forward to witnessing a pitching work of art as Felix Hernandez took the mound on Tuesday night.
The Seattle Mariners, desperately clinging to their own playoff hopes as the regular season winds down, turned to their ace, one of the game's best, to try to produce the desired result.
It was a fetching pitching matchup as the Blue Jays started R.A. Dickey, the veteran knuckleballer – is there any other kind of knuckleballer other than a veteran? – who is trying to put the finishing touches on a very solid season himself.
Hernandez was a piece of work alright, but not exactly what the Mariners had in mind.
The Blue Jays' bats rumbled for the second consecutive game as Toronto walloped Hernandez and the Mariners 10-2 to put a serious dent to the fleeting playoff hopes of Seattle (83-74), which lost for the fourth straight outing.
Despite the win, the Blue Jays (80-77) were officially eliminated from the American League playoff picture when the Kansas City Royals toppled the Indians in Cleveland 7-1.
In Monday's 14-4 win over Seattle in the series opener, the Blue Jays pounded out 16 hits. Tuesday, it was another 11-hit barrage, which begs the question: Where was all this ferocious offence several weeks back when the Blue Jays still had a fighting chance to make the postseason?
It was definitely not the outcome the Mariners were looking for, heading into the game in third place in the wild-card sweepstakes, just two games back of the Royals in the final week of regular-season play.
And with Hernandez (14-6), their ace, on the mound, their confidence was high.
Hernandez is pitching better than ever this season, and some believe him to be a legitimate contender not only for the Cy Young Award, as the AL's top pitcher, but also as its most valuable player.
But not on this night the Blue Jays chased Hernandez from the game in the fifth inning, his shortest outing of the season, after giving up eight runs on seven hits.
One of those hits came in the fifth inning, a home run stroked by Mississagua rookie outfielder Dalton Pompey, who continues to impress as a September call-up by Toronto.
For Pompey, it was his first homer as a major-leaguer – a mammoth drive to the second deck in right field leading off the bat-around fifth, when the Blue Jays sent 13 players to the plate and scored seven runs for an 8-2 lead.
The seven earned runs that Hernandez allowed in the frame represented the most he has allowed in a single inning in his career. And the eight earned runs overall also matched a career high.
That was more than enough of a cushion for Dickey to contend with as he cruised to his fourth win in his past five outings, allowing the two Seattle runs off five hits over seven innings.
Dickey's record on the season is now 14-12.
The night started with that end-of-season feeling when the Blue Jays invited George Stroumboulopoulos, the rookie host of Hockey Night in Canada, to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at the game.
The Blue Jays should have had general manager Alex Anthopoulos catch the toss from Stroumboulopoulos and thereby set a record for longest and most difficult-to-spell battery in baseball history.
It was complicated enough as it was with Toronto pitcher Mark Buehrle sent out to handle the catching duties.
It did not take long for the Blue Jays to show they had Hernandez's number, with Jose Bautista knocking a one-out double to left field in the first inning. Bautista, who banged out two hits in the game, came into the game hitting a lofty .316 (6 for 19) in his career against Hernandez.
Seattle broke through in the third when Robinson Cano stroked a single to centre off Dickey that scored two and vaulted the Mariners in front 2-1.
The Blue Jays responded in heavy-handed fashion with their huge fifth inning, but they were not quite done yet.
In the sixth, Edwin Encarnacion connected off Seattle reliever Erasmo Ramirez for a two-run home run, his 34th of the season, to conclude the scoring for Toronto.