Toronto Blue Jays catcher Jose Molina, right, hands pitcher Brandon Morrow a ball during first inning interleague MLB baseball action against the San Francisco Giants in Toronto Friday, June 18, 2010. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darren CalabreseDarren Calabrese/The Canadian Press
The little things meant a lot to the Toronto Blue Jays in their 3-2 victory over the San Francisco Giants Friday night at Rogers Centre.
Starting pitcher Brandon Morrow realized early on he didn't have command of his best stuff, allowing one run off two hits and two walks in a rocky first inning.
At one point Morrow delivered 10 straight balls, walking in the Giants run in the process.
Only a tasty defensive play by Toronto shortstop Alex Gonzalez with the bases loaded, sliding to get a glove on a ground ball struck up the middle by Buster Posey to get the force at second for the third out, prevented further damage.
"I didn't have close to my best stuff," Morrow said afterward. "I think in the first I was just trying to make something be there that just wasn't going to happen. Got through that and came back out and just had to pitch."
Third baseman Edwin Encarnacion came into the contest in a batting funk, collecting two hits in his last 26 at-bats. He was batting .177 (14-for-79) in the 24 games since returning from the disabled list but, oddly enough, seven of those hits went for home runs.
Encarnacion said he has been working hard with hitting coach Dwayne Murphy to quit going after pitches out of the strike zone.
His patience paid off last night, beginning in the fifth inning when he fisted a broken-bat flare to left field with the bases loaded that scored two Toronto runners to put the Blue Jays ahead 2-1.
He bettered that effort in the eighth, with the score tied at 2-2, when he jumped on a first-pitch change-up from Zito leading off and driving the ball deep to left field for a solo home run shot that proved to be the winning run.
For the soft-spoken Encarnacion, it was his ninth home run of the season.
"I was just looking for something in the strike zone," Encarnacion said of his big hit.
A little sleight of hand by Toronto right fielder Jose Bautista in the sixth inning also went a long way toward securing the victory for the Blue Jays (37-31), returning home after an unsatisfying road trip in which they won just three of nine games.
With runners at first and second and nobody out, Pat Burrell lashed a line drive toward the corner in right field.
Aubrey Huff was the Giants runner at second and Bautista cagily decoyed him back to the bag when he stuck out his glove making like he had a chance to catch the hit on the fly.
In fact, Bautista had no chance to make the catch and the ball drifted past the rightfielder who collected it after it bounded off the wall.
But the damage was done.
Momentarily delayed by Bautista's fake, Huff set off for third and then - unwisely as it turned out -- for home.
Bautista made a good relay to Aaron Hill stationed in shallow right and Hill's accurate throw home easily cut down Huff at the plate.
The Giants would go on to score a run in the inning on a ground out by Pablo Sandoval that knotted the score at 2-2, but the inning could have been so much more for San Francisco.
"Good deke," Gaston said of Bautista's heads-up play.