Blue Jays 6, Rays 4 (F/11): John McDonald is Your Home Run Hero

Wait, wait, is that . . . Chris Woodward?.

John McDonald, an all-glove super-sub with a career slugging percentage of .330, is the kind of undersized, scrappy, hustling player that broadcasters and writers won't ever shut up about for even a second until eventually you almost start to dislike the guy through absolutely no fault of his own. I am a huge fan of Blue Jays' play-by-play man Jerry Howarth, but he absolutely will not stop about John McDonald, and it's too much: "John McDonald practices at game speed! John McDonald does the little things! John McDonald plays the game the right way! John McDonald is eating a package of salted nuts!" I like John McDonald fine. And I am probably second-to-none in my appreciation of Jerry Howarth. But on this subject, I seriously want him to stop talking.


But now he never, ever will, not after last night's walkoff home run in the eleventh to win a pretty great game. Let it first be said that Jo-Jo delivered: four runs over seven innings is not a "quality start" in accordance with that (perfectly useful) statistic, but it is totally A Quality Start out of Jo-Jo Reyes. Through eight, the score was even at Tampa Bay 4, Jose Bautista 4 (Haters: 0). Bautista homered, tripled, and doubled in his first three plate appearances, scoring each time, and came up in the eighth needing a single for the cycle. Alas, he walked on four pitches, and came in to score on an E5 double to tie it. Bautista got another crack at the cycle in the tenth, but again walked. Alas.  

You will perhaps recall that I hate Juan Rivera, but to his credit he singled in the bottom of the eleventh. This changes nothing between us, but credit where credit is due. It was indeed strange to see Chris Woodward come in to pinch run -- in 2011, in a baseball game -- but this is not to suggest that it was not a welcome sight. Stranger and more welcome still was John McDonald's high fly to deep left that fell into a jubilant Blue Jays bullpen to end the game. Buck Martinez, our reasonably competent television play-by-play guy, pretty much had a stroke on air, which is sad, but also beautifully communicated the excitement of this entirely unexpected turn of events.


It is hard to have any worries or cares after a game like that, but I am nevertheless concerned that Juan Rivera and Travis Snider are hitting .283 if you add them together. Other than that, no complaints; this was awesome.


KS