Zaun's home run in 13th inning lifts Jays to 7-4 win over Tampa Bay
Published Saturday September 6th, 2008
TORONTO - The guy who couldn't buy a hit last month sure came through with a dramatic swat for the Toronto Blue Jays.
Gregg Zaun's two-out grand slam in the 13th inning gave the Jays a 7-4 win over the Tampa Bay Rays in front of 34,694 fans at the Rogers Centre on Saturday.
The dramatic scene was set for Zaun after the Rays had rallied to tie the game with three runs in the ninth and had gone ahead 4-3 in the top of the 13th.
It was the seventh straight victory for Toronto, which hasn't had a winning streak that long since September 2002. The Jays (75-66) now trail the American League East-leading Rays (85-55) by 10.5 games.
This triumph, which took four hours 15 minutes to play out, came ever so close to ending in failure, as Zaun was just able to lift a pitch from Troy Percival (1-2) down the line and over the wall in right field.
"I think it was a fastball, something hard, it might have been cutting in on me a little bit, but, like I said, it just eked over and if I hit it anywhere else it's a game-ending fly ball," said Zaun, noting he's already had some big battles with Percival this season. "But I got it far enough down the line, it got over and they all count. It was a big moment. That was a lot of fun."
And having fun at the plate isn't exactly something Zaun was accustomed to prior to this game. While he had a three-hit afternoon versus Tampa, the Jays catcher was on a miserable stretch coming into the contest.
"I found out the other day I went 0-for-August, which is kind of interesting," Zaun said.
Indeed, after going 0-for-17 last month, Zaun was more than ready for the calendar to flip.
But his heroics wouldn't have been necessary had B.J. Ryan not been roughed up while gunning for the save, taking away what would have been a big win for starter Shaun Marcum.
Toronto's troubles began when Ryan hit lead-off hitter Carlos Pena in the ninth, then allowed a pinch-hit two-run homer to Baldelli to make it a 3-2 game.
Willy Aybar then drew a walk and Perez, pinch-running for Aybar, stole second. A hard shot from Dioner Navarro went through Jays second baseman Joe Inglett for an error, allowing Perez to score and tie the game.
Toronto threatened to come right back and clinch it in the bottom half of the ninth, but a base-running error by Rolen ended the rally. After hitting a two-out double, Rolen took a wide turn around third base on Zaun's infield single and got nailed in a rundown between third and home.
Tampa took a one-run lead in the top of the 13th when Navarro slapped a two-out single to cash Perez. The hit came off winning pitcher Brian Tallet (1-1), who was the ninth Jays hurler of the afternoon.
Things couldn't have gone smoother for the Jays prior to Ryan's meltdown, as the Rays couldn't get anything going offensively, while Lyle Overbay hit two solo homers to supply most of Toronto's offence.
When someone joked after the game that Zaun had stolen Overbay's thunder, the big first baseman just grinned.
"Man, I'll take that," Overbay said. "We snuck one out, it was a good win for us."
Marcum, making his first start since being recalled from triple-A, pitched very well in his return and appeared destined to pick up the win.
The right-hander, who had been sent down to work on control issues, struck out seven batters and allowed four hits over seven innings. He departed after tossing 101 pitches in front of 34,649 spectators.
"I felt good," Marcum said of his outing. "The plan when I went down was to work on my locating my fastball and, pretty much everything. I felt like I did a pretty good job of throwing my fastball for strikes today and, I mean I walked some people (three), but it ended up not hurting me, we got some ground-ball double-plays when we needed to so all in all I think it was something to try and build on."
Overbay's homers, his 13th and 14th of the year, came in the second and fourth innings off Tampa starter Jeff Shields, who pitched eight innings in a no-decision.
The Jays immediately staked Marcum to a 1-0 lead in the first after he'd induced a double play to eliminate a one-out, first-and-second jam in the top half of the inning. Inglett got the Jays started with a lead-off single before Alex Rios continued his torrid hitting pace by smacking a long double to cash Inglett from first.
Rios, who had two homers in the series-opener on Friday, has hit safely in seven straight games and has six RBIs in his last three contests.
Toronto's lead grew when Overbay's swing produced two very different home runs. His first homer was a hard line shot over the right centre-field wall, while his second was an opposite field fly that just cleared the wall in left.
NOTES: Minutes before the first pitch it was announced the Rays had activated hard-hitting rookie Evan Longoria from the DL. The third baseman, who did not see action in the game, had been on the DL since Aug. 8 with a fractured right wrist. The boo-birds not only got on former Jay Eric Hinske, they also had some light-hearted jeers for New York Islanders centre Mike Sillinger when he was introduced to the crowd.
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