Blue Jays 12, Astros 6
Quick trivia: Whose night was more rare, Edwin Encarnacion or Jose Reyes?
Encarnacion was the headline grabber with a pair of home runs, including a grand slam, in the seventh inning as the Jays blew the game open.
His solo shot led off the inning and was followed by an Adam Lind blast and a Colby Rasmus near-miss for a double. The Jays continued the offensive barrage, chasing Paul Clemens, Wesley Wright and Hector Ambriz en route to an eight-spot. The fireworks display ended when Encarnacion hit a grand slam off of Ambriz.
Long story short, Encarnacion hit two home runs in the same inning, which is awesome. He’s just the second Jay to do it (Joe Carter did it in 1993), just the 26th American Leaguer to accomplish the feat and the 58th in all of Major League Baseball.
But Jose Reyes somehow managed something more rare. You may have heard announcers discussing his bid for the cycle, for which he needed just a triple as early as the fourth inning. Reyes doubled in the first, homered in the third and singled in the fourth.
From there, he was cruelly walked twice, taking away his final chances at a three-bagger (in another cruel twist, he was left on deck in the eighth inning). Granted, there have only been 12 triples at Rogers Centre all year long, Reyes is without one and he may have had Josh Thole clogging the bases in front of him, but it would have been nice to try.
Instead, Reyes did something more rare than even the cycle. There have been 240 cycles in MLB history, but Reyes became just the 39th player to single, double, homer, walk twice and steal a base. It’s a random accomplishment, sure, but it’s a fun one.
He was also, cruelly, just that same triple shy of being the second player ever to have a Mega Cycle. In 1925, Pittsburgh Pirate Kik Cuyler hit for the cycle, walked and stole a base all in the same game and Reyes narrowly missed doing just that.
Anyway, there was a game to discuss…
It wasn’t a pretty one, but the good guys got the win, so who am I to complain? Oh, yeah, I’m the guy who saw four excruciating losses in five days live (Sat-Sun-Tues-Wed) and then sat at home for this awesome game. I digress.
It didn’t look good from the start, though. Something called a Marc Krauss hit a two run homer in the second and a two run double in the fourth, putting the Jays down 4-2 early. When Toronto tied it up, Krauss "cashed in" another by failing upwards, grounding into a double play that scored a run. Jason Castro added an RBI in the seventh and the Jays were stuck 6-4, looking at yet another disappointing ending.
But then, the big inning. You’re welcome, R.A. Dickey. Dickey, as you might have guessed given his line (6 IP, 5 ER, 8 K), Dickey was a mixed bag. Once again he coaxed strikeouts (not brag-worthy against these Astros, who strike out more than any team in the league) but surrendered some very hard hit balls. It’s getting quite frustrating to try and figure out the real Dickey when there is a lot of good and a lot of bad each outing.
Dustin McGowan struggled in relief and got a quick hook, with Brett Cecil, Steve Delabar and Aaron Loup shutting it down from there.
Worth Noting
Colby Rasmus had a huge game with four hits, two of them doubles, and he probably couldn’t be hotter right now. Since July 7, he has 24 hits (10 extra base hits) in 15 games.
Brett Lawrie also continues to swing the bat well – even though his recent numbers aren’t especially striking, it feels like he’s stinging just about everything, getting more barrels on balls and improving his approach. He homered and doubled in this one.
Breaking: Josh Johnson has already been pulled from tomorrow’s game, having given up a home run on the way out of Rogers Centre this evening.
Follow @BlakeMurphyODC