Adam Lind drove in Mike McCoy with a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Toronto Blue Jays defeated the Los Angeles Angels of 3-2 at Rogers Centre on Monday evening.
McCoy reached on an error by Angels shortstop Erick Aybar and after Jose Bautista’s ground out moved the Jays’ utility man to third base, he was able to score on Lind’s poke to the right side of the infield for the walk-off victory.
With the win, Toronto improved its record to 78-75. The Jays have now won two in a row and still have a chance of matching or bettering last year’s record of 85-77.
The Angels dropped to 83-70 and now sit four games back of Boston in the wild card hunt and five games behind Texas in the American League West.
Casey Janssen (6-0) pitched one inning of relief and picked up the win, while former Jays reliever Scott Downs (6-3) took the loss after allowing the game-ending run.
Ricky Romero started the game for the Jays and had a chance to pick up the win when the Jays got two men on with no outs in the ninth.
But after Brett Lawrie bunted the runners over, Jose Molina struck out and J.P. Arencibia flew out to right to end the threat.
Romero went nine innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits with no walks and five strikeouts.
Jerome Williams, who started for Anaheim, went 6 1/3 innings, allowing two runs, both unearned, on six hits and three walks with three strikeouts.
The game was a closely marked affair that saw a variety of highlight-reel plays by both squads as well an endless amount of ground-ball outs.
McCoy, filling in at short for the injured Yunel Escobar, stood out in particular with his constant diving stops deep in the hole that kept the Angels from scoring more runs than they could have.
The Angels scored their first run when Torii Hunter took a 3-2 Romero offering deep to lead off the second. It was the veteran’s 21sthomer of the season.
The Jays then took the lead back in the bottom of the fourth after Arencibia drove in Kelly Johnson, who reached on an error by Williams, and Lawrie, who had walked making the game 2-1 at that point in the Jays’ favour.
But the lead didn’t last long as Angels’ rookie of the year candidate Mark Trumbo took Romero deep on a 1-2 pitch to centre field for his 28th homer of the year. The big first baseman needs only three more to tie Tim Salmon for the Angels’ rookie record for home runs.
The game went scoreless for the next five innings until Lind’s fielder’s choice RBI in the 10th ended it in dramatic fashion, sending home the announced 11,178 with something to cheer about.
