Rogers Centre Erupts in Blue Jays Win over Red Sox
The building was ready.
Cheers grew and Toronto relievers pressed up against the bullpen fence as George Springer entered the box.
On contact, the noise level spiked. When the ball landed fair, the place unleashed. It was the last of crowd eruption after crowd eruption in a monstrous fifth frame.
It was an inning filled with “MVP” chants, “Boston Sucks” jeers, a partial bench-clearing, and nine Blue Jay runs. Toronto’s bats slept through the first four innings of the biggest series of the year to date, but in the fifth they awoke, setting a tone for the weekend and the rest of the season.
“It might be the best that I’ve seen since I’ve been here,” Randal Grichuk said. “And the crazy thing is, it’s only 15,000 fans.”
With one out in the inning, Bo Bichette slid back into first base, rising to a roaring Rogers Centre crowd with maroon dirt coating his legs and chest. His RBI single gave Toronto their first lead of the night and one pitch later he re-coated his jersey sliding across home plate himself, kicking up chalk and pushing the lead to two.
Even after a Vlad Guerrero Jr. groundout ended the fifth, the crowd rose to a standing ovation and Toronto's first basemen clapped along with them in shallow right field. Alongside Friday's starter Alek Manoah (5IP, 2ER, 4K), Guerrero was one of several Blue Jays on the top step and over the railing, jarring with Red Sox reliever Hansel Robles halfway through the extended fifth.
"We put up a seven-spot and a guy gets hit pretty hard," Manoah said. "Gotta have your teammates back."
The inning had it all — benches warned, a foul-pole homer, an intentional walk, and enough runs to pull Toronto closer to a postseason position.
As of Friday night, two teams sit between the Blue Jays and a wild card spot, and three between Toronto and the AL East lead. They have 55 games to make up a handful of wins, but games — and fifth innings — like Friday’s make the task easier.
“Right now, at this moment for us, every game counts,” Vlad Guerrero Jr. said before the game.
The Blue Jays have been chasing the Red Sox all season (and a few other teams), and Toronto knows the swing this series can provide. Manager Charlie Montoyo doesn’t do much scoreboard watching, he said, but the Red Sox score caught his eye on the outfield videoboard in recent days.
Toronto came into Friday’s game 6-9 against their division rivals, and 1-4 at “home.” But the Red Sox hadn’t visited the Rogers Centre yet this year, until Friday.
"When that home crowd is cheering and screaming for you every time you get an out or every time you make a big pitch, it hits a little different," Manoah said. "It was electric."
Mitch Bannon is a baseball reporter for Sports Illustrated covering the Toronto Blue Jays and their minor league affiliates.Twitter: @MitchBannon