Jays steal the spotlight

Extra-inning win keeps Judge chase, Yankee party on ice

Let’s play “Jeopardy.” And the answer is: Tracy Stallard. Who was … the Boston Red Sox pitcher who gave up Roger Maris’s record-breaking 61st home run?

A 2-and-0 fastball that Maris drove deep into the lower deck in right field at Yankee Stadium in the last regular season game in 1961, a 1-0 win for New York.

The seminal Maris round-tripper — 61 in ’61 — still a marker never since duplicated in the American League, and currently being chased by Aaron Judge, just on the cusp of it, stalled at No. 60 for six games now.

On Monday night at the Rogers Centre, Kevin Gausman didn’t give Judge an extension inch in three at-bats, holding the splendid slugger to a single and a walk, and rang him up looking. In the eighth inning, reliever Yimi Garcia KO’d him swinging. Tim Mayza walked him intentionally in the 10th — gutsy move — and that’s all she wrote for Judge on this night under the sealed roof as Toronto scooped the 3-2 win in extras, with Cavan Biggio skittering across the plate after a line drive from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to snap the Yankees’ seven-game win streak.

That’s the story arc that counts, at least from a Blue Jays perspective. Judge is the sidebar.

In the annals of baseball, the late Stallard is merely a footnote. But nobody wants to be that annal redux, the poor shlemiel who takes it on the chin jack-wise when Judge eventually, surely, draws level with Maris at some point over the remaining nine games.

“You’re going to be on the TV highlight reel for the next few months,” Jays reliever Jordan Romano had grimly observed pregame, envisaging the hereafter of a Judge blast. “You don’t want to see that. You don’t want to be that guy.”

For one night at least, the Jays averted getting drawn into the

Judge Chronicles, and the corks stayed in the champagne on ice in the visitors clubhouse. Nope, no clinching of the East Division title yet. And full credit to the arms that picked up where Gausman left off, including Romano, who struck out the side in the ninth.

Romano, Toronto’s stalwart closer, had earlier been reminded of what transpired on May 10, 2022. When his mind went blank, a reporter provided a couple of clues. Aaron Judge? Three-run shot? “Oh yeah, now it brings me back.” Hanging slider? “Definitely was.” Snorts as the memory clicks into place: “Yup. Of all the hitters in the league, you definitely don’t want to throw a hanging slider to Aaron Judge. I knew that going into it, but mistakes happen and he crushed that one.”

That was, in fact, the Yankees centre-fielder’s 10th jack of 2022, but his first walk-off effort. So, 50 homers ago, which is too weird and too wow all at the same time.

“I think honestly, it’s really cool and amazing the season he’s having,” says Romano of the Yankee who might very well cop a Triple Crown this year. “But you never want to give up home runs to anybody.”

Thus, Romano claimed, he wasn’t particularly gnawing on the Judge angle, specifically. And to be frank about this, it’s not that humongous a looming lulu outside the centre of the baseball universe that is the Big Apple — for all that the media machine has gone into hyper overdrive, even starting to turn a tad impatient with Judge. The Maris family on hand. The Judge parental units on hand, as they were also on this night in Toronto.

The Yankees are very nearly home and cooled out, though, champagne ready to be uncorked … While the Jays, very much in wild-card flux still, want this series to be about them.

“We were just talking about this,” Romano had disclosed. “We want to win the series. We don’t want to see them celebrating here, clinching the division here, in our ballpark. We want to make it about us. We want the stories to be about the good baseball we’re playing, how we’re rolling, not about record or them clinching or whatever. “We want to keep the focus on us.” Yeah, well, that wasn’t going to happen. Isn’t going to happen as long as the New York journo troops are in town, setting the agenda and hey, knock yourselves out.

The Jays have other priorities in the balance that remains of the season: trying to carve out a straight path to home-park advantage, caroming from taut and tense to loose and assured as every game goes into the ledger.

“There’s no getting away from it, every game coming down the stretch is a big game, for sure,” said Romano. “But I think everyone’s keeping it loose.”

He credits interim manager John Schneider for the calm mood in the clubhouse and in the dugout: “There’s no sense of panic from him. And we’re playing confident. We know we can win against all these teams we’re facing.”

Yankees … Red Sox … Orioles, and who knows what next. For Toronto, it should be noted, with Romano providing closer backbone, his 35 saves third-best in the majors at the moment, his 19 one-run saves a franchise record and MLB-best this year.

But, ahem, about those back-toback blown saves last week: Sept. 18 vs Orioles (scraped for three runs in the ninth) and Sept. 21 in Philadelphia (game-tying single in the eighth). Bad time for a wobble.

“It’s something that you kind of expect during the season,” Romano counters philosophically. “You’re going to have hot streaks, you’re going to have kind of cold streaks, and then times when you’re just doing your thing. Sure, when that stuff happens, it really sucks in the moment. But I know I’m not going to be at my best all the time.’’

He pauses and gives a bit of sideeye: “But I’ll tell you what, after two blown saves in a row, that third one, you really want to get that. And I got it in Tampa (on Sunday).” Shake it off, bin it, the BS games. “That’s the toughest thing about being a reliever in general,” says Romano. “There’s no way to flush it completely. But I think there are ways to overcome it. Just like staying in the moment, not dwelling in the past too much. But it’s impossible to completely forget about that.’’

Nothing to wilfully erase from the brainpan on this evening, which had playoff feel all over it. And perhaps a preview of down the road, as Toronto’s magic number was cut to three as of this writing.

Intentional walk to Judge in extras to load the bases in the top of the10th, walk-off win for the Jays in the bottom of the 10th.

But they’ll have to walk that fine Judge line again come Tuesday.