Eight Blue Jay swings fly, fly away
First team in 3 years to hit 8 home runs in game
TORONTO – A group of fans wearing blue wigs decided against K signs for each home strikeout at Rogers Centre, opting for HR placards for each Toronto drive instead.
They got plenty of work Saturday.
The Blue Jays became the first team to hit eight homers in a game in three years, getting two apiece from Aaron Hill and J.P. Arencibia in a 17-11 victory over the slumping Tampa Bay Rays.
“I’ve never seen anything like it for a team that I’ve played for or against,” said Jose Bautista, who hit his major league-best 34th. “It was just one of those days, the balls kept going out of the yard.”
Adam Lind, Edwin Encarnacion and Lyle Overbay also connected for the Blue Jays, who lead the majors with 175 homers.
“I’ve played a lot of games and I imagine I could remember if that ever happened, but no,” Lind said.
It was the most homers in a single game for the Blue Jays since they hit a major league-record 10 against Baltimore on Sept. 14, 1987. Toronto scored in each of the first seven innings and set season highs in runs and hits (20).
“You think they’re going to get a couple during the course of every game, that’s just how they’re built,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. “I guess they made up for not getting any (in Friday’s 2-1 win).”
The New York Yankees were the last team to hit at least eight homers in a single game, according to STATS LLC, going deep eight times in a 16-3 victory over the Chicago White Sox on July 31, 2007, at Yankee Stadium.
The eight homers are the most allowed in a game by the Rays, whose losing streak reached a season-high four. Only the Yankees and San Diego have yet to lose four straight this season.
“A lot of teams would have just packed it in a lot sooner,” Maddon said. “We did not.”
Called up from Triple-A Las Vegas on Wednesday, Arencibia homered on the first pitch of his first at-bat, a two-run shot to left in the second. He added another first-pitch homer in the sixth, a solo drive to right off Dale Thayer, and finished with four hits.
“I could never have imagined this, ever,” an emotional Arencibia said as he fought back tears at a postgame press conference. “I was pretty surprised because my first at-bat I really wasn’t that nervous. I was pretty even-keeled and then after that I was pretty comfortable in the box.”
The rookie gave his mom, who was in the stands, and his new manager a debut to remember.
“J.P. had a heck of a day, one that he can go back and tell his grandkids about,” Cito Gaston said.