Blue Jays salvage a truly miserable day with a gutsy win

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It was a day that started with bad news and it just seemed it would never stop coming for the Blue Jays.

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It began down in the minors when No. 1 prospect LHP Ricky Tiedemann returned from the injured list only to be pulled after an inning with left forearm tightness.

About the same time the Jays top pitching prospect at Double-A New Hampshire Adam Macko was placed on the 7-day injured list with forearm soreness.

If that weren’t enough the Jays had to replace both outfielder Daulton Varsho and Bo Bichette in the early innings of last night’s game.

Varsho appeared to injure his knee attempting a head-first slide into fist as he tried unsuccessfully to beat pitcher Logan Webb to the bag on a slow dribbler up the first base line.

He was replaced by Davis Schneider.

An inning later Bo Bichette did not return to the field. The team eventually explained that Bichette was dealing some soreness in his right calf, the same injury that put him on the injured list just recently.

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Bichette was replaced by rookie Leo Jimenez.

If the Jays were going to salvage anything from the day, it would have to come from the game itself and that didn’t exactly start on a promising note.

Starter Chris Bassitt needed 32 pitches to get out of the first eventually stranding two baserunners when he got Mike Yastrzemski to line out to centre but not before giving up two runs.

The second inning was better on the scoreboard but another long 31-pitch struggle before Bassitt stranded the bases loaded when he got former Jay Matt Chapman to foul out to Bassitt himself between the San Fran dugout and the third base line.

At 63 pitches after just two innings and with the bullpen already on fumes thanks to a heavy workload the past few games, things did not look very good.

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Then just as all hope seemed lost, the Jays offence, and who would have guessed this, came to life and turned the game into what would become a 10-6 rout.

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Ernie Clement got it started with his second three-run homer in as many nights golfing a Logan Webb change-up over the wall in left to give the Jays a brief 3-2 lead.

The host Giants would score once in the bottom of the fifth to get back on even terms.

But the Jays would blow this one open in the sixth with six consecutive hits to begin the inning that wouldn’t end before six runs were put up in favour of the visitors.

All told 10 Jays would come to the plate starting with a Vladimir Guerrero Jr double and then ending on a Guerrero Jr. groundout to third to end it.

Jimenez who came on for Bichette had a couple of hits and a run scored in four at bats while Schneider, who came on for Varsho had two hits in his four at bats scoring two and driving in one.

Bassitt, who struggled mightily early on with both the Giants and the pitch clock which seemed to have him out of sorts for much of the early going, earned the win on sheer determination sticking around for five innings giving up just three runs on five hits and four walks in five innings.

Webb, who started so strong also only lasted five innings and was charged with seven of the 10 runs the Jays would score.

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The Giants did score two in the ninth off Bowden Francis to put a little scare into the Jays but the baseball gods determined the Jays had already suffered enough and that was the extent of the scare.

Overall it wasn’t a banner day for the Blue Jays organization, but it did end on a winning note.

Full marks to Bassitt for battling back to give the Jays five innings and more than that, to the Jays offence that pounded out 14 hits in a rare stellar night for the Jays bats.

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