TORONTO – Kevin Pillar's performance on Sunday afternoon led to criticism from his manager and an uncomfortable storyline for a difficult team. Just as soon, his game pushed many of those questions aside the next day.
Pillar, whose unneces- sarily aggressive base-shooting gave him an exorbitant rebuke from John Gibbons at Yankee Stadium Sunday, doubled during his first trip to the record on Monday. A moment later, Gibbons turned to the excavated camera with a smile and held a thumb up.
"I do not really know what the big deal was," Gibbons said afterwards. "To be honest, you're getting a little rattling here."
Two innings later, Pillar drove in Richard Urena with a double, which justified the decision to put him in the line-up instead of punishing him as a penalty for his unwise attempt to steal third base while he 6-2 lost. Those two doubles helped the Blue Jays to give the visiting Orioles their 88th loss of the season with a 5-3 margin.
As Gibbons said before the game, banking was not necessary. He is a veteran of six big league-seasons and is known as an intense competitor who often puts his body at risk for his team. Plus, if the Blue Jays Yangervis Solarte did not break earlier in the season for an apparent lack of crowds, would it make sense to start now?
"Let's put it this way It's hard to criticize Kevin Pillar, the way he does his business," Gibbons said before the game. "You never have to worry about trouble, he sacrifices everything he has … I have no complaints about Kevin Pillar. & # 39;
Afterwards Pillar said that his contributions did not feel anything but different and that Sunday's events did not change his goals for Monday.
He was not the only one to contribute to the plate, as Kendrys Morales hit two home runs, his 15th and 16th of the season. He crept one over the right field wall in the fourth inning and added a three-run shot without a doubt in the next frame.
Morales was pleasantly surprised to get his first homer on a ball that rattled him enough to break his club, stating that "I suppose the wind blown away." Concerning the second homerun, he completely beat Andrew Cashner's lead. "He threw me such a bit of meatball," Morales said via interpreter Josue Peley.
The offensive success of Danny Jansen also continued, when the rookie-catcher collected a hit for the sixth consecutive game. He doubled in the leftfield-line in the fourth inning, one of the three balls that hit his bat at 90 m.p. left behind. or more.
"Really, I do not think it could be any better," Gibbons said about Jansen's first week in the majors. "He does everything you could ask (and) the more he plays, the better he will become."
On the mound, starter Marco Estrada completed 5.1 innings and gave up three earned runs on seven hits. He also scored four, partly because of an effective change that generated 10 swings and misses.
"I feel like I have made many good pitches during the last two trips," he said. "It's hard to get away with 86 (m.p.h.) sometimes, but that's what I have now, I try to get through it, Danny called a great game."
Trade rumors continue to surround Estrada, who is on the radar of competing teams before the August 31 deadline for adding playoff eligible players. At the moment, however, his focus remains in Toronto.
"This is my biggest concern," Estrada said. "If that happens, wherever that move is, I'll focus on that, but right now I'm here, I'm a Blue Jay and I'm aiming to win here, simple and clear."
Ryan Tepera threw relief from Estrada and appeared in the sixth inning for the first time in 2018. After 1.1 innings from Tepera, Jaime Garcia, Tyler Clippard and Ken Giles opened their mouths for the Orioles.
Meanwhile, Aaron Sanchez started a rehabilitation with double-A and while he retired four times on 4.1 innings, he also ran four and threw more balls than strikes. The Blue Jays must now decide to bring him back for Saturday's game against the Phillies or let him work for his next rehab while spinning fifth in the rotation.
That is a potentially difficult decision for the Blue Jays, but at least they can become aware that things are normal between their midfielder and their manager.
"He responded," Gibbons said with a wink. "Thank God we have not put him in the bank."
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