Power Outage Turned Off Lights for Blue Jays’ Hopes

The Toronto Blue Jays knew what they had to do to beat the Oakland Athletics.

They had to have solid pitching from the starting rotation and they needed the bats of Fred McGriff and George Bell to power the offense.

Neither came to pass and the Blue Jays lost their second chance at the first World Series appearance by a Canadian team, a five-game playoff loss that was capped with Sunday’s 4-3 loss.

Blue Jays starters gave up 19 earned runs over 26 2/3 innings and McGriff went three for 20 while Bell was equally ineffective, going four for 20 with a too-late homer off Dave Stewart in the bottom of the ninth on Sunday. Not exactly the kind of numbers to get a team past a club as powerful as Oakland.

“We lost as a team,” said center fielder Lloyd Moseby, whose solo homer in the eighth was his first in 95 at-bats. “I don’t think you can pin the loss on any one aspect of the game. They just went out and beat us and they beat us as a team.”

While the Blue Jays would have been hard pressed to beat the A’s even if they were at the top of their game, Oakland’s big bats were anything but dormant.

Jose Canseco went five for 17, with a homer and three RBIs, while Mark McGwire went seven for 18 with one homer and three RBIs.

Take away unanimous MVP Rickey Henderson and the A’s still had enough to beat the Blue Jays.

“I’m not going to sit around and give one man the credit for this series,” Moseby said. “Rickey had a great series, but Rickey Henderson didn’t beat us, the Oakland A’s beat us.”

Bell, slumped in a chair, couldn’t wait for next season to start.

“I hope they enjoy the World Series,” Bell said. “I hope they get beat the way we did. But a lot of people tell me they’re hot dogs and they cause controversy, but you just have to control those guys. They have the best attitude I’ve ever seen from baseball players. They want to beat you no matter what.”

Bell didn’t see his lack of run production as the main reason for the Blue Jays’ failure to get the job done.

“I don’t think the homer was too late,” Bell said. “It makes it 4-2 with none out in the bottom of the ninth. We still weren’t out of it. But 1990 is going to be a long season for them against us, I guarantee it right now. I promise you that.”

For McGriff, the problems at the plate didn’t develop overnight. The Blue Jays first baseman led the American League in home runs with 36 this season but hadn’t hit one in more than 100 at-bats.

“It was just an unfortunate time for Freddie to slump,” Toronto manager Cito Gaston said. “But to put any blame on his shoulders would be unfair. He and George carried this team when a lot of the bats were silent. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for those two guys.”