With Help From Angels, Blue Jays Back on the Rise

The two World Series championship banners hang triumphantly above the center field scoreboard. The trophies sit in the office lobby. The championship rings grace the players’ hands.

The Toronto Blue Jays have been the class of all of baseball, averaging 91 victories a season the last 11 years, winning five division titles, and back-to-back World Series championships.

That is why the significance of their 5-0 victory Sunday over the Angels absolutely defies the imagination.

They finally became a .500 team again.

The Blue Jays, featuring a lineup that is usually found at All-Star games, are in fourth place in the American League East with a 24-24 record, nine games behind the New York Yankees before the start of summer.

The folks in these parts are having difficulty enough coping with their hockey team being eliminated from the Stanley Cup, but to realize that the Angels might have a better shot of being in the playoffs than the Blue Jays, well, that’s too much to bear.

“It’s been frustrating,” Blue Jay right fielder Joe Carter said. “We know we’re too good of a team to be playing this way. No one’s panicking, I mean it’s still May, but I think everyone in here realizes that we’ve got to get our act together pretty quick.”

Said Blue Jay hitting coach Larry Hisle: “I don’t think anyone on our team believes the race is over, but nobody’s comfortable, either. We know we’re better than this. And we know there are teams in our division that aren’t as good as this.

“But it’s got to start changing pretty quick before things get out of hand.”

If the Blue Jays are to get back in the race, it’s going to require more pitching performances such as Todd Stottlemyre’s on Sunday. Stottlemyre, who opened the season in the bullpen, pitched a four-hit shutout for his fourth victory of the season.

“I think we (the pitching staff) have all been sick and tired of being blamed for everything,” said Stottlemyre, who didn’t allow an Angel past second base. “If all the fingers were pointed at you, you’d be sick and tired of it, too.”

The Blue Jays’ pitching staff is ninth in the league in earned-run average at 5.14. Pat Hentgen is the only starter with an ERA of less than 4.50. And Toronto sorely misses closer Duane Ward, who, according to General Manager Pat Gillick, could miss the entire season.

“Maybe this will get the monkey off the pitching staff’s back,” Carter said. “This was big weekend for us. We not only won two in a row, but we beat (Mark) Langston and (Chuck) Finley in back-to-back games.

“We kept hearing how we couldn’t beat lefties, well, to beat those guys is a pretty big accomplishment for anyone.”

Said Finley: “I’m sure after they lost Friday, they thought, ‘Oh God, we’ve got Langston and Finley in next.’ But hey, you look at that lineup, and there’s one All-Star after another.”

Toronto defeated Finley, but the Angels’ defense did as much damage as the Blue Jays’ bats.

Finley (4-4) pitched a five-hitter, but three balls were botched by third baseman Damion Easley, and second baseman Harold Reynolds’ error cost Finley two other runs.

“I looked at the scoreboard in the sixth inning,” Finley said. “I gave up three hits. Stottlemyre gave up four hits. And he was the one who had a 3-0 lead.”

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays were putting on a fielding clinic.

Roberto Alomar, who hit a two-run homer in the first inning, robbed Bo Jackson of a single in the fourth. Alomar made an over-the-shoulder catch in shallow right field against Dwight Smith that saved a run in the sixth.

And center fielder Devon White made a basket catch against the fence off Gary DiSarcina’s fly ball in the third.

“He’s the best infielder I’ve ever seen,” DiSarcina said of Alomar. “He can beat you in so many ways. He’s just a cut above the rest of us.”

And White?

“There ain’t nothing that Devo can’t catch,” Finley said. “You hit the ball to any part of center field, and it’s an out.”

Yet, with the Blue Jays this far out of first place for the first time since 1989, and with the Yankees playing almost .700 baseball, could Toronto’s reign be over?

“You kidding me?” DiSarcina said. “To me, they’re still the best. They’ll rise to the top before the season is over.

“After what I saw today, there’s no reason to think they won’t be back in the World Series again.”