Blue Jays Use Small Moves for Big Push

The remarkable resurgence of the San Diego Padres in the National League West may have drawn attention from a similar comeback by the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East.

Nine games under .500 on June 12, the Blue Jays began a weekend series against the Chicago White Sox threatening to overtake the Boston Red Sox for the AL wild-card lead while challenging the New York Yankees for the division lead.

The Blue Jays had won 27 of 37 games, including a three-game sweep of the Atlanta Braves and a two-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians last week.

Shawn Green and Carlos Delgado were 1-2 in the AL in extra-base hits as they continued to power the turnaround, but three other factors have been comparably important, if less obvious:

1--The promotion of flame-thrower Billy Koch, 17 for 20 in save opportunities through Thursday, provided a missing link in the same way that Tom Henke did when recalled in 1985.

2--Shortstop Tony Batista, acquired from Arizona in a June deal for reliever Dan Plesac, plugged a gap created when Alex Gonzalez was lost for the season with a shoulder injury and brought more than his glove--hitting 11 home runs in his first 124 at-bats with the Blue Jays.

3--The return of Paul Quantrill, who missed more than two months with a broken leg, added depth to the bullpen and another reliable bridge to Koch.

Recent performance aside, the Blue Jays are 1-12 against New York and Boston, a pattern they will have to reverse when they meet the Red Sox on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed soon by three games against the Yankees.

The Blue Jays have been so hot, they didn’t mind providing the Yankees and Red Sox with some bulletin board fodder.

“Right now we can beat anybody in the game, no question,” Green said. “When we play well, nobody can play with us.

“We’ve got the arms and the weapons, and our confidence level is higher than ever. We’re cockier. We’ve got a bit of swagger.”

Romancing .300 with 12 home runs in reasonably steady employment as Chicago’s designated hitter and occasional first baseman, Paul Konerko remains burdened by the hype, but White Sox Manager Jerry Manuel thinks the best is still to come. “He’s finally becoming comfortable in the major leagues after getting that big buildup with the Dodgers,” Manuel said. “I don’t like to put numbers on a guy, but I think he’ll be hitting a lot more home runs for us over the rest of the season.”

A sellout crowd of 44,884 at Seattle’s Safeco Field on Tuesday night, choosing to remember Randy Johnson’s heroics as a Mariner rather than his seemingly disinterested, contract-oriented performance over the first half of last year, when he was ultimately traded to the Houston Astros, greeted the Big Unit with a standing ovation and then sat quietly as he pitched Arizona to a 6-0 victory, ending a streak of six consecutive starts in which he lost or had no decision.

Of the warm reception Johnson received, Seattle shortstop Alex Rodriguez said: “Anything less would have been uncivilized. He was standing on the mound he built.”

Add Mariners: Amid their ongoing bullpen miseries, Seattle writers have renamed the new ballpark, calling it “No Lead is Safe-co Field.”