Danny Jansen leads the way as Blue Jays rally late to beat the Cubs

TORONTO — A few of the Blue Jays gathered at the end of their dugout, shaking their hats upside down. With the team down 4-0 in the seventh, but with two on and no outs, the rally cap gesture was done to try and spur on some good luck for their slumping team.

Danny Jansen, meanwhile, was standing at the plate. When Chicago Cubs reliever Erich Uelmen hung a 2-2 slider, Jansen crushed it to deep centre field for a three-run home run that brought his team within a run. His teammates in the dugout cheered and lifted their hands in the air. Their gesture hadn’t gone unnoticed by the baseball gods.

It was all part of a four-RBI night for the Blue Jays catcher, who also drove in the winning run in the 11th inning with a single to left field that scored speedy Matt Chapman in the Blue Jays’ 5-4 extra-innings win over the Cubs. The victory snapped their three-game losing streak and gave the club a much-needed win and chance to celebrate on the field after a tough weekend sweep by the Los Angeles Angels.

“It feels good,” Jansen said of playing such a pivotal role in the comeback win. “Any given night, I’m just trying to go out there and compete and do what I can to help the team win and tonight, I just happened to hit a homer and the walk-off hit. So, felt really good. But already looking forward to tomorrow and building off it.”

And, on the rally caps that may or may not have played a part in bringing him some good juju:

“They told me in the training room that they were doing the rally with the hats,” Jansen said, smiling. “Baseball’s funny.”

Indeed, baseball has been a funny game recently in Toronto. These talent-rich Blue Jays have been experiencing more ups and downs this season than an elevator operator. After a 6-1 road trip through New York and Boston, the Blue Jays were soundly swept — outscored 22-3 — by the lowly Angels over three games this weekend. With the also non-contending Cubs in town this week, this series was a fresh chance for the Blue Jays to begin a winning streak anew.

It took guts to get there, though. Trailing 4-0 into the seventh after starter José Berríos allowed four runs in 5 2/3 inning, Jansen hit a three-run home run in the seventh to make it a one-run ball game. In the eighth, Cavan Biggio doubled and Chapman followed with an RBI single that tied the game 4-4.

Blue Jays closer Jordan Romano pitched a scoreless ninth inning to preserve the tie and eventually, the game went into extras. Each team had their chances in the extra ends but the Blue Jays played some solid defence, including an unassisted double play from Bo Bichette, who caught a line drive off Ian Happ in the 10th and stepped on second to get out the ghost runner, helping keep the 10th scoreless. Meanwhile, pitching under high stress with the runner on, Blue Jays reliever Yimi García threw two outstanding scoreless innings that set the stage for Jansen’s heroics.

After Chapman was intentionally walked to begin the 11th, Santiago Espinal bunted him over to second base as the Cubs opted to go after the lead runner, Jackie Bradley Jr., at third. When Jansen stepped to the plate, he jumped on a first-pitch curveball from Mark Leiter Jr., sending it into left field, while Chapman screamed across the bases and slid in before the tag, prompting the dugout to empty onto the field.

“That was a big one. I think every win is big, that was big,” said Blue Jays interim manager John Schneider. “Today, I think, at-bats were good early and then kind of fell off a little bit against (Javier) Assad, but you got to give him credit for sticking to what was working and then huge homer from Jano and it was the second time we had a couple of guys on with nobody out, brought us to life a little bit there and then went from there, you know, Chappy and Jano again in the 11th.”

Hours before the win, Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins had sat in the Blue Jays dugout and told reporters he believed the team’s best baseball is yet to come. Well, with about five weeks left in the season and the team barely clinging to a playoff spot, their best had better get here quickly. Monday’s win is a start, but the Blue Jays will need to be even better when the schedule gets far tougher in September, with 19 crucial games against the Rays and Orioles that will likely decide the fate of who is in and out of the playoffs.

“We played well, and we played really well at times, but I don’t think we’ve ever been at a point where we’ve been pitching very well, playing great defence and scoring a lot of runs, which we’re capable of doing all three of those things,” the general manager said.

Atkins meets with the media regularly in Toronto and while his appearance on Monday after the weekend sweep could appear to be the classic “GM speaks at a time of concern,” Atkins said the decision to speak to reporters on this date was actually made last week. In any case, he was asked about what he saw over the team’s three losses to the Angels and while he did acknowledge mistakes that cost them wins, Atkins ultimately, and expectedly, steered his answers more to the preparation, the work and the conversations that are happening behind the scenes that give him optimism for their improved play moving forward.

“I’m fortunate to see the conversations they’re having, which sharing the details of those would not be fair to them, but how they’re talking about pushing things forward and being better, how they can be better individually and collectively. And I think that’s the key. If we can continue to focus on our collective success, and our collective setbacks and not be finger-pointing and focusing too much on when we do have a mental lapse…I know fans know we’re not going to be perfect, but understanding that what goes in on a daily basis and their preparation, their routines, and they’re counting on one another is powerful, and we’re fortunate to see more of the detail than some of the fans are.”

The Blue Jays haven’t had a good offence month in August and that spells bad news for a team that is built around hitting. Their wRC+ for the month is 96, below average and well below their overall season mark of 115 wRC+ which is 15 percent better than league average. In other words, the Blue Jays are a top-five offence hitting like a bottom-third offence at the moment.

Looking at the numbers, a glaring stat is the Blue Jays have hit just 22 home runs this month. That’s only one more than the 21 they hit in May, which was also a slow offensive month and, until August, their worst of the season. A way out of this slump – and it’s easier written than done — could be for the Blue Jays to start mashing again, and, well, just look at the lift that Jansen’s seventh-inning home run gave the team, propelling them to a win. The Blue Jays are 50-34 when they hit at least one home run in a game and 30-16 when they hit two. If there is a silver lining to look ahead to, the Blue Jays emerged from their offensive slumber in May to go on to have their two best offensive months in June and July. This would be an opportune time to do that once more.

“If we stick to making good decisions at the plate and just having quality at-bats, the ball is going to start to hit gaps, it’s going to start to go over the fence more,” Atkins said. “But I think the biggest difference will just be how we take care of the ball and make good decisions base running.”

While Atkins was hesitant to call this series against the Cubs must win, he did suggest the next six games against them and the Pittsburgh Pirates present an opportunity for the Blue Jays before the schedule gets much more challenging.

“I feel like the most important series will be against Baltimore and Tampa, however, we obviously would be really disappointed if we weren’t successful over the next couple of series,” Atkins said.

On Monday, the Blue Jays rallied for a win. Now, they’ll try to keep those good vibes going.

 (Photo of Matt Chapman scoring the game-winning run: John E. Sokolowski / USA Today)