TORONTO — John Schneider often talks about winning in the margins and executing to the situation and just like the past couple of years, the Toronto Blue Jays made both mantras focal points during spring training. Over time, the thinking goes, the little things add up, contributing in bits and pieces to wins here and there.
Or sometimes, bunch them up all at once to drive a victory, the way they did Friday night in a 3-1 win over the Seattle Mariners.
At the plate, two sacrifice flies, some clever baserunning and a well-executed RBI single by Alejandro Kirk through a drawn-in infield took care of the offence. In the field, three laser-beam throws from the outfield by Addison Barger helped Bowden Francis get through six innings with only one run against, while Kirk throwing out Julio Rodriguez trying to steal negated a rally in the eighth. All of it led to another lockdown ninth by Jeff Hoffman before a sellout crowd of 40,263 as the Blue Jays improved to 12-8.
With the Blue Jays up 2-1 in the fourth, Barger helped changed the game with his arm, first unleashing a 93.6 m.p.h. throw to easily get Cal Raleigh at second trying to stretch a single into right-field corner.
Francis then hit Randy Arozarena before Luke Raley doubled to left, with Barger making a 96 m.p.h. throw into second, which let Bo Bichette catch Arozarena too far around the bag at third. His relay home led to a rundown, with Will Wagner making a nice play to pick a low throw from Kirk at third before relaying back to the catcher around the runner in the lane, leading to a tag when Arozarena stumbled.
Barger helped get Francis out of trouble again in the fifth when, with two on and none out, he chased down Ben Williamson’s liner to right field and fired a 98.8 m.p.h. laser to get an unwisely tagging Rowdy Tellez by a wide margin at third.
The outs on the basepaths helped Francis, who allowed nine hard-hit balls over six innings, but surrendered only run on five hits, one a Tellez solo shot in the second, with five strikeouts.
Bryan Woo started for the Mariners and while he gave up 14 hard-hit balls, the Blue Jays managed only three runs on seven hits, only one for extra base hits, over seven innings, all of which made their situational work all the more essential.
In the first, Bichette singled, stole second, took third on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s groundout to first and scored on Anthony Santander’s liner to left.
After Alan Roden’s sacrifice fly cashed in George Springer to put the Blue Jays up 2-1, Springer doubled to lead off the fourth, he advanced to third on Barger’s liner to left that and scored when Kirk shot a grounder up the middle.
