Blue Jays offence busts out late to get the best of Athletics

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What would be the wildest formula you could draw up as a wake-up call for a middling Blue Jays offence seemingly built to be explosive?

Start with a leadoff walk to a light-hitting catcher, mix in a run scoring on a wild pitch, two more on clutch singles and a fourth on a bunt.

Just like that, a not-so-prolific group of Jays hitters that had scored just three runs in its previous 17 innings in the Bay Area busted out with five in the eighth inning on Wednesday night at the Oakland Coliseum.

The result was a 9-4 victory over the Athletics that ended a two-game losing streak and improved the Jays record to 15-14. Manager Charlie Montoyo’s crew can now earn a series split against the AL West-leading Athletics in Thursday’s matinee finale to the four-game series.

“It was a good job by the offence to come back against good pitching,” Montoyo said following the game. “In that kind of game you need to execute and we did.”

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As productive as the Jays have been at their hitter-friendly and soon-to-be vacated home in Dunedin, Fla., they have struggled to put up runs on the road. Entering Wednesday’s play, Toronto batters had hit .209 in away contests, 13th in the AL, while scoring just 3.18 runs compared to an AL-best 6.45 at TD Ballpark.

Vladimir Guerrero Jr. rounds third base to score on a single in the top of the eighth inning during the Blue Jays’ 9-4 win over Oakland on Wednesday. GETTY IMAGESAn offence further stymied by seeing centre fielder-in-waiting George Springer jettisoned to the injury list with a quad injury earlier in the day was getting nowhere off of Athletics starter Chris Bassit. They scored a pair in the first — on four consecutive hits — but after that, silence.

Trailing 3-2 entering the eighth, the Jays woke up the creative way — bringing across five despite recording just three hits. It all started with a walk to Reese McGuire — a huge miscue on the part of A’s reliever Lou Trivino. With Jonathan Davis in as a pinch-runner, the parade around the bases began.

Davis scored on a wild pitch, but RBI singles from Teoscar Hernandez and Randal Grichuk kept it going. Next up, Cavan Biggio dropped down a sacrifice bunt to score Hernandez.

In a series in which the explosiveness that purportedly defines the Jays offence had been missing, it was just what the at-times creative Montoyo needed. Of their nine hits to that point, eight were singles, and there were seven runs on the board. And the final tally of nine came without a homer.

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For good measure, the Jays added a pair in the ninth when Vlad Guerrero Jr. crushed a 114-mile per hour double for two more RBI. Rare is the outfielder that could have chased that missile down, the blast got out of there in such a hurry.

DON’T WALK THIS WAY

The early benign work at the plate almost spoiled an excellent outing by grunting Jays starter Robbie Ray, who allowed three runs through six innings. Ray’s fastball command was once again dynamite as he struck out nine and for the third consecutive game, and did not allow a walk.

Ray knows what the book was on him prior to this season – he walked far too many batters which was essentially undoing much of what he did well.

The free pass is a rarity from Ray now, who has not walked a batter in his past 18-2 innings of work and has struck out 23 in that span.

“That was my main focus in the off-season, to limit those walks,” Ray said following Wednesday’s game. “It hasn’t been a secret that that was my weakness.

“It’s still a long season, but I feel like I’m on the right track.”

Ray has essentially been riding his high 90s fastball which has been commanding the zone.

“The main thing is fastball command,” Ray said. “Honestly, that’s been the biggest thing – to move it around and place it where I want it to be.”

MORE INJURY WOES

The win was marred by two more injuries to the beleaguered Toronto lineup.

The first was to veteran reliever David Phelps was warming up for the eighth inning when he grimaced after making his first warmup pitch and immediately left the mound. Phelps, who has emerged as a key figure in the terrific Jays bullpen, has battled injury throughout his career.

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The second injury was to infielder Joe Panik who felt something in his calf muscle running out a ground ball. Both players are scheduled to have MRIs on thursday.

As for Phelps, the right-hander had become a reliever whom manager Charlie Montoyo could trust in multiple situations. In 11 appearances this season, Phelps had recorded a skimpy ERA of 0.87 and struck out 15 in his 10.1 innings work.

SPRINGER UPDATE

Given that Springer was put on the IL less than an hour before first pitch, Montoyo updated his status following the game.

“One of the reasons we waited for so long is because of who he is. If we could wait, wait, wait (and he could play) that would be the best thing. But after the MRI there was something there and that’s what made our decision easier.”

AROUND THE BASES

It was another big night for Randal Grichuk, who continues to pick up the void left by Springer in centre field. Grichuk went three for five for his 10th multiple hit-game of the season … The Jays won for the first time this season when trailing after seven innings and have now captured four of their past six and eight of their past 12.

rlongley@postmedia.com