As Major League Baseball players boycotted three other games to force postponements, the Toronto Blue Jays and Boston Red Sox played on Wednesday night in Sahlen Field. Just as the 6:37 p.m. first pitch was approaching, word leaked out of the boycotts at the NBA bubble in Orlando and similar moves in other baseball games in protest of the Jacob Blake shooting in Kenosha, Wisc.
"It's sad to hear what's going on out there," Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said after his club's 9-1 rout of the Sox. "It was right before the game when we found out. Players were already out there so we decided to play."
The same decision may not be reached for Thursday night's series finale.
"We are going to discuss it as a team tomorrow amongst our peers, our teammates, management and everybody within the Blue Jays' organization," said Jays first baseman Rowdy Tellez. "It's something that's definitely is a very heavy point in all of the world right now and something we need to discuss as a team moving forward."
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Montoyo said he had a full-team discussion about kneeling for the national anthems prior to the season opener July 24 in Tampa Bay and is prepared to have another talk here about the Black Lives Matter movement.
"We'll have a discussion tomorrow and I'll support whatever the team decides to do," said Montoyo.
Added Tellez: "It's a terrible time with what's going on in the world right now. It's one of those things weighing heavy on a lot of our hearts, a lot of our friends. ... It is going to be a great team discussion and probably an emotional one as well."
Rockin Rowdy
Tellez continued his white-hot hitting in Buffalo, clubbing two long home runs to right field and driving in four runs. Tellez connected for a solo shot in the second inning and a two-run blast in the fourth as the Blue Jays (15-14) evened the three-game series at a win apiece.
Tellez is batting .481 (13 for 27) with five of his six home runs this season in Buffalo, where he was a regular for the Bisons in 2017 and 2018. He's batting just .114 on the road (5 for 44).
The Blue Jays broke the game open with a five-run eighth, which included a three-run double to left by Vladimir Guerrero and an RBI single from Tellez. Five Toronto pitchers pieced together a three-hitter. Shun Yamaguchi (2-2) got the win, allowing just one run and two hits over four innings.
Streak gone
Boston's Alex Verdugo, the outfield prospect acquired in the Mookie Betts trade, went 0 for 4, ending his hitting streak at 14 games that started the day as the longest in the big leagues.
The streak ended in Verdugo's last at-bat in the eighth, when second baseman Cavan Biggio scooped his grounder in short right field and just got him at first.
Biggio, meanwhile, extended his on-base streak to 19 games with a seventh-inning single.
Ace on deck
Lefty Hyun-Jin Ryu (2-1, 3.19) is the scheduled starter for the Blue Jays on Thursday. The Sox are calling up Chris Mazza from their taxi squad to make the start. The Jays then open a four-game series against Baltimore here Friday night.
