Rampaging Blue Jays extend win streak to 10, one shy of matching club record
Not since the days of Joey Bats, The Bringer of Rain and E5 have the Jays won 11 games in a row, a feat the latest edition of the club can match if victory is achieved Wednesday at Chicago's Rate Field, home of the lowly White Sox. The 2015 team led by Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion twice strung together win streaks of 11 games, but the enduring memory was an appearance in the ALCS and losing to the eventual World Series champion Kansas City Royals in six games.
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In total, five times in club history has an 11-game win streak been produced.
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It seems the only way to stop the Jays involves the fickle hand of Mother Nature. With two outs in the seventh inning and Nathan Lukes at the plate, the heavens opened up and the tarp came out as the game went into a rain delay.
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'Weather is expected to remain in the area for an hour,' per the White Sox. That forecast was just off the plate, though, and the game would be called.
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Toronto's win improved its record to 54-38 as it maintained a 3.5-game lead on the victorious New York Yankees atop the AL East. The Tampa Bay Rays, meanwhile, lost again to the Detroit Tigers and have fallen to 5.0 games off the pace.
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The following are three takeaways as the Jays are assured of a series win against a White Sox team that handed Toronto a rare series loss two weeks ago at the Rogers Centre.
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1. Bassitt battles
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Chris Bassitt's line in the night's boxscore showed the wily right-hander gave up one run in six innings, allowing four hits and a walk to improve his record to 9-4 and lower his ERA to 4.16.
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In reality, it wasn't quite as easy as it looked. He gave up a double to leadoff man Mike Tauchman, then hit Lenyn Sosa with a pitch.
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One inning later, a leadoff walk and a single had Chisox runners at first and second with one out.
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In both frames, things looked pretty bleak for the veteran, whom the White Sox seemed to have on the ropes. However, it was a relieved Bassitt who gladly watched the defence behind him turn double plays to escape both jams.
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Following two three-up, three-down frames, a third double play was turned to end the fifth as Bassitt continued to keep the South Siders scoreless.
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