Blue Jays takeaways: George Springer caps monster homestand with game-winning blast. The playoff race is most definitely on

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This article was published 08/08/2021 (1853 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 9-8 win over the Boston Red Sox at the Rogers Centre on Sunday afternoon:

And it was on this day that George Springer truly became a Blue Jay.

OK, that might be more than a little hyperbolic, as the Jays’ big free-agent acquisition has been just about the best hitter in the game since the all-star break, but the slugger came up huge when all seemed lost on Sunday and powered his still-new team to an unlikely comeback win.

The Jays were down by five early on, but got back in the game by scoring a couple in the fifth on a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. homer, and a couple more in an ugly seventh inning in which both teams played an embarrassing game of “Can you top this?” while trading wild pitches and baserunning blunders.

But with two out in the bottom of the eighth, Boston still held a two-run lead with closer Matt Barnes on the mound.

Barnes, who gave up Marcus Semien’s walk-off homer in Saturday’s opener but got the win in the nightcap of a doubleheader, had come on to face Reese McGuire and walked him on nine pitches — McGuire fouling off three straight 96-mile-per-hour fastballs in a full count — to bring Springer up as the go-ahead run.

The Sox’s closer left a 2-and-2 fastball over the middle of the plate and Springer absolutely murdalized it. Gone from contact, the baseball’s final resting place was in the 200 level in left, 442 feet away.

“It’s just undescribable,” Springer said when asked what was going through his mind as he rounded the bases. “To get down early but not quit. For us to keep battling all day … We just fought and battled and scratched and clawed all day. It’s just an undescribable feeling, for sure.”

A team that hasn’t come from behind, hasn’t gotten big hits late and hasn’t won close games for most of this season did all those things Sunday, putting a massive exclamation point on a 9-2 homestand that has them right back in the thick of the playoff race. They’re now just one game behind Boston in the loss column as they head out to the west coast.

• Start to finish: The Jays had to battle back because, for the first time in the entire homestand, their starting pitcher laid an egg. Hyun-Jin Ryu threw a perfect first inning, setting down the top of the lineup on just 11 pitches, but the rest of his day was an absolute nightmare.

After that first, Ryu faced 19 more hitters before being yanked with one out in the fourth. He only retired eight of them.

The Red Sox pounced on the lefty with four straight hits to begin the second, including a bloop double down the left-field line by J.D. Martinez that was misplayed by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. The left-fielder was given an error on the play, but could just as easily have been given two.

When he tried to pick up the ball on a hop, Gurriel whiffed. So he had to chase after it and made a rushed, wild throw home in an attempt to get Rafael Devers, who scored from first.

Boston wound up sending eight batters to the plate, scoring three times. They added a run in the third, then knocked Ryu out of the game the next inning after his only walk of the day loaded the bases with one out.

Before anyone points to last year’s playoff blowup to suggest this means Ryu can’t be trusted in big games, it should be noted that he threw six shutout innings against these same Red Sox in Boston two weeks ago, kicking off the current 10-2 run on which the Jays find themselves.

Regardless, with the addition of José Berríos and the emergence of Robbie Ray and Alek Manoah, Ryu is no longer the clear No. 1 starter on this team, so he doesn’t have to do all the heavy lifting. Even with Sunday’s early-inning struggles, Jays starters posted a sparkling 2.25 ERA for the homestand.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness