MLB Rankings: Greatest Hits in Week-17
8. Brandon Drury, 49 percent
It was a fun week to be a Blue Jays fan.
On Saturday, four days after Smoak’s one-man undermining of the Indians, another Jay turned a likely defeat into a come-from-behind victory. Brandon Drury’s home run pulled the Jays back from the brink of a narrow loss to the Tampa Bay Rays.
Early in that contest, the Jays’ only need appeared to be for somebody who could get a Rays batter out. Tampa scored six times in the second, added two in the third and led 8-2 through five innings.
That picture began to change in the Toronto eighth, and it was Drury who lit the fuse with a home run. Teoscar Hernandez followed with a homer of his own and Tampa’s lead was reduced to 8-4 entering the ninth.
In that ninth, Lourdes Gurriel opened with a double and Randal Grichuk coaxed a walkout of Oliver Drake. When Vlad Guerrero Jr., followed with a home run, Tampa’s four-run lead was down to a single run.
Tampa’s hold on the game stabilized when Adam Kolarek fanned Cavan Biggio, then Colin Poche struck out Danny Jansen. That reduced the prospects of a Blue Jays victory to just five percent. But Drury was next up, and for the second consecutive inning, he homered, this time into the right-field seats. That improved the home team’s victory prospects by a full 49 percent.
The game proceeded tied through the 10th and 11th innings. In the 12th, Hernandez delivered his second home run, a walk-off.