© Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports
Bichette's Game-Winning Homer Keeps Blue Jays' Playoff Hopes Alive
TORONTO — Every game needs a hero.
With the score tied in the bottom of the eighth inning, Bo Bichette strode into the box to lead things off. Things were quiet at Rogers Centre after Toronto's two-run lead evaporated an inning prior, but the Blue Jays' shortstop was about to change that.
Yankees reliever Clay Holmes fired a fastball on the inside half of the plate and Bichette got the barrel to it with an inside-out swing.
29,601 fans screamed as Bichette's fly ball sailed over the wall in right-center field for a solo home run, his second bomb of the game and 28th of the season.
The feat is even more impressive since Bichette said he walked to the plate with the intention of going deep.
"I was trying to hit a home run there, actually," Bichette said. "Just lucky I got it."
The 23-year-old's hair flapped in the breeze as he rounded the bases, pounding his chest and pointing to the rowdy Blue Jays dugout. Once Bichette got there, his teammates tossed the home run jacket on him and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. pushed him up the dugout steps for a "special" curtain call.
Bichette called his eighth-inning homer the "most exciting" moment of his career.
"This is what we dream of doing," he said. "I wouldn't be playing baseball if it wasn't for moments like this. This is why I work hard, why I do what I do."
Not only did the game-deciding home run in Wednesday’s 6-5 win cap off a potentially season-altering moment for the Blue Jays, it built off an already historic game.
In the very first inning—long before the last-minute drama—Marcus Semien re-wrote history with one mighty cut.
Yankees starter Gerrit Cole dealt Semien a fastball and he ripped it over the left field fence for his 44th home run of the year. The two-run blast broke Davey Johnson's 48-year-old record for most home runs in a season by a second baseman and gave the Blue Jays an early edge.
"That's awesome," Semien said of his achievement. "Like I said about Bo, I work hard on my craft every day.
"We knew the guy we're facing today. We had to be ready for velocity, so worked on that before the game a little bit. He attacked me with fastballs and I got to it."
After Semien's blast, the momentum bounced back to Bichette, who initially helped set two new franchise records with some offensive magic of his own.
Before Bichette's aggressive approach won the Blue Jays the game, he first turned around a high fastball from Cole and drove it 412 feet to right-center field.
His first longball broke Tony Batista's single-season franchise mark for home runs by a shortstop and gave Toronto four 100-RBI hitters on the year, another Blue Jays record.
"I'm not surprised," manager Charlie Montoyo said of Bichette's effort, "because this guy's gonna be one of the best players in baseball. You guys will see.
"Toronto's got two kids that are going to be one of the two best players in baseball for the next 10 years with Bo Bichette and Vlad Guerrero."
Making the postseason isn’t easy. It's not supposed to be. Having a lineup full of run producers helps, but the razor-thin margin of error was on full display in Wednesday's heart-racing matchup. Momentum teetered back and forth for the final three innings of this one, and some late-game heroics put Toronto on top.
If the Blue Jays make the playoffs—they're now one game back of the second AL wild-card spot—this game will go down as one of the biggest moments of the season and a catalyst for future success.
The atmosphere during this win was truly special, and Montoyo said he's counting on the home crowd's energy to fuel his team for the remaining four games of the season.
"You know what I like about these moments right now, that we got the fans and we're doing in Toronto," Montoyo said. "We missed that last year when we made it to the playoffs.
"And now we're fighting to get into the playoffs, with a crowd, with people, and it's awesome. Today was awesome, to hear the crowd so loud, it's going to be fun tomorrow for sure."
