Today in Jays History: Steve Pearce hits second walk-off grand slam in a week

3 Years Ago Today

Steve Pearce hit his second walk-off grand slam in a week.

Nothing before the ninth mattered, but just to set it up. Starter Cesar Valdez was terrible (I know that is a surprise to anyone who might remember him). He gave up 7 runs in 2 innings, in one of his three tarts for the Jays. Aaron Loup followed with 1.2 scoreless innings. Mike Bolsinger gave up 2 more runs in 2.1 innings. Matt Dermody threw the last 3 inning, giving up a run and getting the win.

We scored 4 runs in 5 innings off Jesse Chavez. Ezequiel Carrera homered and Kendrys Morales had 2 sac flies.

It was an amazing game ending. Going into the bottom of the ninth, we were down 10-4 (no one else around here is old enough to remember CB radios? Right, just me, ok).

Ryan Goins led off the inning with a walk, off the Tigers Brooks Pounders. Pounders was a mop-up man, and this was really a mop-up spot. Ryan had a .286 OBP that season, but sometimes he came through when we needed him. Kevin Pillar followed with a home run, his 12th of the season. He was in a bad slump, with 1 hit in 18 at bats before that. 10-6.

Rob Refsnyder followed with a ground rule double. That was Rob’s only double as a Blue Jay. The Tigers pulled Pounders and brought in Bud Norris. He gave up back-to-back singled to Carrera and Russell Martin.

After a Justin Smoak ground out and a 7-pitch walk for Morales, loading the bases, who had won a game three days earlier with a grand slam, did it again. 11-10.

Pearce had the third and fourth walk-off home run in Blue Jays history. The other two:

• George Bell off everyone’s favorite Mitch Williams in 1988.
• Gregg Zaun off Troy Percival in 2009.

The FanGraph was a thing of beauty: