ANAHEIM, CA— On Friday at Angels Stadium, the Jays managed to hang with the home team all night, scoring when they needed to in support of the first of their two consecutive spot starters, Mat Latos, ultimately winning 8-7 in 13 innings. The win was huge, because after taking a three-run lead on a blast to centre field by Jose Bautista, his first of the year, the Angels scored two runs in the bottom of the 13th and left the winning run at second base with Albert Pujols and C.J. Cron batting against Joe Biagini, who had not been expected to pitch.“Tough win, guys are tired, it went so late,” manager John Gibbons said of the marathon following an extra innings loss on Thursday and a cross-country flight. “Then it got ugly in that last inning. We couldn’t catch a groundball. (Biagini) came in. I know he’s going to throw strikes and he’s going to get groundballs. If they come back and tie that, (Darwin) Barney’s pitching the next inning.”But, hey, if the Jays were going to play for five-plus hours, they figured they might as well win it. A loss would have been devastating. On this night it was Bautista slamming a three-run homer against ex-teammate Jesse Chavez. It was Bautista’s first home run, his first big hit, raising his average to .131.“It’s important,” Bautista emphasized. “Any win is important, but we’re off to a slow start and when you get to play a game like this and if you lose it could be demoralizing, so the win is very important.”The Blue Jays have the sad distinction of being off to the worst start in all of major-league history for any team just coming off a playoff berth the year before. But they will always tell you that it’s early and that when some of their slumping hitters come around and regain old form things will change.“The home run felt nice, it’s good to contribute,” Bautista said. “I thing it&# ...
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