37 Years Ago (1987)
The Blue Jays beat the Orioles 18-3. And they did it on the power of ten home runs. Ernie Whitt had three of them. I was always a fan Whitt’s. That left-handed, all-out-pull swing. He often finished his swing with his left knee on the ground. It was a swing I tried to imitate, unsuccessfully, of course. I don’t know how you track a ball while your head drops like that. But Ernie could do it.
The Jays scored:
Five in the second inning: Whitt led off with a home run. Jesse Barfield doubled, and Rance Mulliniks homered. After a Fred McGriff strikeout and a Willie Upshaw groundout, Nelson Liriano walked, and Lloyd Moseby homered.
Two in the third: George Bell and Rance Mulliniks each had solo homers.
One in the fourth: Liriano walked, moved to second on a Moseby ground out and scored on a Tony Fernandez single.
One in the fifth: Whitt led off with a home run again.
One in the sixth: Bell homered (his 45th of the season, he’d finish with 47 and 134 RBI. That is the year he won the AL MVP.
Seven in the seventh: Barfield singled but was erased on a Kelly Gruber double play. McGriff walked. Upshaw singled. Liriano had a RBI single. Rob Ducey had one of his career 31 home runs, a three-run shot. Manuel Lee singled. Lou Thornton singled, one of his 22 career hits. And Whitt hit his third home run of the game, a three-run shot (his 17th of the season).
One in the eighth: McGriff led off with a home run.
We had a lot of great players on that team, including one Hall of Famer.
| Batting | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | PA | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | WPA | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nelson Liriano 2B | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | .288 | .373 | .411 | .784 | 0.066 | 2B |
| Lloyd Moseby CF | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | .273 | .350 | .460 | .810 | 0.059 | HR |
| Rob Ducey CF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .158 | .298 | .237 | .535 | 0.001 | HR |
| Tony Fernández SS | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .325 | .384 | .435 | .819 | -0.019 | |
| Manuel Lee SS | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .288 | .318 | .325 | .643 | 0.000 | |
| George Bell LF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .313 | .354 | .634 | .988 | 0.006 | 2·HR |
| Lou Thornton LF | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .500 | .667 | .500 | 1.167 | 0.000 | |
| Ernie Whitt C | 5 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | .272 | .335 | .455 | .790 | 0.099 | 3·HR |
| Greg Myers C | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Jesse Barfield RF | 5 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | .260 | .328 | .466 | .793 | 0.049 | 2B |
| Rance Mulliniks 3B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | .313 | .363 | .500 | .863 | 0.137 | 2·HR |
| Kelly Gruber PH-3B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | .242 | .286 | .412 | .698 | -0.001 | GDP |
| Fred McGriff DH | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | .256 | .387 | .520 | .907 | -0.016 | HR |
| Willie Upshaw 1B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 5 | .248 | .322 | .395 | .718 | -0.012 | |
| Team Totals | 44 | 18 | 21 | 18 | 4 | 4 | 48 | .477 | .521 | 1.205 | 1.725 | 0.369 |
And on the pitching side, Jim Clancy started. He would finish 15-11, with a 3.54 ERA, in 37 starts. He threw 241.1 innings, with 5 complete games (he would have 74 in his career). This was his last excellent year as a starter at age 31 (all those innings took their toll). He signed as a free agent with the Astros before the 1989 season and pitched out of the pen.
Surprisingly, Mark Eichhorn and Tom Henke pitched the eighth and ninth. Henke hadn’t pitched for five days before this, but Eichhorn pitched the day before.
The game put the Jays 86-57, which had them tied for first with the Tigers for first in the AL East. We won’t talk about how the season ended.