The ‘92 Blue Jays Stretch Run: Ike Returns

While this season's stretch run isn't shaping up to be as exciting as we all hoped, let's ride the 50th season nostalgia and re-live the stretch run from the Blue Jays' first World Championship year, 1992.

Monday, July 27 – off-day

The workload of the regular season was catching up to Juan Guzmán. After a dazzling debut in ‘91, Guzmán was following up with a masterful season. He was chosen to the American League All-Star team and went into the break having pitched at least seven innings in eight of his last 10 starts. He entered the All-Star Game in the third inning and quickly struck out Ryne Sandberg and Benito Santiago before loading the bases. After falling behind the count, Guzmán got Barry Bonds to pop up on the third base side for the final out of the inning.

Guzmán’s next start with the Blue Jays came four days later in Seattle, where he moved to 12-2 with seven scoreless innings of work. After winning three of four from the Mariners, Toronto would drop two of three against the Angels before sending Guzmán to the mound to open up a series in Oakland. It was a chilly night in the Bay Area, and Guzmán never felt quite right. He left the game in the third inning due to shoulder stiffness and then admitted to having felt “twinges” in the area during his previous two starts.

The diagnosis was two separate strains around his shoulder, bumping him from his scheduled start on Wednesday against Kansas City, for which the Blue Jays potentially needed him in the stopper role again. Despite Guzmán’s early departure, Toronto beat the A’s before losing the final three games of the series. Going 5-6 on the road trip, Toronto maintained a four-game lead over Baltimore and Milwaukee but was then facing some concerns around the All-Star pitcher.

Down in action in the minor leagues, Carlos Delgado set a Class-A Dunedin record with his 25th home run of the season. His .326 average would have him in the Triple Crown discussion if not for his teammate Rob Butler, who led the Florida State League with a .359 mark.

Tuesday, July 28 – 6-4 win vs. Kansas City

Kelly Gruber was nervous before the start of Toronto’s week-long homestand. For Gruber, it was his first game back at SkyDome in a month. Having not hit a home run since May, Gruber’s play had gotten him booed before he landed on the injured list. Now? After rumours of him water skiing in Muskoka while he was hurt? Jeff Kent had filled in just fine at the hot corner. “Gruber for rent, keep Kent” read an overhanging sign in the outfield.

However, the crowd was still slightly abuzz as Gruber made his way into the batter’s box for the first time. Candy Maldonado had just homered to give Toronto a 2-1 lead, and on the second pitch of his at-bat, Gruber hit a hanging change-up off recent Triple-A call-up Dennis Moeller over the sign calling for his replacement in left field. Gruber called it an “ice-breaker” with the fans. With that home run, along with a couple of stellar defensive plays, he helped Toronto to victory. “Even if Kelly doesn’t hit, he’ll do a lot for this team,” said manager Cito Gaston.

The injury diagnosis for Pat Tabler would be a painful one. Over the weekend, Tabler slipped on the grass near the dugout in Oakland. He underwent imaging tests upon returning to Toronto, and they revealed torn cartilage and arthritis in his left knee. It was something Tabler would play through in the final months of his major league career.

Wednesday, July 29 – 5-2 loss vs. Kansas City

Guzmán had replaced an injured Dave Stieb in the rotation last season, and it would be Stieb taking the ball to replace the now-injured Guzmán. Toronto’s ace of the previous decade was winding down in a number of ways. After back-to-back abbreviated outings had ballooned his ERA to 5.79 in 12 starts through June, Gaston removed Stieb from the Toronto rotation. Pitching out of the bullpen, talk swirled that Stieb may get released. He was far away from his ‘80s dominance, but with an opening, Gaston opted to give Stieb the start instead of bumping up the rest of his rotation to cover Guzmán’s absence.

Stieb held down the fort with six solid innings, but Kansas City would bat around on an erratic Mike Timlin in the eighth inning. The Royals scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch (that was scored a passed ball), and Timlin would later walk Brent Mayne with the bases loaded. The four-run inning left the Blue Jays down 5-1. Toronto loaded the bases in the ninth with one out, but Manuel Lee grounded into a run-scoring fielders’ choice before Devon Whyte ended the game by popping out. The blown lead wasted the final quality start of Dave Stieb’s Blue Jays’ career, and Pat Gillick was going to do something about it. 

Thursday, July 30 – 3-0 win vs. Kansas City

All month, the Blue Jays general manager had been talking to other teams about adding pitching ahead of the trade deadline. It was 50-50 the team made a deal before then, Gillick said, but the availability of a familiar face flipped the coin deal-side up. Late ‘80s sensation Mark Eichhorn had rediscovered his stuff in the Angels’ bullpen, and he was headed back to Toronto for Greg Myers and Rob Ducey. Eichhorn was to pitch ahead of Duane Ward and Tom Henke, relief innings the Blue Jays were wanting to shore up with some better pitching. As excited as Eichhorn was to rejoin the team, it was crushing for the homegrown Ducey. “Right now I can’t really believe I won’t be wearing a Blue Jays uniform,” he said. “Nobody wants to leave a team that has a chance to be in the World Series.”

With an extra day of rest, David Wells was as sharp as a starter could be in the shutout of Kansas City. Boomer threw 70 of his 94 pitches for strikes in seven shutout innings that were nailed down by Ward and Henke in the series-clinching victory. At the plate, Maldonado stayed red hot with three more hits. Since the All-Star break, last summer’s stretch-run acquisition was slashing .392/.492/.647.

Friday, July 31 – 13-2 win vs. New York

Breaking from spring training, the Blue Jays looked to the waiver wire to cover a spot in the bullpen. Toronto claimed 27-year-old Shawn Hillegas from Cleveland, where he had pitched 83 innings the year prior. Hillegas never showed. Toronto suspected the pitcher had a secret deal done with another club, and as soon as Hillegas waited out the five-day deadline to report to the Blue Jays, he signed a minor league deal with the New York Yankees. The cost of not wanting to be a Blue Jay was $60,000 in withheld severance pay. 

Now, here was a chance to show it was worth it. Or, maybe not. Toronto knocked Hillegas out of the game after three innings, having scored six runs. It was the same number they would put up on the second New York pitcher. Joe Carter snapped a 0-for-20 slump with a long home run, and Pat Borders knocked in five, including a round-tripper off Hillegas. The 13-run outburst rendered a seven-inning gem from Todd Stottlemyre just nice to have, and Gaston used the blowout to get to the end of his bench, including the first appearance of Ed Sprague on the season.

Saturday, August 1 – 3-1 win vs. New York

It’s a good thing the inning didn’t play out the way Joe Carter had first planned. With the score 1-1 in the eighth, the Blue Jays had runners on the corners with two away and Carter up. On the first pitch, Carter attempted a surprise bunt, but he fouled it off. On the very next offering, Carter drilled a ball to left field. He thought it was out off the bat, but the ball bounced between Mel Hall and the fence for a two-run double. The base hit put Jack Morris in line for the win after he pitched eight solid innings, and the third straight victory was locked down by Henke in the ninth.

Sunday, August 2 – 7-6 win vs. New York

It had turned into an adventurous weekend defensively for Hall. In the seventh, Hall hit a pinch-hit two-run single to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead. With two on and two out in the bottom half of the frame, it was Roberto Alomar’s turn for the Blue Jays at the plate. Much like he did on Carter’s game-deciding double the day before, Hall had Alomar shaded towards the line in left field. When Alomar hit a ball into the gap, Hall barely caught up to it but had the ball bounce off his glove and onto the turf for a game-tying double.

There was nowhere to be positioned for the next hitter. Unlike yesterday, this one was gone for Carter, who became a hero yet again, hitting the ball well over Hall’s head and the left field fence to give the Blue Jays a 7-5 lead. Making his first Blue Jay appearance since 1988, Eichhorn inherited runners and gave up the go-ahead hit to Hall before watching the offence rally to put him in line for the win. “Definitely not the prettiest win, but coming back to score runs like this team can, I might be able to vulture a few,” Ike said. “The last two, three years (with the Angels), this is something I haven’t been used to.”

Despite the sweep, Toronto's lead was kept to 4.5 games by Baltimore, who kept pace with their own sweep in Boston, where the Blue Jays would head next.