Victoria-ous

Victoria Day baseball was once a thing in Toronto.

Before it was just another day on the major league calendar, one the team now fills with a road game here, an off day there, and the occasional home game, the Blue Jays hosted some holiday afternoon baseball in their early years. They welcomed Oakland for a night game on the holiday in 1977 before holding a stretch of nine straight day games on Victoria Day at Exhibition Stadium. It was in the sixth of these games, in 1983, that the Blue Jays achieved a franchise high mark.

Toronto started the long weekend with success against the division-leading Baltimore Orioles. The Blue Jays dropped the opener of the four-game series on Thursday, 2-1, wasting a terrific starting pitching performance from Mike Morgan. He pitched into the eighth but didn’t see an ounce of run support, with Cliff Johnson’s solo blast in the ninth the only run Toronto could muster. It was the first run the Orioles surrendered in 32 innings, and the victory kept them four games up on the Blue Jays in the American League East. The win dropped Baltimore’s team ERA to a sparkling 3.31 to date, and Toronto’s staff would take note of what was needed to be top dog in the AL East.

Blister problems had plagued Jim Gott so far this season. The accompanying control problems had seen the sophomore starter walk 24 batters in 30 innings and suffer a brief demotion from the rotation. Having lost his previous three starts, Toronto played it safe and removed Gott after five solid innings of one-run baseball on Friday. This time, Toronto’s bats hoisted their starter with three runs in the third inning and two in the fourth, allowing them to hang onto a 7-5 win after a shaky bullpen performance. More importantly for a guy who said he felt “scared to death” about this start, he walked none. 

In his next start, Gott was blister-free but walked five after being rushed into his start following a rain delay. Gott didn’t get a chance to fully warm up but also struck out a then-career high nine as he pitched into the seventh inning of a 6-2 loss to Detroit. (photo credit: Toronto Star archives/The Athletic)

The two runs Baltimore scored in the ninth inning would be the last the O's scored all series, as Toronto pitching started its own scoreless streak, powered by the team's two top arms. Dave Stieb threw a complete-game, four-hit shutout on Saturday to drop his ERA to 1.04 on the season, and Jim Clancy followed that up with a three-hit complete game on Sunday in a 5-0 win. The pair of victories moved Toronto to just a game back of Baltimore for first. “We’re a better team this year than we were last year,” said manager Bobby Cox, who celebrated his 42nd birthday on Saturday.

Over 35,000 would show up to Exhibition Stadium for the holiday matinee against the Detroit Tigers. Sparky Anderson’s club would win 92 games in ‘83, but at that point, the Tigers sat last in the AL East at 17-20. Anderson would send Milt Wilcox to the mound to start against Toronto, to the chagrin of Ernie Whitt. The Blue Jays catcher had trouble against Wilcox in his career, 2-for-11 lifetime coming into the season. “He changes speeds, and he throws that forkball,” said Whitt. “He's always tough."

If Stieb and Clancy started the scoreless streak, Luis Leal was the best person to attempt to keep it going. After a slow start to his season, Leal pitched back-to-back complete-game victories to start May. He was less sharp in his last start, a no-decision against Milwaukee, which he threw on three days’ rest. Leal and Wilcox got through the first three innings unscathed, and a double play started by Leal in the fourth ended the frame and brought the Blue Jays’ streak of not surrendering a run to 22 innings.

Toronto would provide Leal some breathing room in a historic fourth inning. Willie Upshaw led off and hit his seventh home run of the season to deep right field to put the Blue Jays on the board. Two batters later, Whitt finally got a hold of Wilcox, taking a spinning slider over the wall in right to give Toronto a 2-0 lead. On the very next pitch, Wilcox made another mistake, this time leaving the ball well over the plate to Lloyd Moseby. The Toronto center fielder took advantage and drilled it out of the park. The three home runs in the fourth set a franchise high for most in an inning and would be all the support the Blue Jays needed to give their starter.

Leal walked a batter in the fifth and sixth innings, but the baserunners wouldn’t advance past first base. With one away in the bottom of the sixth, Whitt would hit his second home run of the game off Wilcox, his first-ever multi-homer game in the major leagues. As Moseby stepped up next, he knew Wilcox would not make a second straight mistake. Expecting to be brushed off, Moseby watched the pitch come inside, just missing his knee. In response, he took a few steps towards Wilcox, holding his bat. Briefly, the dugouts emptied.

There was nothing to be riled up about. Moseby would return to the box, and curious players on both sides returned to their benches. Moseby worked a walk, but Wilcox got the last laugh, catching the speedster leaning towards second base and picking him off for the second out of the inning. Hosken Powell would ground out to end the sixth, but powered by solo home runs, Toronto now had a 4-0 lead.

"Right now, our confidence is sky high," said Moseby after the game, "We're getting great pitching, our offence is going good, and so is our defence." (photo credit: Toronto Star archives)

It was a lead that was safe with Leal. He surrendered an inconsequential single in the seventh and ended the eighth inning with back-to-back strikeouts. With three outs to go, Leal started the ninth with back-to-back walks, leading to Cox walking to the mound to remove his starter. Randy Moffitt emerged from a sleepy Toronto bullpen and put an end to the Tigers on five pitches: He got a double play ball off the bat of Lance Parrish before striking out Glenn Wilson to end the game.

The win eeked the Blue Jays ahead of Baltimore on percentage points and moved them into a share of first place in the division with Boston. It was the latest in the season that Toronto had ever had a share of the division lead. On the same afternoon, the Jays set a franchise high mark for home runs in an inning and for consecutive scoreless innings. "Three straight shutouts in a bandbox like this," lamented Anderson afterwards. "That's really something.”

"A shutout is great any time," said Cox. "Three in a row, with the conditions like they have been the last three games, wet turf and the wind blowing out, it makes it that much more difficult."

The scoreless streak wouldn't last much longer. Morgan gave up four runs to the Tigers the following evening, but the Blue Jays would rally with a pair of big innings in a 7-6 win. The division lead was now Toronto’s. The Jays would continue to stay in the division picture until late July, when a split doubleheader knocked them out of first place for good. They would finish nine back of the division, but the 89-win season was a turning point, and the team would eventually win its first division title two years later.