Travis steals home as Blue Jays beat Mariners 7-2; Toronto wins four straight
TORONTO — Devon Travis couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Blue Jays third base coach Luis Rivera was telling him to go for a double steal, with Travis targeting home plate and catcher Luke Maile sprinting to second, to try and add to Toronto’s lead against the Seattle Mariners.
“I looked at first and it was Luke. And no offence to Luke, he can run pretty good for a catcher, but I turned around and said ‘right now?’” said Travis with a laugh. “Luis said ‘yeah, right now.’ So I did it. I saw the arm go and I took off.”
Travis didn’t move off third until Mariners catcher Carlos Ruiz threw to second to try to catch Maile. Second baseman Taylor Motter fired the ball back home but Travis slid under Ruiz’s tag to score the final run in the Blue Jays’ 7-2 victory over Seattle on Saturday for Toronto’s fourth straight win.
The rare play added some insurance for the Blue Jays an inning after Jose Bautista’s three-run homer broke the game open. Kendrys Morales hit a solo shot in his first game back after missing three games with a strained left hamstring. He wasn’t in the Blue Jays (16-21) lineup until after batting practice because manager John Gibbons and the team’s medical staff wanted to test out his legs before putting him back into action.