The day the universe changed.
You remember 2009, right? The season from... Purgatory, let's say. We knew there would be punishment. We knew before the season started that the Blue Jays were in for a world of hurt. Some people anticipated that the team might have trouble avoiding 90 losses. After all, of the five starters who had played such a large part in the late season revival the previous year, one of them (Burnett) had fled to the Yankees and two of them (Marcum and McGowan) had been lost for the entire season before the first pitch was thrown. The fact that one other starter (Litsch) immediately went down for the year after making just two starts didn't help much either. A cast of youngsters and retreads had taken turns attempting to fill this enormous void, and only one (Romero) had shown himself to be ready for prime time. And so we were enduring our punishment. The Jays record stood at 61-75. There were 26 games left to play, a 90
loss season actually did seem like a possibility, and there was a very
bad mood in the land. For although we had indeed foreseen the punishment, we weren't enjoying it very much. It felt like punishment.
Scott Richmond was the starting pitcher on this Monday afternoon, for a Labour Day clash with the Twins. After beginning his season in surprisingly effective fashion (4-0, 2.67), Richmond had pitched badly for several months (2-8, 5.22). As a bonus, just like every other starting pitcher in this final year of Brad Arnsberg's tenure as the pitching coach, he'd also found himself visiting the Disabled List. On this day, the Twins roughed up Richmond for a walk, a double, and four singles before he was able to record the first out. The Jays were down 5-0 before their first at bat.
In the bottom of the third inning, after a Scutaro double, Aaron Hill managed an infield single. Scutaro would score on a Lind sac fly, making the score 5-1; Hill would be left stranded on second. And then he left for the day - word had arrived in the dugout that Hill's wife had just gone into labour with their first child. Joe Inglett, who had started the game in right field, moved to second base to replace Hill, and Jose Bautista came off the bench to take over in right field.
Bautista had been obtained a year and two weeks earlier, and the purpose of his acquisition seemed to be to provide support for the brilliant but fragile Scott Rolen. There were those who questioned the price - catching prospect Robinson Diaz - but in August 2008, Rolen did appear to be breaking down before our very eyes. But that was then. By September 2009, Rolen was gone, replaced by the enigmatic Edwin Encarnacion.
Bautista had been having a very undistinguished year coming off the bench. For the season, he was now hitting .218 and slugging .311 - he had hit just 3 HRs in 87 games. Cito Gaston had just tried giving him a run of regular play, sticking Bautista into the lineup every day for the past couple of weeks. But in those 15 games, Bautista had actually played worse, hitting just .174 (8-46) with no homers. He had been back on the bench for the previous day's game against the Yankees and he was on the bench to start this day's contest, until Hill's departure summoned him into the game.
In the fifth inning, Bautista came up for his first at bat against Jeff Manship. He homered to deep left field on a full count pitch.
And so it began. He stayed in the lineup, and three days later he hit another homer, this one off Scott Baker. The Jays went into Yankee Stadium, and Bautista homered on consecutive days against Michael Dunn and Chad Gaudin. Ten days later, he took Ian Snell of the Mariners deep. Then he caught fire, homering in four consecutive games (against Hunter Jones, Clay Buchholz, Hideki Okajima, and Chris Ray). On the final day of the season, he hit one, his 13th of the season, against Jeremy Guthrie. In the final 26 games since September 7, Bautista had hit .276/.345/.643 with 10 HR, 20 RBI and 20 runs scored.
It doesn't happen very often, but sometimes you can actually see the moment... when the room was flooded with light.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20110522085900944