Lukes Doubles Toronto Into Control, Blue Jays Rout Cleveland 6-3
Toronto erupted for five runs in the fifth inning to turn a tie game into a rout, walking away with a 6-3 win over Cleveland on September 3. The story of the night was a single at-bat that swung Cleveland's win probability from 32% to 15% — Nathan Lukes doubling to right, scoring Clement and Valenzuela and sending Bateman to third.
Neither starter looked sharp, and the game showed it early. Tanner Bibee lasted just 4.0 innings for Cleveland, allowing 4 hits, 5 earned runs, and 5 walks against 4 strikeouts — a command performance in the worst sense. Jose Soriano wasn't clean either, going 4.2 innings and giving up 6 hits and 3 earned runs for Toronto. Cleveland actually drew first blood in the third when Genao singled to center, scoring Adell to make it 1-0. Toronto answered in the fourth when Keys singled to left and Guerrero Jr. crossed the plate to tie it at 1-1. That's when the game cracked open.
The fifth inning was where this one was decided. Lukes' two-run double to right — scoring Clement and Valenzuela and pushing Bateman to third — was the decisive blow, swinging Cleveland's win probability from 32% all the way down to 15%, a 17-point collapse in a single swing. Guerrero Jr. followed with a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Bateman and pushing the lead to 4-1. Then Sánchez singled to center to score Lukes, and suddenly Toronto was up 5-1. Cleveland clawed back two runs in the same inning on a Hedges single to center that scored Adell and Genao, trimming it to 5-3, but the damage was already done. Louis Varland came on in relief for Toronto and threw a clean inning — 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K — to keep Cleveland at bay.
Toronto added an insurance run in the ninth when Clement singled to center to score Smith, making it 6-3 final. On the stat sheet, Brett Bateman went 3-for-5 with a run scored, looking like the most consistent bat in the lineup all night. Lukes finished 2-for-5 with 2 RBI and a run — the right man in the right spot when it mattered most. For Cleveland, Hedges' 2-RBI single in the fifth appears to have been too little, too late; the Guardians never seriously threatened after that. This looks like a game Cleveland will want back, given how close it was before Bibee's fifth-inning unraveling handed Toronto the opening they needed.