Toronto—Oakland: Overbay's Walk Off Brings Jays, Game, and Fans to Life

For a game that started off based around the small ball the ending was much more powerful and much more dramatic.

Lyle Overbay came up to bat with two outs and Jose Bautista on first. He then sent the 1-0 pitch Dan Giese threw to deep right-centre to seal the game. The homerun came in the 12 inning to give the Jays a 4-2 win Saturday.

“I was either going to pop that straight up or hit a homer,” Overbay said. “I was glad it went the way it did.”

Considering most of the runs came via small ball; bunts, sacrifices and steal, it was an entertaining way to send the fans home happy.

“A lot of games end in home runs,” Jays manager Cito Gaston said. “You either win with home runs or somebody walks someone in or ends it in a sacrifice fly.”

Cito added that Overbay’s performance is going to make the decision on whether he starts or not hard.

The Jays first run came courtesy of a fielder’s choice from Travis Snider and their second run was set up after a sacrifice bunt from Rod Barajas.

The A’s produced runs in a similar manner, Ryan Sweeney scored in the first after a sacrifice by Jason Giambi and he scored again in the sixth after a sacrifice fly from Orlando Cabrera.

Tallet pitched five and a third, but his game almost ended after his second pitch. Sweeney hit a line drive at Tallet’s head. Tallet moved in time to have it bounce off his shoulder. He then picked up the ground ball and threw it into right field. His error put Sweeney at third and Giambi’s grounder to Scutaro brought Sweeney home.

“It got me in the left pinky,” Tallet said. “It’s hard to throw the baseball when you don’t have feeling in your hand.”

Cito started employing the small ball with a sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the fourth.

With Adam Lind on first, compliments of A’s starting pitcher Trever Cahill’s third walk of the day, Bautista laid down a bunt and moved Lind to second. Then Cahill walked the bases full, putting Overbay at first.

Travis Snider grounded a ball to second, Oakland got the runner at second but wasn’t able to turn two, allowing Adam Lind to score the Jay’s first run.

The next batter, Cahill, faced was Marco Scutaro, who he plunked, loading the bases up again. Aaron Hill grounded out to short however, and Orlando Cabrera gunned down Hill to end the threat.

The dome was criminally closed on such a nice day it would have been a good time to let the sunshine in. 21,698 showed up, Inside away from the nice weather.