TORONTO -- One night after the Blue Jays put on a 19-run rock concert at Rogers Centre, they leaned on opening act
“The whole idea is that \\[Pannone\\] is not going to face guys three times, and that’s what he did today,” manager Charlie Montoyo said. “Font faced the whole lineup, then Pannone faced them twice. That’s why it worked out really good. That’s the whole idea behind the opener.”\n\nThe left-hander entered in the third and gave the Blue Jays four strong innings of his own, allowing just two hits. After warming up in the bullpen while Font pitched, Pannone walked through the clubhouse to the Blue Jays’ dugout and came out as if the third inning was the first inning in a normal home start, and that new approach seemed to work. In one of his better outings of the season, Pannone mixed his pitches well and knew when to take advantage of the aggressive Rangers hitters.\n\nAt times, Pannone got by with a little help from his friends. Bo Bichette made an outstanding snag on a one-hopper in the fifth inning that left
“Just a sick play,” Pannone said of Bichette. “I got jacked up. I might not have shown it emotionally but, inside, I was pretty fired up. \\[Bichette is\\] playing great shortstop and he’s obviously hitting, but he’s made some really nice plays over there and helped me out, for sure, tonight.”\n\nOther times, Pannone handled business himself. With a runner on second again in the sixth, Pannone worked a 1-1 count to
Giles’ return to the mound for the first time since Aug. 7 was also big news for the Blue Jays. The closer has missed time with elbow inflammation this season and has been day to day lately depending on how he’s felt in pregame warmups. Giles allowed a walk and struck out one batter in the ninth, but his fastball topping out at 97.9 mph was enough to overshadow any rust.\n\n“I expected that, more or less,” Montoyo said. “As you guys know, he hasn’t been out there for a while now, but he was throwing hard and he felt really good. That’s a good sign.”\n\nBefore the back-to-back shots from Hernandez and McKinney,