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Late-inning heroics are becoming commonplace for Aaron (Home Run) Hill.
On Friday, Hill hit a two-run bomb in the bottom of the 10th inning for the first walkoff home run of his career in providing the Blue Jays with a dramatic 5-4 victory.
Hill didn't wait until the 10th inning yesterday but his two-run shot in the eighth was just as pivotal. It snapped a 3-3 tie and powered the Jays to a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays and a sweep of the three-game series.
The win was the fourth in a row for the Jays, who close out their season with four tough series. They face the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox at home before going on the road for dates in Detroit and New York.
The win went to reliever Justin Speier who came on to replace Gustavo Chacin in the seventh to retire the dangerous Delmon Young. Closer B.J. Ryan worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 33rd save.
Hill has five homers on the season to go with a .290 average and 45 RBIs. Those are pretty good figures considering Hill was hitting under .200 for the opening seven weeks of the season.
"When the season is over I'll look back on it and kind of judge what happened here," he said of his 2006 season. "Obviously those first couple of months were tough.
"But it's not how you handle yourself when you're up, because everybody can pretty much do that. It's how you keep believing in yourself when you're down. That was the toughest part of my career so far."
At the start of the season Hill didn't set any offensive goals for himself.
LEARNED A LOT
"No, because up here it's just learn, learn as much as you can while you're young and then apply it as you get older," he said. "I've learned so much this year about my swing and pitchers and different approaches ... the knowledge of the game is just so important up here."
Hill has played both second base and shortstop this season.
"It hasn't been an easy year for him because we've been flip-flopping him back and forth between second and short," manager John Gibbons said. "He's just a good baseball player and he's handled it as well as you can handle it."
Chacin, meanwhile, is ending his season on a strong note since he returned to the team following a two-month layoff because of a sore elbow. Over his past four starts he's 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA.
"He threw great today," said his catcher Bengie Molina, who chipped in with a solo shot in the sixth inning. "Overall he pitched a great game.
"This is not a kid that is new to the league. This guy can pitch. So now that he's healthy and feeling good he's showing people what he can do."
As for facing the Yankees, Boston and Detroit to close out the season, Gibbons said he's looking forward to it.
"We want to win as many as we can," he said of the team's goal. "We want to pass the Red Sox (for second place).
"It's nice to have a chance to have a winning record vs. the American League East from top to bottom."