  Blue Jays first baseman Lyle Overbay is mobbed by teammates after hitting a walk off home run in the eleventh inning against the Orioles in Toronto on September 25, 2010. (FRED THORNHILL/Reuters)
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TORONTO - The Blue Jays won't win any championships and Jose Bautista remains a long shot to be named American League most valuable player, but this team may be winning something even more important.
Hearts.
This team quickly is becoming one that fans once again can begin to love.
They're young, they're interesting, they never quit, they're starting to win some games they probably shouldn't ... and the home runs never stop coming.
Four more moonshots, including Lyle Overbay's walkoff shot in the 11th inning, gave Toronto a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Saturday.
It wasn't perfect baseball but a nice September crowd of 21,504 didn't get short-changed on entertainment. The Jays turned three double plays, and Vernon Wells dented the wall on a running catch with his back to the infield.
The bullpen was lights out, allowing only one hit (Ty Wigginton's solo homer off Brian Tallet) over seven innings.
Travis Snider, taking a page (okay, maybe just a paragraph) out of Devon White's I'm Not Really A Leadoff Hitter saga, homered in the third (extending his hit streak to a career-best seven games), singled and scored a run to tie it 3-3 in the sixth; then almost beat out an infield single to win it in the ninth.
Aaron Hill and Edwin Encarnacion also (ho-hum) homered in a game the Orioles looked like they would run away with early.
"It's fun to be a part of it. It's ridiculous. I've never been on a team that continuously keeps hitting homers like this," said Overbay, after disappearing under the Blue Jays' welcoming party at the plate. "It's all we do," he said laughing. "Homers, doubles and strikeouts."
Toronto now has hit 105 home runs since the all-star break, the third-most in major-league history, and they need just three more to match the franchise's season record of 244.
The day started with a very ordinary effort from starter Ricky Romero, who needed 57 pitches to get through just two innings. He fell behind 3-0 and if not for double plays in the first and fifth, it could have gotten totally out of hand.
He walked five, including two with the bases loaded in the second. In his last three starts he hasn't gone past the sixth, he has surrendered 11 walks and 12 runs, and has a 7.20 ERA. Saturday, he was gone after five innings.
"I wanted to go back out. I tried to convince (manager Cito Gaston) and he did think about it ... but it is what it is."
Gaston said Romero is a victim of circumstance. Saturday, he was pitching with two extra days between starts. With so many young arms, Toronto starters are on a six-man rotation.
"I hate it," Romero said. "As a starter you get used to a routine. It is what it is and you try to stay mentally and physically positive. You understand they're ... trying to protect us. At the same time you get used to a routine and when your body gets thrown off that routine, you do too."
Romero has thrown 202 innings - the first time in his career he has gone over 200. But it is lack of pitching, rather than too much, that has resulted in his recent hiccup. "You want to be a workhorse. My arm is fine. I feel fresh ... hopefully next year I'll get 20 or 30 more (innings)."
It might have been worse, except for Bautista.
With the Blue Jays trailing 3-2 in the fifth inning, Adam Jones hit a line drive that had Wigginton steaming around the bases. "I thought it was in the gap. He hit it pretty good," said Romero, after Bautista made a diving catch and lobbed the ball to first for the inning-ending double play. "Jose came out of nowhere. Yesterday he did it with the bat, today it's with the glove. He's showing he's the complete package right now. Hopefully he gets mentioned more in the MVP."
An inning later, Snider singled, eventually scoring to tie the game. That came after his third-inning homer. "He's not really a leadoff hitter," said Gaston, who plugged him into the spot because he doesn't want to mess with the rest of the batting order.
"Cito says it's a way he can get me some at-bats and I'll take any chance I can get to play," Snider said. "I'd never dream of being a leadoff hitter in this league. I haven't done that since I was 11 years old."
But, then, a lot of things are beginning to happen with this team that nobody has seen for a while.
