Blue Jays Walk-Off Winners At Home

A day after falling in a one-run pitching duel to the Lakeland Flying Tigers, the Dunedin Blue Jays returned the favor on Tuesday afternoon in a 2-1 walk-off victory. Lane Thomas delivered the game-winner, a double into the left field corner that brought Connor Panas around to score from first base in the bottom of the ninth.
From the start, the game was dominated by the starting pitchers. Dunedin lefty Angel Perdomo and Lakeland righty Sandy Baez traded zeroes and strikeouts early, with the two teams combining for just three hits and 15 strikeouts through the game's first five innings. Lakeland broke the scoreless tie in the sixth inning, using a single and pair of errors to score an unearned run against Perdomo. A pair of strikeouts by Dunedin reliever Kirby Snead kept Lakeland from extending their lead further.
Perdomo finished his afternoon with a linescore of 5.0 innings (he faced three batters in the sixth), three hits allowed, one unearned run, two walks, and eight strikeouts. Baez was just as good for Lakeland, throwing 7.0 innings and allowing just two hits, one run, one walk, and striking out 11 batters.
"I competed," Perdomo said after the game to simply sum up his performane. "I just want to get better every day."
"He looked good," Lane Thomas, Perdomo's centerfielder for the day, said about the starter's game. "He threw a lot of strikes and kept the ball down. He did a great job controlling the off-speed and keeping everything low."
Dunedin answered Lakeland's lone run in the bottom of the seventh. Cavan Biggio walked to lead off the inning then stole second. After an error allowed Connor Panas to reach, Michael De La Cruz singled up the middle, scoring Biggio from second and tying the game.
Dunedin's bullpen picked up where Perdomo left off, throwing 4.0 scoreless innings. Kirby Snead struck out a pair in the sixth after inheriting a bases loaded jam. Adonys Cardona tossed a scoreless seventh. Danny Young threw the game's final two innings, stranding an inherited runner and allowing just one baserunner of his own on his way to his second win of the season.
The score remained locked 1-1 until the bottom of the ninth. With one out, Connor Panas fought off a tough 2-2 pitch from Lakeland reliever Jeff Thompson and muscled a single into shallow right field. After a strikeout, Lane Thomas stepped to the plate and laced a two-strike breaking ball down the line in left. The ball reached the corner, allowing Panas to score from first and giving Dunedin the victory. The win pulls the Blue Jays back to .500 (34-34) on the season.
"I was looking for an off-speed pitch to hit because that's what he had been giving guys," Thomas said about his final at-bat. "With two strikes, I was just trying to be on time and catch something up in the zone. I connected on one."
After mobbing Panas at home plate following the winning run, the Blue Jays players took off after Thomas, who sprinted into the outfield with his teammates in pursuit.
"They came at me with buckets of water," Thomas said through a laugh about fleeing his teammates.
The Blue Jays will play the final game of their three game series with Lakeland and the final game of the first half tomorrow evening at 6:30 PM aiming to win the three-game set and finish the season's first half with a winning record. Lefty Ryan Borucki is scheduled to square off against Lakeland righty Kyle Dowdy.