Toronto Blue Jays: Luke Maile becoming latest unlikely hero

Luke Maile had the biggest game of his Major League career for the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday night, hitting two homers and driving in three runs in a walk-off win.

In sports, a good team is built around stars, something which the Toronto Blue Jays and their fans are well aware of. As a result, teams relies on their big names every night to win.

Great teams, however, are also built on those stars being able to rely on their teammates to pick them up when they need them most.

In the case of the Blue Jays, they had a glaring weakness going into last season. With the departure of star slugger Edwin Encarnacion, they made a quick-trigger move and signed Kendrys Morales to try and make up for the lost production.

But with Morales mainly playing his games as the designated hitter for the Jays, Justin Smoak had to step up and be an everyday contributor for the team at first base.

While nobody knew what they would get from the shaky hitter, Smoak blew expectations out of the water with a 38 home run, 90 RBI season that landed the 31-year-old his first All-Star Game selection.

The Jays selected Smoak off waivers from the Seattle Mariners in October 2014 and then signed him that offseason.

Sometimes, unlikely heroes make a name for themselves with one great year, and while the 2018 campaign is still young, Luke Maile has become one of the unlikeliest of heroes for the Jays this year.

Another waiver find, the 27-year-old catcher was picked up by the Jays at the beginning of last season after the Tampa Bay Rays didn’t make room for him.

While he was brought in to give starter Russell Martin some time off throughout the season, injury trouble offered Maile more time than expected behind the plate for Toronto.

He started in 36 games in 2017 and appeared in another 10 for the Jays. Unfortunately, he had no success at the plate last season. He hit .146/.176 /.231 with two home runs, seven RBIs, 35 strikeouts and just three walks on the year.

This season has been an entirely different story. In an attempt to keep Martin healthy for the entire season, Maile has seen the field multiple times a week while the Jays’ starter has gotten regular rest days.

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Maile has already started 14 games behind the plate this season. Heading into Friday’s series opener against the Boston Red Sox, he was hitting .309/.387/.418 with 10 RBIs, 17 strikeouts and seven walks.

While he hadn’t hit a home run on the year, he had found other ways to drive in runs. Maile had four doubles and a triple on the season but made sure to hit one over the fence, and against Chris Sale of all people.

Maile managed to muscle a ball over the left field wall in the seventh inning to tie the game. It was redemption for the catcher, who had an uncharacteristic throwing error earlier that gave Boston the lead.

He wasn’t done there though. With a runner on in the 12th inning, Maile belted another homer, this time to right-centre field, to walk off the Red Sox 5-3.

The night was the biggest of Maile by far, with the first multi-home run game of his career. He also pushed his season RBI tally to 13, nearly doubling his total from last season in the second month of the season.

When asked about the play of his backup catcher after the game, Blue Jays manager John Gibbons revelled at the career season Maile is going through: “What a year he’s having. He’ll be back in tomorrow, Russell at third, Josh DH’ing. (Laughs)”

It’s nice to see Maile having success, as Martin has had another rough start to this campaign. With nearly twice as many strikeouts than hits, it’s certainly not the ideal scenario for the Canadian veteran.

Luckily for him, Maile has been one of the bright spots off the bench for the Jays this year. His batting stats may not be sustainable throughout the season, but he’s already proven more valuable at the plate for the team.

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He has made it easier on himself to get playing time this season. If he can keep up a decent pace throughout the year, Martin will hopefully be able to get the necessary rest to make sure he’s 100 percent.