É«É«À²

And yes, there would be a crash of sorts. But only after manager John Schneider ambled out of the dugout to take the ball from starter Eric Lauer. That would be heaven-sent Eric Lauer, who’d won three in a row, whose team was 9-3 in games he’d started, who was in possession of a 2.40 ERA. But the 30-year-old lefty had given up back-to-back singles to open the seventh inning, after navigating his squad quite efficiently as É«É«À² put a three-spot on the board.

So, the skipper summoned Nick Sandlin from the bullpen and Lauer departed the mound, having unspooled his longest start of the season: 94 pitches over six frames.

Really, where would this team be without Lauer’s 4-1 record, deployed as bullpen length, bulk reliever and handy starter when Max Scherzer was stricken with recurring thumb trauma and Bowden Francis came a cropper?

But Sandlin almost immediately served up a meatball to Jo Adell, the hottest hitter on the L.A. roster — tied for the MLB lead for home runs in June — and he went way yard for a three-run shot, score knotted 3-3.

Six in a row

Still tied 3-3 in the bottom of the 10th after Chad Green had struck out Taylor Ward to preserve the tie and give É«É«À² a chance to walk it off.

And indeed they did, though not how might have been expected — what was supposed to be a sacrifice bunt advancing Miles Straw to third. But it was fielded by incoming reliever Sam Bachman, who airmailed the ball to first base.

Straw hustled home with the winning 4-3 run and the Jays poured out on the field, celebrating a sixth straight win that also lifted É«É«À² two games above the Yankees, who lost to the Mets.

The Jays had otherwise done all their damage in the bottom of the sixth, where they strung together four hits — three more than they’d managed through the previous five innings. In what had been a thuddingly dull encounter for everyone except pitching devotees — both Lauer and opposite number Kyle Hendricks had retired all but two of the batters they’d faced — Will Wagner got the Jays humming with a leadoff double practically golfed on a one-hopper off the wall, followed by a textbook sacrifice bunt from Tyler Heineman and a Andrés Giménez RBI single — before limping into third on George Springer’s subsequent single to left, replaced by Leo Jiménez as a pinch runner — plating the second run, then Springer making it 3-0 after a Bo Bichette single and Angels error by shortstop Zach Neto.

Bichette in, Guerrero out

It was a somewhat jerry-rigged lineup, with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. nursing the foot he’d fouled a ball off the previous evening. But Bichette returned to the lineup from a knee issue that kept him out of all but a pinch-hit appearance versus the Yankees, while Anthony Santander was moved to the 60-day injury list.