TORONTO – The most important and meaningful series of August baseball in Toronto since Aug. 13, 1999 – the last time the Blue Jays started a day in possession of a wild card berth this deep into a season – triggered hyperbole everywhere.
There was must-win conversation on the radio. The media horde at Rogers Centre was three or four times its usual size. “Biggest Series Ever,” declared the front page of the Toronto Sun’s Tuesday sports section, tongue in cheek we hope.
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Given the long gap between dog days games that matter, the hype and hysteria was understandable. But for those in a rush to declare the season over for the Blue Jays after Tuesday night’s 9-3 loss to the AL East-leading Baltimore Orioles, try to remember that the division won’t be won or lost this week.
Two months remain in the season and there’s plenty of drama ahead, including series between these two teams Sept. 15-17 in Baltimore and Sept 26-28 in Toronto to close out the campaign.
The life and death stuff is still to come.
Still, the start of this current nine-game stretch against the Orioles (64-48), AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners represents a pivotal piece of schedule for the Blue Jays (60-54), who are now five games behind Baltimore and still one game up on the New York Yankees for the second wild card.
There are no gimmes coming up with the starters they’re due to face over the next eight days – Wei-Yin Chen, Miguel Gonzalez, Anibal Sanchez, Max Scherzer, David Price, Chris Young, Roenis Elias and Hisashi Iwakuma are on the docket – creating the potential for a very poor run that could significantly damage pursuit of the franchise’s first post-season trip since 1993.
Clearly the Blue Jays, losers of four straight, need to get their game together, and be much, much better than they were Tuesday before an announced crowd of 36,183.
“With us losing today, it doesn’t mean our season is over,” said starter Mark Buehrle. “If somebody thought we were going to sweep these guys, you’re on some good drugs because that’s not going to happen. They’re in first place for a reason. Look, come in, hopefully play better these next two games, take two of three and we’ll be happy with it and move on.”
Buehrle allowed four runs in four innings, which isn’t that bad considering he allowed 13 base-runners, but he left his team in an early hole it couldn’t dig out of.
After Colby Rasmus gave the Blue Jays some life with a two-run shot in the bottom of the fourth that made it a 4-2 game, the Orioles added runs in the fifth and sixth to extend the lead, and after a Jose Bautista sacrifice fly in the seventh, tacked on three in the eighth off Dustin McGowan to settle things.
The Blue Jays managed 12 hits but were only 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, squandering a two-on, none out opportunity in the fifth and getting nothing but Bautista’s fly ball with the bases loaded and none out in the seventh.
“We’ve got to score runs for this team to win, no question about that,” said manager John Gibbons. “We just got beat around a little bit, we came in here and they outplayed us. We got some hits, we had some opportunities, there were a couple of little opportunities in there to get a big hit.”
They didn’t get it, and worse still for the Blue Jays was that Brett Lawrie, activated before the game after missing six weeks with a broken finger, left after three innings with lower back tightness and will get an MRI on Wednesday. He’s listed as day-to-day.
Lawrie’s return was supposed to follow those of Adam Lind and Edwin Encarncion, but instead he beat them back and quickly had to leave. All three are going to be needed if the Blue Jays are going to hang in and be factors.
The Orioles have survived such adversity all season long.
They began the year without Manny Machado. Chris Davis slumped and missed some time, as did J.J. Hardy. Matt Wieters went down for the season and Ubaldo Jimenez is also on the disabled list.
“Toronto’s had its challenges, too, we all do,” said Orioles manager Buck Showalter. “Nobody wants to hear about your problems, everybody’s kind of in a way happy you’ve got them. What’s the old adage? Harmony is not the absence of problems, but the ability to deal with them. I don’t want to hear about problems, I want to hear about how we’re going to solve them.”
They’ve solved them largely by running players up and down from their farm system – “you never overlook orchids while searching for roses,” said Showalter – while Nelson Cruz, Adam Jones and Nick Markakis have done the heavy lifting.
“Everybody feeds off of knowing who we are and knowing who we’re not,” said Showalter. “We’re not going to change the line like a hockey team and have a new infield at the trading deadline. It’s not who we are and how we have to do it. There’s only so many of those things you can withstand, though.”
The Orioles, at least significant parts of this team, have been in this spot before, having claimed a wild card in 2012.
The Blue Jays, in large part, are new to this, riding a season of runs, both very good and very bad.
“We are kind of an extreme type team,” said Gibbons, “but that’s our ball club, we are what we are.”
Can they find a middle ground and be good enough? We’re about to find out.