BOSTON – They fought through a relentless and pestering rain, and they fought through a biting cold. They fought through an early deficit, they fought through a month’s worth of frustration at the plate, and they fought through the weight of the moment, with their margin for error shrinking by the day.
Then, on the verge of inching closer to the wild-card berth they could have already had locked up, the warts that have hampered the Toronto Blue Jays throughout a September of adversity resurfaced, and all their fight came undone. And at the end of a long, hard, soggy Friday night at Fenway Park, a 5-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox left them looking up at the Baltimore Orioles in the wild-card race, with the Detroit Tigers closing in from behind.
Not even a two-run home run from Jose Bautista that briefly gave them a charge could pull them from their recent rut.
“We’ve got to play our game. We’ve got to do what it takes to win, we’ve got to do what the game asks us to do and execute,” hitting coach Brook Jacoby said after his team went 1-for-10 with runners in scoring position, pushing their total to 6-for-39 over the past five games, four of them losses. “I’d like them to use the middle of the field, middle the other way, take the RBI. Don’t worry about driving all of them in – make sure we get one. That’s it. We’ve got to execute, period.”
Two constants during an 11-16 month in which their leads in the American League East and wild-card races slipped away have been issues hitting with runners in scoring position and leaky bullpen work, and both converged in the decisive seventh inning.
In the top half, a two-out single by Bautista, whose homer in a three-run fifth opened up a 3-1 lead, and a walk by Russell Martin brought up Troy Tulowitzki, whose popper down the right-field line was chased down by first baseman Hanley Ramirez to end the threat.
That left the Blue Jays 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position to that point and the inability to add on runs proved costly in the bottom half. Joe Biagini, out for a second inning of work, issued a leadoff double to Andrew Benintendi and Dustin Pedroia followed with a little nubber that Russell Martin threw down the right-field line. It ended up under the tarp, allowing Benintendi to score as manager John Gibbons argued unsuccessfully that Pedroia was out of the baseline.
“Picked up the ball, slick ball, turned around and threw it as quickly as I could. It just took off on me,” said Martin. “I wish I could take it back. I feel like that’s a play I can make in my sleep, but today it didn’t happen.”
An out later Mookie Betts singled up the middle to tie the game 3-3 and Brett Cecil came on and coughed up a two-run homer to David Ortiz that was like a dagger in the stomach. Cecil threw three straight curveballs before Ortiz turned on a 2-1 heater.
“Just the old step in the bucket, I’m ready to turn on the fastball,” said Martin. “He tends to do that to lefties every once in a while, and he got us today. It was a good pitch in a good location. I’ll take the blame for that one. He’s a good hitter, man, and he just proved it right there.”
A Kevin Pillar walk and Devon Travis double put men on second and third with one out in the eighth, but Ezequiel Carrera popped up on the first pitch before Josh Donaldson’s grounder down the line was fielded by Brock Holt who relayed to first for the out.
Then in the ninth, Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel worked around walks to Bautista and Tulowitzki in the ninth, striking out pinch-hitter Dioner Navarro to end it.
The Blue Jays now trail the Orioles, 8-1 winners over the New York Yankees, by a game and are just a half-game up on the Tigers, 6-2 winners at Atlanta, for the second wild-card. Their September batting average of .226 with runners in scoring position (47-for-208) is largely responsible for that.
“I don’t see that – all they’re doing is competing,” manager John Gibbons said when asked if his players might be trying to do too much. “There’s nothing more than that, they’re no different now than they’ve ever been. They’re grinding it out, they’re tired like everybody else, and they’re competing. We put some guys on base, we just couldn’t cash them in.
“It’s no more than that. Maybe (Saturday) is the big day we’ll break out.”
Rain delayed the game’s start by 25 minutes and after a ceremony to honour Ortiz, Marco Estrada struggled through a 34 pitch first inning in which the Red Sox fouled off 16 pitches. Holt walked with one out, advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored on Ortiz’s two-out single.
As the early leads jumped out to by the Orioles and Tigers sat on the Green Monster scoreboard Rick Porcello extended the Blue Jays’ run of innings without a run to 20 before they got to him in the fifth.
Travis opened the inning with a double, Carrera’s sacrifice bunt was misplayed by Holt for a single that put men on the corners and after Donaldson’s sacrifice fly tied the game, Bautista’s two-run homer gave the Blue Jays a needed lead.
Still, chance after chance to extend the advantage to create margin for error was wasted.
The Blue Jays started the day 22nd in the majors with a .250 batting average when runners are in scoring position, just behind the Chicago Cubs at .252 and ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers at .249 and the San Francisco Giants at .248.
Given the company, that number on its own is no death knell, but with the September dip the bullpen has been overtaxed in constant leverage and it’s costing them.
“Find a way to get a hit. There’s nothing else you can do,” said Martin. “It’s a game where you battle. It’s a reactional game, split-second decisions. Sometimes you hit a weak fly ball and it ends up being a knock and you’re giving high-fives, and sometimes you hit a rocket missile at somebody and it’s an out. It can be a treacherous game sometimes. The key for us is just to keep battling, one game at a time.”
With only two games remaining, that last bit won’t be a problem. Turning their fortunes in time, on the other hand, may very well be.
