ATLANTA — Without exception every loss stings this time of year.
The Toronto Blue Jays are a better team than the Atlanta Braves, and they had their chances Tuesday, so Andrelton Simmons’ walk-off single hurts. But in some ways Mark Buehrle’s outing provided a positive on a night Toronto’s bats stayed quiet.
Buehrle induced ground ball after ground ball over five innings of work, inducing three double plays in front of 16,399 at Turner Field. He pitched five innings, allowing two runs, of which one was earned, on six hits with one walk and two strikeouts. Most importantly, he felt strong physically while throwing 66 pitches.
“The biggest thing I’d take away from it is I felt better than I had in the last few starts,” Buehrle told reporters in a brief post-game interview.
Considering that he got a cortisone shot last week, the Blue Jays have reason to be encouraged and maybe a little relieved.
“It’s been a long layoff for him, but I thought it was good that he got through five,” manager John Gibbons said. “The last three innings were much better.”
The bounce-back start came eight days after Buehrle lasted just 3.1 innings against the Boston Red Sox while allowing five runs on nine hits. Battling shoulder soreness might not be unusual for veteran pitchers this time of year, but it was still enough for the left-hander to return to Toronto for a cortisone shot.
If Tuesday’s start is any indication, Buehrle still has something left for the final two-plus weeks of the season. In fact, he may even have had more to give Tuesday under different circumstances.
“He didn’t really get to throw as deep in the game as he wanted to, I’m sure, but he was mixing his stuff really well, had a bit of zip on the fastball,” catcher Russell Martin said. “Everything was working. Early contact, not making too many mistakes over the plate.”
Buehrle’s streak of consecutive 200-inning seasons may be in question despite the strong start. He has now pitched 179.1 innings with enough time to make three more starts before the end of the regular season. To reach the 200-inning plateau again he would need to make all of those starts while averaging seven innings per outing. But that’s all secondary for a team that finally has much more at stake than individual milestones.
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With 18 games remaining and a 3.0 game lead atop the AL East, the Blue Jays know they can’t afford to take any game — or any opponent — lightly.
“They’re still going out trying to win games,” Buehrle said. “They’re a big league ball team and there’s guys on this team that are in the big leagues for a reason. You can’t just assume we’re going to win three games just because they’re not good and we are.”
Gibbons went to his bullpen early and often Tuesday, and while that’s partly the product of playing in a park where pitchers hit, it may also foreshadow an aggressive October approach. Instead of waiting until late in the game to call on Brett Cecil, the Blue Jays’ lone truly reliable left-hander, Gibbons used him in the sixth against Atlanta’s top lefties and Cecil struck out two in yet another clean inning.
If the game is on the line in the middle innings, the Blue Jays aren’t hesitating to go to their top relievers, an approach that might not be sustainable over a six-month season but that’s completely warranted at this point in the playoff race.
Justin Smoak was also central to Tuesday’s game, both on offence and defence. The switch hitter drilled his 16th homer of the season, starting in place Edwin Encarnacion, who’s resting a sore finger. But Smoak made an error in the third inning and missed a catchable throw from Darwin Barney in the ninth.
That misplay helped spark a rally that Aaron Sanchez was unable to stifle in his second inning of work, but Sanchez says he’s comfortable pitching multiple innings. This time, he simply didn’t execute.
“I left one hanging to (A.J.) Pierzynski and he smacked it, which he should have,” Sanchez said. “I’m out there until they take the ball from my hand. If it means I go four innings, I go four innings. I felt good like I said. It’s just sometimes baseball doesn’t go your way. Strap it up tomorrow and go get ‘em.”
It added up to a disappointing loss Tuesday. With two games remaining against the Braves, the Blue Jays have no choice but to look ahead, now with the knowledge that Buehrle still has more to offer.