Blue Jays' comeback vs. Rangers indicative of growth since last matchup

TORONTO – In late May when the Toronto Blue Jays arrived in Arlington after a one-sided sweep at the Tampa Bay Rays, manager John Schneider described the upcoming games against the Texas Rangers as “a big test.”

They’d scored just twice during a lost weekend, as they struggled to climb above .500 “because of the ebbs and flows of offence and baserunning,” and were at a point where “you really have to revisit” what they needed to do to succeed. “The way we played in Tampa turned this into a little bit of a bigger series,” Schneider added back then.

Well, the Blue Jays didn’t exactly light it up during those three games at Globe Life Field — scoring only four times during the three games — but still managed to eke out a couple of stabilizing wins, taking the finale 2-0 on Bo Bichette’s pinch-hit homer in the ninth.

Their odds of winning the AL East and of reaching the post-season stood at just 3.2 and 29.6 per cent afterwards (per FanGraphs), but they returned home to unload on the Athletics during a four-game sweep, starting a run of 11 wins in 13 outings and haven’t looked back since. 

Now, a season is never turned around by a single moment, but with some hindsight, that clash with the Rangers certainly turned out to be a springboard to where the Jays are now.

“At that point, we had some good moments where we kind of showed ourselves what we could do, but we hadn't gone on that stretch to validate it. That’s where we were at,” said Bichette. “For me personally, (the homer) was probably like my first real big hit. That one felt significant for me. I feel like this whole year, personally, has just kind of been building blocks towards becoming myself, if not a better version of myself. That was definitely one of them and the team has sort of been on that trajectory, as well, little-by-little finding ourselves again, getting to the point we've gotten to. That series is one of those blocks.”

All of which explains why the two teams began this weekend’s return engagement at Rogers Centre in such different spots, the Blue Jays (72-51) now atop the AL East while the Rangers (61-62) are still spinning their wheels while chasing a wild-card spot.

Friday’s opener also played out very differently than the last series between the two, as the Blue Jays used a four-spot in the eighth inning – started by Bichette’s RBI single and highlighted by Alejandro Kirk’s go-ahead two-run base hit – to complete their 39th comeback win of the season, 6-5.

Chris Bassitt fell behind early during a rough second inning in which he surrendered a three-run homer to Kyle Higashioka that opened the scoring and Jacob deGrom, pumping 98 and 99 all night, kept it there over five dominant innings.

But Bassitt, fighting his command early and the way the Rangers were hunting his curveball, kept a lid on the damage to get through five innings while Kirk pulled the Blue Jays back into it with a two-run homer off Robert Garcia in the seventh. Louis Varland gave that back in the eighth when Marcus Semien hammered a flat first pitch slider over the wall in left for a two-run shot of his own, but as the Blue Jays have so often this year, they rallied once more.

Back-to-back singles by Andres Gimenez and pinch-hitter Davis Schneider set the table for Bichette, who delivered his latest important hit with a line drive up the middle off Danny Coloumbe to begin the comeback. Later in the inning, Daulton Varsho’s bases-loaded walk preceded Kirk’s go-ahead knock, which came on a two-strike curveball after he’d taken a massive swing and miss at a 1-1 cutter.

“I got too big on that swing,” Kirk said through interpreter Hector Lebron, “so I knew right then that I had to make an adjustment, trying to get a good pitch to hit and put good contact on the ball.”

For good measure, Kirk added his first career stolen base later in the inning as a crowd of 42,260 roared its approval.

“He’s catching Rickey (Henderson) slowly, I think,” quipped Bassitt, before catching the ninth when Jeff Hoffman struck out the side for his 28th save.

All of it a long way from some of those tough days in May.

“We've been playing really well and really functioning well as an offence since then,” said John Schneider. “It takes time. Today's a perfect example of everyone kind of doing their part. (Davis Schneider) with the pinch-hit, taking walks when you should take walks, having good at-bats up and down and putting the ball in play. Sometimes there's a turning point in the year, and I think Bo's home run there kind of got us going. And then from there guys are just doing their part.”

While deGrom kept Bichette — and the rest of the lineup — under wraps early, Bichette’s RBI single in the eighth pushed his numbers with runners in scoring position this year to an astonishing .374/.417/.618 with seven homers, nine doubles, a triple and 68 RBI. His 79 RBI lead the team while his 149 hits top the majors.

And since that homer in Texas, he’s batting .312/.348/.507 with 11 homers and 52 RBIs. 

“Big hits in big moments and big homers in big moments have been a trademark of mine throughout my career, and the year-and-a-half-ish before that home run, it was something that I just didn't feel like I was doing, for whatever reason,” said Bichette. “I just wasn't coming up with those big hits late in games and it was something I was still searching for, honestly, because as much as a win is a win, I want those moments. And so then to have one was like, OK, I finally did it again, and I could kind of relax and not worry about coming up big so much.”

A similar feeling has applied team-wide, with the conversations around the Blue Jays shifting from the lack of big hits in key spots to who’s going to be the one that delivers it this time. Within that context, Bichette’s consistent production and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s steady discipline have been fuel for everyone else’s success, rather than the Blue Jays being wholly dependent on them to win the day like they were last year.

In turn, Bichette has accepted that, “I'm probably never going to feel like I'm where I need to be (at the plate), but I've come to a decent place of just being in the moment and doing the best I can that day and being the most consistent I can be, and not really searching for that perfection.”

“Because to be honest,” he continued, “I didn't really ever feel like I got hot (this season). I feel like I managed the day-to-day really well. I was able to make adjustments really quick, I was in the moment. That's what the best hitters do. And if I have a scorching hot week where I can't get out, then that's great. I still demand the same of myself. I probably make failures and successes a smaller deal and that makes it easier to move on, whether it was good or bad, make adjustments and try to learn from the successes and get better from the failures.

“I feel like this is probably the best version of myself as a hitter that I've been in my career,” he added, “just looking to get better every day and that's pretty much it.”

Especially since that fateful May series in Texas, as both he and the Blue Jays continue to do precisely that.