TORONTO — Between the trade deadline, 17 games in 17 days within a wider run of 30 in 31, capped by a challenging homestand against the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees, this just-completed stretch could easily have broken the Toronto Blue Jays.
Instead, by “embracing what we're good at right now,” in the words of John Schneider, they produced a run of 13 wins in 20 games and a 5-2 homestand against a pair of AL East rivals capped by Sunday afternoon’s 4-3 loss in 10 innings to the Yankees. “Sometimes it doesn't look the sexiest,” the manager added, “but we're OK with that,” especially after they’ve not only pulled themselves into the thick of a congested wild-card race, but also restored control of their own fate.
“Getting some new guys in here, I've said this a lot, guys with something to prove and some energy, that's been important,” said Schneider. “The way they've come together as a group is also really important and the fact that you can kind of manoeuvre a little bit throughout the game with some different skill-sets is important.
“Pitching is always the most important. The pitchers have done a great job, and we've asked a lot of the starters, a lot of the bullpen. That's what you grasp onto. It's a tough part of the schedule, and they responded through some adverse times and saying goodbye to some teammates and all that kind of stuff.”
A needed off-day arrives Monday before a six-game trip to the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays and weekend return set at the Yankees, and their remaining schedule beyond that includes only sub-.500 clubs, including series with Seattle, Detroit, Cleveland, Baltimore and Texas — teams they’re fighting for a post-season berth.
That means in the muddled mix of contending clubs, the Blue Jays (61-65) no longer need help from others to reach October.
What they do with that opportunity is up to them.
“We've played really well of late," said Dylan Cease, who allowed two runs over 6.1 innings with 10 strikeouts, surpassing the 200-K mark for a sixth consecutive season. “One of the more exciting things about that is we really haven't even hit our stride in several areas. That's a sign of a good team, when you're not even really still playing your peak baseball and you're still winning.”
Still, their margins remain delicately thin as evidenced Sunday, when the Blue Jays were a hit away from changing the game’s direction on a few occasions, but instead found themselves down 2-1 when Jose Caballero’s RBI single in the seventh off Brendon Little cashed in a George Lombard Jr. double that ended Cease’s outing.
Ryan Weathers allowed just one run — on a Daz Cameron RBI double in the fifth — over 7.1 innings, but was helped by three double plays that killed rallies: George Springer hitting into a 6-4-3 in the fourth; Cameron running into an out at third after Andres Gimenez’s groundout in the fifth; and Alejandro Kirk, after not challenging a potential Ball 4, rolling into another 6-4-3 in the sixth.
Despite that, a signature of their current streak has been the constant pressure they put on opponents, and that bore fruit in the ninth, when Ben Rice muffed a Josh Smith chopper, Kirk followed with a walk, the runners advanced on a David Bednar wild pitch, and Ernie Clement brought Smith home with a sacrifice fly that tied the game 2-2.
Smith crossed safely even after Caballero ran over to third to block his view of Trent Grisham catching the ball in centre, a play the Blue Jays’ utilityman described as "a heads-up play to make it a little harder to score."
“I do it sometimes, too,” said Smith. “It's just kind of a gamesmanship technique.”
They left the potential winning run at second base, though, and that proved costly in the bottom half when Braydon Fisher, pitching for the fourth time in six days and sixth in nine days, gave up Rice’s go-ahead two-run homer.
Scrappy as the Blue Jays’ offence has been, the slug they’ve sought all season long remained elusive, as they hit just two homers during the homestand, after seven during the three-city, seven-game road trip beforehand.
In the absence of the type of instant offence the Yankees depend on, the Blue Jays need to be especially opportunistic with runners in scoring position. While Gimenez delivered an RBI single in the bottom of the 10th, there wasn’t another big swing to follow it up.
“We're competing, we're fighting,” said Gimenez. “I know we lost a couple of games, but we're not losing without fighting. I like that.”
The off-day for the Blue Jays will be just their second since play resumed after the all-star break on July 17 and first since July 30. They’ve also played five extra-inning games in their past 12 outings, amplifying the fatigue.
“Definitely it's going to help,” Gimenez said of a day to recover. “It’s August. A lot of travel. But we're excited to do it. We're happy to compete. We're happy to be winning and winning is fun. Monday is going to be a good day for all of us. We really need it.”
Jose Soriano, Max Scherzer and Shane Bieber start for the Blue Jays against the Rays, who have won eight of the 10 meetings between the clubs so far, offering a good litmus test of where they’re at and an important intersection en route to where they want to go.
“Just continue to play as hard as we're playing and pitch the way we're pitching. We've got to find a way to generate some more runs and hopefully give the pitching a little bit of a break,” said Schneider. “They definitely earned the off-day and deserve it, but got to come out ready against a really good team Tuesday.”
The work to get back into the wild-card race may be done, but the work to take advantage of the opportunity the Blue Jays have given themselves is just beginning.
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