KANSAS CITY, Mo. – John Schneider met with Jose Berrios in recent days to tell the right-hander he was being moved from the rotation to the bullpen and the Toronto Blue Jays’ opening day starter wasn’t pleased. “He definitely expressed his opinion,” said the manager, “and rightfully so, he's earned that.” But the 31-year-old is the pro’s pro and by the end of the conversation, “he was asking for, direction as to, ‘OK, what do I do? I haven't done this, so help me through this.’ And that's what we're here for.”
Time and again this season, the Blue Jays have asked their players to sacrifice me for we, be it Berrios or Eric Lauer switching roles, the rotation running with both four and six starters for stretches, or position players subbing in and out for each other while doing whatever a given the situation calls for. It’s a big reason why they’re on the cusp of clinching a post-season berth, something their fourth straight loss, a 2-1 setback to the Kansas City Royals, prevented Saturday night.
Shane Bieber delivered his longest start since returning from Tommy John surgery at 6.1 innings, with the only blemishes against him coming in the fourth, when Bobby Witt Jr. and Vinnie Pasquantino opened the inning with back-to-back homers.
That should have been enough to help the Blue Jays pop bottles in the clubhouse afterwards, but instead, a 6-1 Yankees win at Baltimore shrunk their lead atop the American League East to two games.
Lefty Noah Cameron, who allowed only three hits including Daulton Varsho’s solo shot in the seventh, and three relievers made the two homers stand. The Blue Jays have scored only 11 times through the first six outings of a seven-game road trip that wraps up Sunday, when once again they’ll be win-and-in.
“The future is the future, but for us as a team, it's to be focused on the now … without doing anything more than what we've done all year,” said George Springer, who doubled in the third and is now 8-for-25 on the road trip. “Our team knows what to do. The guys know how to play the style of game that our team (plays) and it’ll show up.”
Unlike Springer, several Blue Jays hitters are in a funk right now, with Ty France singling in the ninth to end an 0-for-15 slide, while Andres Gimenez is in an 0-for-15 hole, Addison Barger 0-for-12, Alejandro Kirk 0-for-11 and Nathan Lukes 0-for-7. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., meanwhile, is 4-for-24 on the trip.
As Schneider, who feels the cold spell is “a little bit circumstantial” with a clinch so close noted, “it's not one guy.”
“I think guys are pressing a little bit and everyone wants to get the big hit and when we're at our best, we're not doing that, everyone's kind of doing their thing,” he explained. “We've got to have better at-bats. We will. We've been a really good offence the entire year and it gets magnified a little bit where we are right now. But confident the guys will turn it around.”
The current losing streak comes after six straight wins – including a 5-1 homestand against Houston and Baltimore, during which they scored 34 runs – that underlined the best elements they’ve demonstrated time and again this season.
“If I could sum up our team in one word, it's selfless, in the way that we deploy our roster, our bullpen, asking starters to be a little bit flexible,” said Schneider. “For a long time, just as humans, you try to be a people pleaser and you try to keep things in the right working order and make everybody happy. It's not the way you do it sometimes. Guys have understood that, to probably the best degree I've seen since I've been in this job. Guys switching roles is another example of that. It's like getting pinch-hit for, not starting or whatever it may be. Guys understand that we're just trying to do what's best every single night.”
Creating such buy-in is every team’s goal heading into a new season but pulling it off gets complicated by an often volatile mix of ego, injury, variance in performance and personal interest. There are many different pathways to winning and the Blue Jays’ road can be more difficult than the more straight-forward, top-heavy, plug-and-play rosters that have typically carried them to the post-season.
“We had our goal set to be this to start the year – we wanted to have a brand, to have a group that did exactly what we've done all year,” said veteran starter Chris Bassitt, who was placed on the injured list Saturday with lower back inflammation, with lefty Mason Fluharty taking his spot on the roster. “The biggest thing is we've had success doing it. I don't think we'd be in this situation if it was a, ‘You know what, this ain't working, so let's go back to doing what I do,’ type of thing. But the way that we've played works so it's kind of hard to argue. It's a lot easier to accept something you don't want to do or accept something that you don't like when you know it's probably going to be for the betterment of the team.”
Given what Berrios has meant to the Blue Jays, his status in the league and his contract, the way he handles the situation will hit more than most.
Berrios wasn’t “happy to talk about” his move to the bullpen, but put that aside to say, “I put my team first. I was able to be out there to help my team. That's the way I see it.”
The Blue Jays didn’t “didn't ask me” about changing roles, “they just put me out there. I don't have any choice but to just accept and do it for the team.”
Relieving is uncharted territory for him – he’s made 274 appearances in the majors and only one, back in 2017, was out of the bullpen. He’s “been talking with the relievers and with the coaches” to try and figure out a routine, “but we have to go out there and do it. So, I don't know how it's going to go. …
“The only thing I can do to help my team right now is just be a good teammate for them. Support them and always be a positive guy in the clubhouse.”
Even with Bassitt hitting the injured list – he hasn’t felt great in his past three starts – Berrios will remain in the bullpen, having posted a 5.37 ERA over his past 13 starts while fighting through a dip in velocity and inconsistency with his trademark slurve.
Trey Yesavage, coming off a sensational five-inning, nine-strikeout debut Monday, makes his second start Sunday, with Kevin Gausman, Max Scherzer and Bieber to start at home against Boston in the series that starts Tuesday. What happens in the Rays series after that depends on the situation the Blue Jays find themselves in.
Bassitt’s 15-day stint expires Oct. 3, making him eligible for the division series which start the next day, and his goal is to be ready. Berrios, too, is aiming for the same thing, in whatever role is asked of him.
“Berrios is obviously a big-league starter who is very, very good,” said Bassitt. “But it's something that we have built here where it's just like, you do a lot of stuff you don't want to do. I know a lot of guys don't want to sac bunt, a lot of guys don't want to hit the ball the other way. It's just what's best for the team and that's what we've done all year. It's just another example of us doing something that's not for the betterment of ourselves, it's more so for the betterment of the team and how we can put our team in the best situation.”
Their next win will clinch a post-season berth, the first of what the Blue Jays hope is many rewards for that mindset.
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