TORONTO – The danger of allowing one bad day to bleed into the next, ever present amid the relentlessness of the baseball season, is especially acute in the waning days of the race for a playoff spot. That’s where the Toronto Blue Jays found themselves Saturday, losers of four in five, their worst stretch since dropping seven of eight July 11-22, and in need of turning the page from a costly setback Friday, all while navigating a bullpen day.
Tough spot, and it nearly became tougher in the first inning, when Gunnar Henderson challenged his way out of an inning-ending strikeout and walked to load the bases. But opener Spencer Miles rallied to get Christian Encarnacion-Strand on a drive two steps short of the right-field wall to escape the jam, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. doubled in one run and scored another on an Alejandro Kirk single in the bottom half and the Blue Jays didn’t look back from there in a 7-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.
Kirk added a two-run shot in the third inning, after Brett Bateman opened the fame by going deep for the second straight day while Miles, who threw two shutout innings with five strikeouts, led a parade of seven arms, including 2.2 innings of one-unearned-run ball from bulk-arm Spencer Arrighetti, before a Rogers Centre crowd of 41,949.
At 74-75, the win moved the Blue Jays 1.5 games back of the Cleveland Guardians for the American League’s final wild-card, and have ace Dylan Cease starting Sunday’s finale vs the Orioles against lefty Trevor Rogers, looking to help the pitching staff reset.
The day after Max Scherzer surrendered one run in the first and five runs in the second while Guerrero was picked off by catcher Samuel Basallo in the first to stunt a building rally, Miles and Guerrero immediately flipped the script.
Guerrero, who both had fans chanting his name and booing him Friday, lashed a 95.4 m.p.h sinker down and away from Kyle Bradish to right-centre, where it short-hopped the wall and allowed Bateman to come around. It’s the type of swing Guerrero has worked at all season and one he’s trying to get off more consistently.
Kirk then gave the Blue Jays some breathing room on a day they needed it, dunking a base hit to right to plate Guerrero before ripping a drive to left-centre in the third for a 6-0 edge.
1:39
1:31
1:28