BALTIMORE — John Schneider admitted over the weekend that he’d been looking at the calendar recently and hoping Monday would arrive sooner.
With the Toronto Blue Jays in a brutal stretch of 17 games in 17 days, the club’s first off day since May 14 seemed like a distant oasis in the desert.
Dylan Cease’ trip to the injured list early this week complicated things for a starting rotation that’s already running thin and an increased workload has fallen on the relievers, who’ve had to make it through several patchwork bullpen days.
All of that left the Blue Jays manager trying to balance the need to win while being careful to not burn out his pitching staff.
“It's delicate at times,” Schneider said over the weekend about navigating the push and pull.
On Sunday, there wasn’t much needle to thread as the Baltimore Orioles took a commanding early lead before cruising to a 9-5 victory over the Blue Jays at Camden Yards. Yohendrick Pinango launched a three-run homer in the eighth inning that cut into the deficit, which ultimately proved too large.
Toronto won the first two of the four-game series against their AL East rivals, before suffering a disastrous loss on Saturday that was followed by Sunday’s showing.
All things considered, though, the Blue Jays played to a 10-7 record since their last off day and can finally take a breather now before a three-game series in Atlanta begins Tuesday.
“We're looking forward to the off day,” said Schneider following the loss. “Overall, I thought we played kind of a mixed bag these last four games here in Baltimore, in all areas. But I think 10-7 — we took a step forward, collectively, over that period of time.
“Guys are feeling it,” he continued. “The bullpen's feeling it when you're running some bullpen games, too. So, looking forward to tomorrow and regroup on Tuesday.”
Spencer Miles, a revelation so far this season, started for the Blue Jays on Sunday and experienced the worst outing of his brief big-league career. Things fell apart for the right-hander in the third inning when he allowed RBI singles to Pete Alonso and Samuel Basallo before Colton Cowser’s three-run, 424-foot blast blew the game open and gave the O’s a 6-0 lead.
In total, Miles allowed six runs on five hits over three innings, striking out two while walking three on a season-high 70 pitches.
Schneider believed the difference for Miles was that he left too many pitches in the middle of the plate.
“And they made him pay,” he said.
Adam Macko entered the game in the fourth inning and absorbed two scoreless frames before right-hander Hayden Juenger, called up on Saturday amid the continued churn of roster arms, made his major-league debut and was greeted by a three spot from the Orioles over his one inning of work.
Adding to the Blue Jays’ misery was that Jesus Sanchez was removed from the game in the sixth inning after a ball was thrown from the right-field stands and hit him on his right forearm. He suffered a right wrist contusion and underwent precautionary X-rays that were negative for a fracture.
Schneider explained that Sanchez was engaging in a playful back-and-forth with a 12-year-old, who thought the right-fielder was asking to play catch and then fired the ball at him.
"It was a misunderstanding, I would hope,” Sanchez said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “I wasn't trying to play catch right there with him, but I just looked at him and [he] thought maybe that I wanted [him] to throw the ball back to me. But it was a misunderstanding completely. And it is what it is.
“It hurts a little bit but thank God there's nothing bad, no fracture or something like that,” added Sanchez, who was wearing a wrap on his wrist. “I'll be all right.”
“Never know what you're going to see at the ballpark,” said Schneider. “First time I've seen that.”
One positive from Sunday is that the lopsided score allowed Schneider to refrain from using his leverage relievers. That, along with the off day, should allow for a little bit of a reset ahead of Kevin Gausman and Patrick Corbin’s starts on Tuesday and Wednesday against the Braves.
The Blue Jays’ pitching staff will have to wait a little longer before mainstays Max Scherzer, Shane Bieber and Cease return. Scherzer (right forearm) tossed 41 pitches over three scoreless innings during a rehab outing in triple-A on Sunday, while Bieber (right elbow) threw 49 pitches and allowed five runs over 2.1 frames in his rehab start for single-A Dunedin. Cease, meanwhile, tossed a bullpen on Saturday as he recovers from a left hamstring strain.
Reinforcements are on their way, but for now, after a quick stop in the oasis, it’s back to the desert.
