TORONTO -- A year ago baseball’s regional-alignment schedule meant the type of gauge-the-league series the Toronto Blue Jays have been playing of late didn’t exist. While teams became awfully familiar with their divisional rivals and interleague contemporaries during the pandemic-shortened 60-game campaign, the rest of the league remained a bit of mystery.
Back to normal now, though, and Tuesday’s 6-1 loss in the opener of a three-game set against the Central-leading Chicago White Sox gave the Blue Jays their first look at the last of the American League’s best teams. The result left them a cumulative 6-8 against Cleveland, Houston, Oakland and the Southsiders thus far, offering a bit of a litmus test on where they stand relative to some of the teams they’ll be fighting with for a wild-card spot.
Robbie Ray did more than his part, striking out a season-high 13 over 6.1 dominant innings marred only by his final pitch, a 96.6 m.p.h. fastball just off the plate that Andrew Vaughn sent 390 feet over the wall in right field. That erased a 1-0 lead eked out against Carlos Rodon, who held the Blue Jays to just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring in position in his five innings, and came right after they squandered a chance to add on in the top half.
“Honestly, I made my pitch, guy put a good swing on it and hit a home run -- that's going to happen,” said Ray. “I felt like my stuff was great all night. Make a good pitch, hitters are going to hit good pitches sometimes. In that situation, you tip your cap. I don't regret anything that I did tonight.”
.@RobbieRay was DEALING tonight!#BlueJaysOnSN | @BlueJays pic.twitter.com/SOM0xuhdBH
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 9, 2021
Rightly so, and the game was still winnable when he handed it over, leaving matters to be decided by the bullpens. But that’s where the White Sox have a decided advantage, especially with the Blue Jays’ relief corps reeling due to both injuries and underperformance.
Trent Thornton, recently elevated into leverage, took over in the eighth after Rafael Dolis narrowly survived a shaky seventh in relief of Ray, and hit a wall. Jose Abreu and Yermin Mercedes opened the inning with singles, and after Yasmani Grandal walked to load the bases, Vaughn sent a fly ball to the wall in centre to bring home the go-ahead run.
By then manager Charlie Montoyo had seen enough and brought in Carl Edwards Jr., who let the levee break. Adam Eaton blooped a single to make it 3-1, Leury Garcia’s triple to right field brought home two more and a Tim Anderson sac fly plated a sixth run.
That was plenty for Liam Hendriks, the all-star closer who visited the Blue Jays complex as a free agent over the winter, to close things out. He, Jose Ruiz, Evan Marshall and Garrett Crochet delivered a combined four innings of two-hit, two-walk shutout relief, which turned out to be the difference.
“Their pitching is pretty good,” said Montoyo. “The guys that came out of the bullpen, they did a nice job. It doesn't matter when it comes to us because we still find ways to score runs, but their pitching deserves credit today, they did a nice job keeping us to the one run.”
The Blue Jays had themselves been shortening games with their bullpen earlier this season, but the relief corps has become a liability after injuries to David Phelps, Ryan Borucki, Julian Merryweather, Travis Bergen and A.J. Cole depleted a deep group.
Combine that with the recent struggles of Tyler Chatwood, the Dolis roller-coaster ride plus some regression from early surprises like Anthony Castro and Joel Payamps and suddenly Montoyo is having to make things up on the fly late in games.
“There are so many guys that have gotten hurt, somebody else has got to do it," Montoyo said. "That's what we're missing right now. We're walking too many people out of the bullpen, putting people on base in the late innings. That's not good. We need to get better at that. Throw more strikes and get people out.”
His plan Tuesday was to have Dolis and Jordan Romano, one of the few steady hands at the moment, split the final four outs behind Ray. But Dolis’ meandering seventh, which included two walks and a hit to load the bases before he caught Yoan Moncada looking at his 26th pitch, submarined that and forced Thornton into leverage.
On Saturday, nursing a 6-2 lead, Thornton delivered two clean innings in the seventh and eighth, but Tuesday, the only out he recorded travelled 395 feet at 103.1 m.p.h. off the bat and had an expected batting average of .770. Edwards got BABIP’d on the Garcia triple (.110 expected average) and the Anderson single (.090) but he also didn’t get one whiff on six swings.
“Edwards just came in so we want to see what he can do,” said Montoyo. “Trent, he's been pitching good so now he has a chance to pitch in higher leverage. Romano's been outstanding the whole time. Dolis has been up and down but he's been better lately.
“Somebody's got to pick up the slack. We just didn't do it tonight.”
Which is a shame because Ray deserved a better result.
Working with Riley Adams, making his big-league debut after replacing the injured Danny Jansen on the roster, the resurgent lefty was in total command, allowing only five hits and walking none. White Sox hitters whiffed on 21 of their 57 swings, unable to square up a fastball that sat 95.5 and helpless versus a slider that generated 14 misses and at an average of 89.9, was 1.1 m.p.h. above his season rate.
“It's just continued comfortability with it,” Ray said of the pitch’s effectiveness. “I'm just feeling better and better with it each outing. It's just trusting it, trusting (that) when I throw it it's going to do what I want it to do. And that's added to the velocity of it, just having that trust for it.”
As he builds faith in his repertoire, the Blue Jays continue to search for relievers to trust in key spots. And against an unfamiliar foe in the White Sox, they saw the all-too-familiar sight of their bullpen, once a strength, wilting late.
