TAMPA, Fla. — The Toronto Blue Jays knew well in advance that Sunday’s game was going to be difficult. The club tried to get out in front of it as much as possible, but the thing is, there’s not much you can do to battle the Florida sun in late May.
With a first pitch slated for 1:40 p.m. against the Tampa Bay Rays at George M. Steinbrenner Field, John Schneider spent some time before the series talking to other MLB teams to find out how they dealt with the conditions here.
The Blue Jays manager could rely on his own experience, too. He managed in the Gulf Coast and Florida State League and remembers when the Blue Jays deployed outside-the-box measures while playing home games in Dunedin, Fla., during the 2021 season.
“We went as far as putting extra jerseys in freezers in the tunnel to put them on in between innings,” Schneider said on Saturday. “Stupid stuff you don't think about. Guys are going to sweat through their batting gloves, [lose] grip on the ball with the rosin. Sweat in your eyes. This sucks. This is the one time I say I like the Trop. Day game here at Steinbrenner.”
In the clubhouse prior to the contest, the team nutritionist was handing out homemade concoctions of electrolyte slushies while one player asked an attendant for an extra shirt because he knew he was going to sweat through the one in his locker stall.
Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette, who grew up in the area, admitted there’s nothing you can do but play through it.
"And drink water," Bichette noted.
The temperature was 32 degrees C at first pitch, feeling like 38, and the Blue Jays did indeed play through it, but the word “suffer” would be more apt. The Rays jumped out to an early lead on Chris Bassitt before exploding for a seven-run fifth inning en route to a 13-0 rout over the Blue Jays in front of a paid attendance of 10,046.
The victory completed a three-game sweep and allowed the Rays (26-26) to move ahead of the Blue Jays (25-27) into third place in the American League standings.
“We didn't play up to our capabilities,” said Schneider of the series. “We're better than that.”
Bassitt and the Blue Jays were playing behind from the opening frame. Brandon Lowe ripped a 1-0 up-and-in cutter from Bassitt into the right-centre field stands for a two-run shot that further cemented his role as a Blue Jays killer. It was Lowe’s 20th career homer against the club and his fourth against Bassitt. He added two more singles against the right-hander and now has 10 hits in 17 career at-bats against him.
“He's a low-ball hitter and I’m a low-ball pitcher,” Bassitt said when asked what makes Lowe such a tough matchup.
The right-hander said he tried to keep cool by going into the clubhouse between innings, yet that could only do so much.
“Obviously, it's really hot,” he said. “I thought that made me work really hard to get outs.”
Bassitt managed to keep the Blue Jays in the game over the next few innings before the game unravelled in the fifth. The right-hander allowed three straight hits before he was lifted in what was his shortest outing of the season. Left-hander Mason Fluharty faced five batters and couldn’t record an out, right-fielder George Springer lost a ball in the sun, right-hander Paxton Schultz tried to clean up the mess, and, by the time the long, sweaty inning ended, the Rays had batted around the lineup and built a nine-run lead.
By the seventh frame, Schneider began to put position players out of their misery by lifting them from the game. Outfielder Myles Straw got some time at second base while infielder Michael Stefanic pitched a scoreless inning.
“Halfway through the game is when the environment kind of creeps into your head a little bit,” said Schneider. “It's tough, it's really hot. The environment is just different. I don't want to say that we're spoiled, but everyone has earned the right to play in the big-leagues in a big-league ballpark.
“You got to compartmentalize everything to where, yes, you are playing here, but it's a Major League Baseball game,” he added later. “It's a tough environment, but you have to just continue to work through every single situation and stay mentally locked in.”
The manager pointed to “careless mistakes” such as Jonatan Clase getting picked off at first base in the second inning and the Blue Jays’ offence combining to see just four pitches while recording three outs that forced Bassitt to get back to the mound quickly in the bottom of the third.
“You can't do that,” said Schneider. “Things like that, they could kind of just snowball. And we'll address it. We'll talk about it.”
Sunday offered an ugly end to a three-game set that saw the Blue Jays plate just two runs. That, on the heels of scoring 24 while sweeping the San Diego Padres, is certainly frustrating for a club that’s continued to ride a wild roller-coaster this season.
“In terms of the highs and lows, we got to figure that out,” said Schneider. “We got to get better at being more consistent. And I think when we do that, that's when you see the true identity of who we are.
“We got to get to that quick.”
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