With their backs against the wall after Friday's 7-1 loss to the Texas Rangers, the Toronto Blue Jays will turn to José Soriano on Saturday in hopes of saving their fading post-season hopes.
The Blue Jays enter the second game of this weekend series in Arlington at 76-78 and two games back of the Chicago White Sox for the third wild-card spot in the American League. However, because Chicago owns the tiebreaker over Toronto, the Blue Jays would actually need to win three more games than the White Sox the rest of the way to pass them in the standings.
But if Toronto is to make a late run at October, it will likely have to start Saturday with Soriano leading a bounce-back effort against Canadian Cal Quantrill and the Rangers.
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Soriano was at his best early in his last start against the Detroit Tigers on Monday, cruising through six no-hit innings before things came crashing down in the seventh. The Tigers tagged the Blue Jays' prized deadline acquisition for five hits and four runs in the frame, chasing Soriano before going on to take a 6-5 win.
The outing aligned with what has been an uneven Blue Jays tenure for the 27-year-old, who enters Saturday with a 4.27 ERA and 32 strikeouts over his first eight starts with Toronto.
As a Blue Jay, Soriano owns a 1.45 ERA his first time through the opposing batting order, but has seen that number balloon to 4.86 the second time through and 8.18 the third time through.
It's a trend he will aim to buck on Saturday against the Rangers in what lines up as his penultimate start of the regular season.
Toronto made the call to bump both Soriano and Dylan Cease's turns through the rotation up a day for this series against Texas, leveraging Thursday's off-day to keep the duo on regular rest in order to have their best arms open the pivotal three-game set.
Of course, that didn't quite pay off for Cease, who didn't make it out of the third inning on Friday while battling his velocity and command in his shortest start of the season.
Regardless of how things turn out for Soriano, though, the Blue Jays will need more from their lineup against Port Hope, Ont.'s Quantrill, who has been a revelation for Texas after landing with the organization on a minor-league deal in the off-season.
Across 31 outings — 14 of them starts — Quantrill has posted a 2.90 ERA and has taken full advantage of his six-pitch mix to keep hitters off balance.
He has been particularly effective over his last nine starts, carrying a 2.01 ERA, 22.4 per cent strikeout rate, .180 batting average against and 0.84 WHIP in 58.1 innings.
Despite spending the bulk of his career with the Cleveland Guardians, Quantrill hasn't faced the Blue Jays that often in his eight big-league seasons. Saturday will mark just his fourth start against Toronto since his debut in 2019.
Of the 14 position players on the Blue Jays' roster, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has the most experience against Quantrill, having stepped into the box eight times against the right-hander. He hasn't found much success, however, going just 1-for-7 with a double and a walk in those matchups.
It's been the story for much of the season, but the Blue Jays offence will once again be searching for some game-changing swings to snap this week's funk that has seen them struggle to string together hits.
Toronto mustered just five on Friday and has now gone 28-for-126 (.222) as a team with only four extra-base hits since the start of its series loss to the Tigers.
Along with handling its own business, Toronto will also need some help on the out-of-town scoreboard going forward if it does turn things around over the next eight games.
On Saturday, the Guardians are back in action against the Athletics, the White Sox continue their series against the Tigers and the Astros — now tied with Texas atop the AL West — are seeking a bounceback of their own against the Atlanta Braves.
