BOSTON — The first of 16 games in 16 days for the Toronto Blue Jays began with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Andrés Giménez returning to the lineup, the possibility of more help on the horizon and more messaging on hitting with runners in scoring position.
As welcome as the former is for a team working to find consistency, the latter is essential to get there. Final at-bat losses to the New York Yankees on Saturday and Sunday, during which the Blue Jays went a combined 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position, highlighted the urgency of the problem, as two more 50-50 games slipped through their fingers.
A simple correction there — they headed into Tuesday’s play 25th in average and 28th in slug in such situations — would drastically alter their trajectory, especially with Yimi García, Shane Bieber, Daulton Varsho and Addison Barger progressing toward returns.
The messaging from manager John Schneider and the coaching staff centred on “shrinking the zone a little bit,” as “we have capable guys up there that are probably chasing a little more … so it's just focusing your attention to that, really.”
“Everyone wants to be the guy to get the big hit,” he added, “but you still have to be really within your capabilities of doing that.”
They did precisely that in a 6-1 win over the Boston Red Sox, playing to the situation to manufacture a run in the third – keyed by a 14-pitch Myles Straw flyout that advanced Gimenez to third and allowed him to score on a George Springer sac fly – getting to damage in the fifth on their first back-to-back homers of the season, and then adding on in the sixth and ninth.
Davis Schneider, who homered for the second straight outing after going 37 games without a longball dating back to March 30, was in the middle of it all. He took Payton Tolle over the monster before Giménez followed with a drive out to right-centre, and then added a run-scoring double in the sixth, although a bigger inning was left on the table.
In the ninth, Springer’s two-run shot, the 300th homer of his career, eventually provided the extra breathing room.
“You saw a complete team game, guys are getting guys over and in. It doesn't really matter where you hit, expect to do what the game asks in that moment,” said Springer, who pointed to Straw’s flyout as a prime example. “That's an unbelievable at-bat for us as a team, right? He had a plan. He was trying to get the guy over the whole time and was able to fight off a lot of extremely hard pitches to foul off. At the end of the day, he did his job, he got the guy from second to third. He did everything that we needed to do and that just fired up the dugout, got everybody going, and showed he's playing for the name of the front, not the name on the back.”
Along with five innings of high-effort shutout ball from Dylan Cease and Louis Varland cleaning up a mess in the eighth before handling the ninth for his 13th save, the Blue Jays improved to 35-38 while pushing the offence-starved Red Sox to 29-41.
“I really just never got comfortable and never got into a rhythm,” said Cease, who was frustrated by being in and out of trouble thanks to four hits and four walks, but used seven strikeouts and two key Straw catches on Caleb Durbin to avoid damage. “A game like today is not sustainable, but sometimes they just go in your favour.”
Davis Schneider’s awakening is especially timely with Jake Bennett slated to start Wednesday night, making it two straight lefties on the mound against the Blue Jays.
Recalled Friday as Varsho hit the injured list, he had been sent to triple-A Buffalo for a reset after his extended dry spell, instructed to focus on better attacking pitches in his hot zones. With 24 walks in 60 plate appearances with the Bisons, he didn’t get much to swing at, but said, “Thank God,” as he touched home plate Sunday.
Asked what he hoped to carry forward from that swing, he quipped, “hit more homers, hopefully.”
“I feel like I was seeing the ball middle and swinging at pitches that I know I could really handle,” he added. “That's a good sign for me, just swinging at pitches I know I can do damage on.”
That’s the wider message the Blue Jays are preaching to their offence as they seek more consistent production. Earlier in the season, John Schneider felt his team was “pigeon-holed” in being pitched very differently in specific counts, but now feels that’s more of a league-wide trend.
Either way, his hitters need to counter and “that's the adjustment we're trying to get to or stay ahead of when you get there,” he explained. “That's really it. It is tricky. It comes and it goes. But I think the pitches are a little bit different. And if they're still in the zone, but they're not where you can handle them, that's where you're seeing not getting the hit, a pop up or a ground out, whatever, as opposed to a base hit or double or a home run. So just trying to adjust to that, with what the league's doing.”
Tuesday night at Fenway showed what their offence can look like when they execute like that.
