TORONTO — About the best thing to happen to the Blue Jays on Monday was that the Rogers Centre roof was open for the first time this season. Nearly everything else was mired in gloom.
The Blue Jays placed right-hander Dylan Cease on the 15-day injured list with a left hamstring strain in the afternoon and were without slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who was still sore after being hit on the right elbow a day earlier and was held out of the starting lineup.
Trey Yesavage took the ball against the Miami Marlins on what was a beautiful evening in Toronto, but was bled for five runs during an outing that was marred by an ugly defensive inning from Blue Jays’ left-fielder Yohendrick Piñango.
Nathan Lukes returned from the injured list, with fellow outfielder Davis Schneider demoted to triple-A, and while he did collect three hits, the Blue Jays’ offence couldn’t muster much in what was an 8-2 loss in front of 41,177.
Xavier Edwards opened the game with a double, advanced to third on a groundout from Toronto native Liam Hicks, and then scored on a sacrifice fly from Montreal’s Otto Lopez to put the Marlins on the board.
Yesavage took control from there, though, retiring the next 11 hitters until consecutive doubles from Javier Sanoja and another Canadian, Owen Caissie, plated another run in the fifth inning.
The next frame is when things unravelled. Pinango hesitated while chasing a fly ball in shallow left field and let it drop between him and shortstop Andres Gimenez, allowing Hicks to score from first on a play that should have resulted in the third out.
“Just the fundamentals of baseball, outfielder always has priority over infielder,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “You'll learn from it, hopefully, and move on. But, yeah, those plays can obviously change the trajectory of a game pretty quickly.”
That it did. The inning was extended and after Yesavage walked Jakob Marsee, Sanoja ripped a liner over Pinango’s head for a double that plated two more runs and pushed the Marlins’ lead to 5-1.
The ball came off Sanoja’s bat at 96 m.p.h. with a 57-per cent catch probability, yet Pinango misread it, initially breaking in, then stopping before going back on the ball as it landed on the warning track and bounced off the wall.
Yesavage induced a fly ball to centre to mercilessly end the frame and recorded two more outs in the seventh before he was removed from the contest.
“I mean, stuff happens, and I just need to move on and focus on the next guy I'm facing,” Yesavage said of the sixth inning.
In total, the right-hander allowed five runs on five hits across 6.2 frames, walking two and striking out six on a season-high 98 pitches. His velocity was up a tick and carried through to his final pitch.
“I felt really good,” said Yesavage. “I looked up on the last heater and saw it was 96 [m.p.h.]. So, felt really good.”
The fact that the right-hander, who was coming off a dominant performance against the Yankees in New York, is stretched out and able to pitch deep into games is important for the Blue Jays, given the loss of Cease.
“It stinks,” said Yesavage. “He's a big part of this rotation, but we'll be waiting for his return.”
An MRI showed that Cease’s hamstring strain was mild, an encouraging revelation, according to Schneider, but he’ll still likely miss a few starts.
“He wants to pitch,” Schneider said. “I think he's being smart about it, too. It's the risk-reward of losing him for a long time, as opposed to maybe two (starts). That kind of just outweighed it. He was smart about it but definitely disappointed.”
Right-hander Tanner Andrews was selected from Buffalo to take Cease’s spot on the roster and ended up tossing a scoreless ninth inning on Monday in what was his major-league debut.
There was a scary moment in the seventh inning, when Marlins’ reliever Andrew Nardi hit Lukes in the head with a 94.1-m.p.h. sinker. Lukes fell to the ground as his helmet flung off, but he quickly got up and, after a long visit from manager John Schneider and trainer Jose Ministral, remained in the game.
“It probably looked a little bit worse than it was,” said Schneider. “Jose was out there and kind of saw everything he needed to see. And we were checking with (Lukes) as the game was going on and nothing really came of it. So, that's a positive.”
Lukes had been sidelined since late April with a left hamstring injury. As well, he’d also battled vertigo earlier this season, bringing even more concern of a potential head injury on Monday.
The fact that nothing was wrong, though, was a big relief. The Blue Jays will certainly take that on what was a rough day.
“Great to have him back and to have that presence there,” said Schneider. “Crazy that he got hit in the head. First game back, you don’t like seeing that, but glad he's okay.”
