TORONTO — If you were to do a ranking of injuries the Toronto Blue Jays are least equipped to backfill right now, Dylan Cease and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., in whatever order, are obvious picks to be among those at the very top of the list.
Losing either, let alone both, especially alongside the club’s many other injuries, is a nightmarish thought, one that threatened to become reality in the fifth inning of Sunday’s 4-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates.
In the top half, Cease shook out his legs after a 1-1 pitch to Spencer Horwitz, stayed in the game after a mound visit by manager John Schneider and trainer Jose Ministral, threw three more pitches and then left the game. Then, in the bottom half, Guerrero took a 92.1 m.p.h. sinker from Mitch Keller off the inside of the right elbow, cursed out loud, and then walked directly through the dugout and down the tunnel to the clubhouse.
Not exactly the type of drama a Rogers Centre crowd of 41,354 signed up for as a season-best four-game win streak for the Blue Jays (25-28) came to an end.
Despite the result, an exhale came before the final out as the initial diagnoses veered away from worst-case scenarios — Cease has mild left hamstring tightness and headed for an MRI to confirm it was little more than cramping, while Guerrero suffered a contusion after X-rays revealed no fracture.
“When that happened, I thought it was worse than this, but thank God nothing major,” said Guerrero, whose arm went numb with no feeling in his middle and pinky fingers after being struck. “Just a little bit painful but thank God everything is fine.”
Cease, who allowed solo homers to Horwitz in the first and Oneil Cruz in the second before exiting with two outs in the fifth, is next due to start Friday at the Baltimore Orioles and there’s no off-day to offer extra recovery in between.
Still, before leaving for the MRI, he told John Schneider that he planned to make his next start as “all the testing and stuff seemed pretty positive,” the manager said. The Blue Jays will obviously wait for the results before making a final call, but there’s trust in the way he knows his body as the 30-year-old right-hander has made 30-plus starts in each of the past five seasons.
That’s why Schneider stuck with Cease when he first started shaking out his left leg after an 0-1 curveball Horwitz — “a guy with his track record, he understands how he feels and what feels like what.”
On the next pitch, the Pirates first baseman lined out softly to second, but two pitches to Brandon Lowe later, the right-hander was again shaking out his leg and that was his day.
Guerrero at first feared for the worst for Cease, “but when I came inside and talked with him, he said it’s just a little bit of a cramp, so everything is going to be good. He said he feels good, but sometimes you’ve got to listen to your body. I think he did a good job being smart and not keep pushing it and making it worse.”
The same applies to Guerrero, who was hit in nearly the same spot by Tanner Bibee in Cleveland last July 26 and experienced a similar numbness. He played the next day in Boston, collecting two hits, and is hopeful of doing the same now, even if shortly after the game he didn’t yet have a full range of motion in his elbow.
“Right now, it hurts,” said Guerrero, whose mind was eased when he passed initial testing before the X-ray. “But I’m going to take it day-by-day, see how it is (Monday).”
Backfilling for either would have been complicated for the Blue Jays.
In the rotation, they are already extending Spencer Miles to cover one spot, and the consistent length provided by both Cease and Kevin Gausman has been instrumental in resetting the bullpen to make it all work. They don’t have any obvious options to come up and make even a spot start.
Any downtime for Guerrero, meanwhile, even on a day-to-day basis, means relying either on the slumping Lenyn Sosa, who is in a 3-for-37 rut dating to May 3, or juggling the infield to use Davis Schneider, who has only nine hits but 17 walks this season. An injured list stint would be even more difficult to cover, although third baseman Charles McAdoo, who’s also had reps at first and, recently, second, would make an interesting option.
For the time being, the Blue Jays appear to have avoided the need for that, and instead can focus on resetting for the Miami Marlins, who arrive Monday for the first of three to close out the homestand.
Despite being down 2-1 when Cease and Guerrero left the game, the Blue Jays certainly had their chances to complete a sweep of the Pirates, even after Chase Lee gave up a two-run homer to rookie Esmerlyn Valdez in the sixth. But a 1-for-12 day with runners in scoring position — Ernie Clement’s two-out single in the fourth being the only damage — only added to frustration.
“They scored on a few homers and if you're not going to hit those, you've got to get the timely hit. Today that just wasn't the case minus Ern scrapping that run across. Just wasn't our day. Didn't really do much," Schneider said.
Kazuma Okamoto ended an 0-for-18 slide — part of a wider 2-for-34 stretch with 18 strikeouts over his previous 10 games — with a double in the second, making an adjustment with his hands to keep himself from flying open in the batter’s box.
While he wasn’t ready to credit the liner off the right-field wall to his slight change, he was relieved both Guerrero and Cease avoided being seriously hurt. In the moment, “obviously it's tough seeing them come out of the game like that,” he said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “But the guys that are here have just got to step up, next-man-up mentality, that's all we can do. That's what a team is.”
For Schneider, on the mound when Cease left and walking alongside Guerrero as he came off, the uncertainty about their status meant compartmentalization in real time.
“You kind of have to,” he said. “It's in the back a little bit, when you get a couple star players coming out in the fifth inning. But I always say, the game doesn't really wait for anyone, you've got to just be where you are. So you kind of just go, 'OK, who's coming in? How are we going to match up? Who's available?' All that kind of stuff. Our team, our trainers do a great job keeping me updated, so I know it's coming at some point. And, when that comes, you hold your breath for some good news. In between, you just kind of shut it off and figure out a way to win the game.”
Good news eventually arrived. A win, on the other hand, did not.
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