TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays suffered arguably their worst loss of the season on Sunday against the Cleveland Guardians and afterward, Blue Jays manager John Schneider used an expletive to describe the extra-innings let down.
We won’t get into specifics, but let’s just say his wording loosely involved a toilet. And to their credit, the Blue Jays did their best to flush that on Monday. The offence produced strong at-bats up and down the lineup, Kevin Gausman grinded his way through five innings and the bullpen was flawless as the Blue Jays defeated the Washington Nationals 6-3 in the opener of a three-game set at Rogers Centre.
The win allowed the Blue Jays to keep pace with the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros, who both won on Monday, leaving Toronto 2.5 games behind the final wild card spot.
Over the weekend, Schneider talked about messaging given to Blue Jays hitters. They needed to “swing with intention,” he said, and on Monday, that approach seemed to manifest.
The Blue Jays loaded the bases in the first inning and while they didn’t score there, they jumped on Nationals starter Josiah Gray in the second, tagging the right-hander for four runs. Danny Jansen walked and scored on George Springer’s RBI single to left field and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed that with a two-run double off the right-centre field wall. Davis Schneider — batting in the cleanup spot — added an RBI single to push the score to 4-1.
Jansen added to the run parade in the third frame when he cranked a homer 105.7 m.p.h. into the second deck in left field. The Blue Jays catcher also walked twice and scored three runs.
“These dudes can do damage when they get the ball in the right part of the zone,” Schneider said. “You start with the George knock with two strikes. Davis with the knock with two strikes. Jano homer, Vladdy double. I like it. That’s been the message to where it’s, ‘Get a pitch in the zone where you can do damage.’ It’s, ‘Do it,’ it’s, ‘Be aggressive and try to impact the ball.’”
Jansen’s home run was his 16th of the season — a new career high.
“It’s definitely a cool milestone for myself,” Jansen said. “Definitely proud of it for sure. I’m just hoping to keep building off it and not trying to really chase home runs and just trying to chase barrels and good at-bats and see what happens from there.”
Nationals hitters worked Gausman into deep counts early in the game, running up the pitch count of the Blue Jays right-hander. Gausman allowed a single to CJ Abrams to open the fifth inning and then hit Lane Thomas. The two executed a double steal and were cashed in on a double by Joey Meneses, who collected all three of the Nats’ RBIs on the night.
“I got lucky that I was able to go five [innings],” Gausman said, noting that he was having trouble with his delivery. “They did a really good job of grinding out at-bats and laid off a lot of really good splitters. Pre-game, [I had] probably [some] of my best stuff. Got a little out of my delivery during that outing. It definitely wasn’t my sharpest of the season but we made big pitches to get out of some jams.
“And I thought [Jansen] called a hell of a game and blocked some big pitches in some big spots. But, just too many deep counts, too many two-strike hits, too many 3-2 counts. Just not very sharp tonight.”
In total, Gausman allowed three runs on five hits over seven innings, walking two and striking out seven to improve his AL-leading strikeout total to 202. And while the pitcher was hard on himself afterward, his manager offered praise.
“Two hundred strikeouts before September is really damn impressive,” said Schneider.
Gausman tossed 99 pitches in the outing and generated 15 whiffs — five off his fastball and 10 with his splitter. The right-hander’s velocity was up across the board, with his four-seamer topping out at 97.7 m.p.h. and averaging 95.2.
Trevor Richards, Genesis Cabrera and Jordan Hicks combined to toss four perfect innings to preserve Gausman’s 10th win of the season.
The defence behind Blue Jays pitchers looked considerably different on Monday, with the Blue Jays playing without the regular left side of their infield.
Shortstop Bo Bichette, who was removed from Sunday’s game with right quad tightness, was not in the lineup and was set to undergo an MRI on Monday. Meanwhile, third baseman Matt Chapman was placed on the 10-day injured list before the game with a right middle finger sprain.
The Blue Jays called up Ernie Clement and started him at short, while Davis Schneider manned third base. Whit Merrifield and, surprisingly, Guerrero Jr. both took ground balls at third base prior to the game. The first baseman likely won’t start at third but could be moved there during a game if needed.
“It’s all hands on deck,” John Schneider said before the game. “You try to take positives out of it, right? It’s opportunities for guys to play who haven’t been playing as much. It’s opportunities for guys to play in spots that they’re maybe not as comfortable with, but it’s going to be grimy, it’s going to be dirty, it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be different than what we’re used to, running out the same guys out for basically five months.
“So, you got to look at it as an opportunity for guys to step up and you get creative when you have to.”
With exactly 30 games remaining in the schedule, the mantra of “All hands on deck” has been received in the Blue Jays’ clubhouse, according to Jansen.
“That was definitely the message today,” he said. “‘We’re going to be mixing and matching guys and everybody ready to play,’ and all that stuff. [Bichette and Chapman] are obviously huge pieces of our team, but it’s awesome to see the contributions of everybody.
“That’s what it’s going to take.”
