TORONTO — If we’re being objective about this, we should do away with the idea that good teams don’t make mistakes. If you play enough games, your players will make mistakes, even at the highest level. The New York Yankees could certainly attest to that after blowing a 7-4 lead to their crosstown rivals Thursday afternoon.
And if the Yankees — a team that won 103 games last year without Gerrit Cole – are going to make mistakes, then we shouldn’t expect flawless baseball from anyone else. Like, for example, the Toronto Blue Jays.
On Thursday evening, the Blue Jays had a chance to take advantage of the Mets’ comeback and draw even with the Yankees in the standings. It took them more than four hours, and there were many frustrating moments along the way, but the Blue Jays eventually beat the Red Sox 6-2 in 10 innings. To this point in the season, the Blue Jays and Yankees have identical 20-16 records.
Thanks to some strong pitching, the Blue Jays stayed in the game long enough to overcome some missed opportunities. First, starter Taijuan Walker came through with his second effective start since joining the Blue Jays last week. Then, the Blue Jays’ bullpen kept things close with some fine work from Anthony Kay, Thomas Hatch, Ryan Borucki and Rafael Dolis.
Finally, Teoscar Hernandez gave the Blue Jays the offence they’d been waiting for. With two on in the top of the tenth inning, Hernandez hit a three-run, opposite-field home run to give the Blue Jays the lead.
“That was huge,” Walker said. “He’s one of the hottest hitters in baseball now. He came up big for us.”
Hernandez now has 13 home runs on the season, tied for the MLB lead.
“I feel pretty good right now,” he acknowledged.
Still, the Blue Jays got in their own way Thursday. The most obvious mistake occurred in the top of the fourth inning with the Blue Jays trailing 1-0. A Lourdes Gurriel Jr. pop up dropped in shallow right field, allowing Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to reach third with two outs. But instead of holding at third, Guerrero Jr. bolted home, where second baseman Michael Chavis threw him out by a wide margin.
“When you get thrown out by that far, it’s a bad decision,” manager Charlie Montoyo acknowledged.
It’s the kind of mistake that has become far too common for the Blue Jays, who have made more outs on the bases than any team in baseball. Given that Guerrero Jr.’s not a burner, he’s better off staying at third there, just as he would have been better off staying at second Tuesday, when the Marlins picked him off.
At the same time, these mistakes stand out more than usual at a time that the Blue Jays lead MLB in one-run games. And as Montoyo says, they don’t stem from a lack of effort. To some extent, they’re a byproduct of a team learning on the fly.
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“We’re still developing, even though we’re in the big-leagues,” Montoyo explained before the game. “We’ve got a lot of young kids. Just because they’re in the big-leagues, you’ve got to keep developing and you’ve got to keep teaching.”
And if the same mistake happens again?
“Just because you’ve said it once, if they make the same mistake, you’ve got to say it again until it gets better.”
At the plate, the Blue Jays started slowly Thursday. Red Sox starter Martin Perez held the Blue Jays hitless until the seventh when Joe Panik worked a tough at-bat against the left-hander and hit an RBI single into right field.
The next inning, the Blue Jays tied the game 2-2 when Cavan Biggio scored thanks to a balk and a wild pitch from Red Sox reliever Ryan Brasier. They had a chance to do even more with Randal Grichuk at third base and nobody out, but Brasier escaped.
Meanwhile, Walker’s second Blue Jays start was nearly as effective as his first. He allowed just two earned runs over 5.2 innings of work, and the second of those runs came on a Kay walk after Walker had left the game with the bases loaded.
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“I hate coming out of the game,” Walker said. “I never like coming out of the game, but Kay did a great job limiting damage and escaping that with just the one run.”
While it was a frustrating way for the outing to end, there’s no denying that Walker did his part to keep the Red Sox off-balance most of the night. At this point he looks like their second-best starter behind only Hyun-Jin Ryu.
Considering the Blue Jays have drawn even with the Yankees with just a few weeks remaining in the season, the playoffs look less like a nice ‘what-if’ and more like a realistic outcome. At some point this month, the Blue Jays would love to be thinking seriously about a playoff rotation. At this rate, maybe Ryu and Walker will front it.
Regardless, there’s plenty of talent on this team, in both its pitching and position players. Yet games like this show there’s development remaining, too. The more lessons the Blue Jays can learn on the fly, the better their chances of letting their talent shine.
“It comes down to the little things,” Walker said. “It comes down to smart baserunning, smart plays, good pitching. It’s definitely exciting and we can use that to our advantage, but we can’t look too far ahead.”
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