TORONTO — David Phelps walked into a bumpy Toronto Blue Jays clubhouse Saturday morning, saw a DJ spinning beats in the middle of the room, laughed and turned to Ross Stripling.
“Is that you?” the helper asked the starter.
“No, not me,” Stripling grinned.
Interim manager John Schneider was actually the culprit, inviting DJ Ray, a Blue Jays fan whom some staff members had met, to come in and “break up the day after a night game,” Schneider said.
It was pre-planned, a heads-up went to a few players ahead of time, and the playlist was open to requests.
“It’s fun to come to the clubhouse. It’s unexpected,” Phelps said. “Day games can be torture and it’s an attempt to boost energy. You walk in and there’s a DJ playing and you’re like, ‘Oh my goodness.’”
Vibes are important, and while events like this won’t be part of Schneider’s regular approach – this wasn’t a gateway to some of Joe Maddon’s crazy clubhouse stunts – it shows the vibe he’s trying to preserve.
“It was a first,” said Stripling, who allowed two runs over 4.1 innings in the subsequent 5-3 win over the Detroit Tigers. “This guy worked hard for a long time. I mean he was there from about 11 until the time we got on the field jamming. There was a point where I was the only one in the dressing room and he was just over there having a good time. It’s cool. Must have brought some energy. Everything he played was upbeat, so it was fun. …It will be interesting to see if we bring it back or not. We won. So he’s 1-0. ”
More importantly on the mood front, following Wednesday’s losses to St. Louis and Friday to the Tigers, the Blue Jays played music in the clubhouse after the game, albeit at a much lower volume and without the body-moving beats.
That’s a much more notable change, and one in stark contrast to the oppressively tense silence that followed the losses during the 1-9 stretch that led to Charlie Montoyo’s dismissal.
The Blue Jays are playing much better now, with Saturday’s win, their 11th win in their last 14 games. Phelps said Matt Chapman put the music on after the 6-1 setback against the Cardinals, “and I thought, yeah.”
“I never have a problem with music after the game, win/lose. I’m all for taking some time after the game to decompress and take stock of what that game was. But it helps keep it from getting bigger than it is,” Phelps explained. “Over the course of 162 you will lose games. Even after losses like this, if we can direct the good energy in a positive direction, it helps us not slide into something bigger.”
The Blue Jays played in front of 42,933 spectators this Saturday, even if it wasn’t the nicest afternoon.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. helped get them going in the first game by stealing second place after a base hit and then scoring on a base hit by Lourdes Gurriel Jr. to open the scoring. But Gurriel was thrown into second place when Bo slammed Bichette to finish first. The Tigers grabbed a pair in an odd fifth set set up by a Jonathan Schoop hit-by-pitch confirmed by replay after it initially led to a double play and extended their lead to 3-1 on a schoop RBI single in the sixth.
“I was surprised,” Stripling said of Schoop’s game being scored as a hit-by-pitch rather than a fair ball off the knob. “On the jumbotron they just showed this one (angle) that was impossible to see and then it got knocked over pretty quickly, so I feel like they must have seen something that was obvious it was a finger . I’ve seen a few reruns since then. Maybe I missed the one they were looking at because it looked like a knob to me. It sounded like a button. I mean, it came all the way back to me, right? It’s not like it just died in the box, so it hit something hard. Luck doesn’t turn into so much luck there.”
Schneider said, “If it came from his hand that hard back to the pitcher, he’s got a really strong pinky.”
Karmic payback perhaps came at the end of the sixth when Derek Law, part of Toronto’s 2019 teardown season, was unraveled. He gave the Blue Jays a big inning, which was hit in the left wrist by a fearsome Guerrero – “We’re dodging bullets left and right,” Schneider said – and a miss on a Gurriel comebacker.
Bo Bichette’s sacrifice fly cut Detroit’s lead to 3-2 before Teoscar Hernandez ended a 0-for-13 drought with a triple homer that made the difference.
The short leash on Stripling nearly backfired when Adam Cimber came on in the fifth with two ons, one outs and the game at 1-1, allowing a Riley Greene RBI double. The damage could have been worse, but Cimber’s misguided pickoff attempt at third base brought back a lucky shot to Chapman, who kicked Schoop out at home to limit the damage.
Yimi Garcia delivered 1.2 vital innings of tour de force relief before Jordan Romano finished the ninth for his 23rd save and recorded the finale on a 105.5 mph drive by Javy Baez who picked up Gurriel was caught against the left field wall. Kody Clemens also led from the inning at 100.8 mph down the middle.
The Blue Jays’ focus appears to be on the bullpen ahead of the Aug. 2 close as the market begins to tighten, and the feeling on the Tigers’ side of the field is that one or two of their helpers could cross the diamond. That doesn’t mean they will, but Joe Jimenez, Gregory Soto and Michael Fulmer provide the power/swing-and-miss the Blue Jays desperately need for games like this.
This time, on an afternoon when they were more opportunistic than at their best, all the pieces fell into place and helped keep the good spirits up and the music loud again after the game.
“Losing St. Louis after the run we had feels different. Guys are still loose. We don’t beat ourselves up afterwards,” Phelps said. “That just speaks to knowing that this season is a grind. We know we’re going to go through some really bad times when you’re about to play good baseball. You don’t want to overstate a loss. We will lose games. At the same time, if we can keep our spirit on Let’s Win Series, let’s keep the spirit we’re in right now, the biggest thing is not to let one loss carry over to others.”
They didn’t make it on Saturday and are now poised to win another series on Sunday.
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