TORONTO — This weekend is an opportunity for the Toronto Blue Jays to focus the rest of the regular season on what’s ahead, not what’s behind. A chance to help ensure the October 3-5 rematch against this Baltimore Orioles set is nothing more.
As their rotation unfolds after another bullpen game – aided by two homers from Matt Chapman and a three-pointer from George Springer – in Friday’s 6-3 win, both Alek Manoah and Kevin Gausman may be available for that tight set at Camden Yards.
That’s great, possibly far better for the Blue Jays (82-63), now six games ahead of the fourth-place Orioles (75-68) and 1.5 games ahead of the third-place Tampa Bay Rays (80-64) in the wild Card Scoring, ensures their dominant front two are rested and ready to serve in the first round of the playoffs beginning October 7th.
They managed the split from the upstart Orioles by taking three out of four in Baltimore Sept. 5-7, and while it’s dangerous to look too far ahead, the Blue Jays will make their lives much easier for the rest , if they capitalize on this series the campaign and beyond.
“Obviously every game matters – you’re playing against your own division, but not only that, the calendar, there’s only so many games left so it’s hard to catch up,” Chapman said. “Any opportunity we can get to win a game, whether it’s parting ways with Baltimore or putting pressure on the teams that are right there in the mix with us, is huge. This series is definitely important because if we continue to take care of the business it just gives us more space.”
A third day of bullpening in the last two weeks without Mitch White’s bulk inning outing in Tuesday’s doubleheader against the Tampa Bay Rays couldn’t have gone much better for the Blue Jays. Trevor Richards opened with a swipe to the side, Julian Merryweather followed with two clean frames and Chapman’s first homer, hit by Jordan Lyles in the second, opened a 1-0 lead.
Yusei Kikuchi, who nearly wrote the script, took over in the fourth, immediately allowing a three-pointer from Cedric Mullins and a homer from Adleyrutschman, then settling to withdraw his next six batsmen, the latest outing from Jekyll and Hyde, which both annoying as well as fascinating.
That carried the Blue Jays through five frames and they took control in the lower part of the fifth when Lyles left a 3-2 curve ball down the middle and Springer rocked it over the wall to the left for a 4-2.
After Tim Mayza broke through the top of the Orioles Order, Chapman hammered a two-run shot over the wall on the left in the sixth and Adam Cimber, Anthony Bass and Yimi Garcia, allowing a solo shot from Gunnar Henderson in the ninth, closed things from there Out.
“For us, it’s you when the phone rings, so when you’re in the game you’re competing,” Richards said of the hiring. “(Bullpen days) are more on the coaching staff and they do a good job of communicating and planning things. That’s hard to cover a whole nine innings, and then you’ve got some yesterday, you’ve got some tomorrow. We’re more focused on the game tonight and when the phone rings, carry on you.”
The Blue Jays assists only allowed eight 26-inning runs during three bullpen games, necessitated by Kikuchi’s struggles as a starter and a lack of viable options to support a very strong front four. There will be no further gap in the rotation until September 24th in Tampa Bay, but White can be recalled until then.
“It’s a big job for them and they answered the bell,” interim manager John Schneider said. “Every time we’ve done it, they’ve all kind of looked forward to it and taken the challenge and made pitches, gone an extra inning, an extra out, whatever it is. You can’t say enough about how good they are and we’re doing our best to make sure the execution is there, but so is the right rest.”
Richards’ outing was particularly important as it wasn’t a lock he would hit after throwing 29 pitches in a mop-up outing that went awry in Thursday’s 11-0 loss to the Rays. He conceded five runs with three hits and two walks in the ninth inning, needed David Phelps to save him and then rebounded to push against the Orioles.
“Baseball is crazy, isn’t it? Yesterday I couldn’t hit water when I fell out of a boat. Today it’s just crazy how things are changing,” Richards said. “I just wanted to focus on chasing batsmen and setting the tone.”
The Orioles have lost for the seventh time in 11 games since they crawled for the final wildcard spot within 1.5 games behind the Blue Jays earlier in the month, perhaps a sign their rise from the doormat to relevance in this one season wears off.
Manager Brandon Hyde, a finalist for the job with the Blue Jays when Charlie Montoyo was hired in fall 2018, spoke before the game about how beneficial the experience will be for his current group, to a boisterous crowd at Rogers Center of 36,573 learned another lesson.
“These types of series are just different than the May or June series,” said Hyde, whose team will be a problem in the AL East for years to come. “Being able to play games like this gives me confidence for the future. That’s the big difference for us this year compared to last year, we have confidence, the lads have faith in their abilities, the lads have faith in each other. I feel like that changed a bit in May and we just stayed that way the whole time. And you add Gunnar who is a confident dude and extremely talented, the more games you can play in games like this the better.
The Blue Jays learned last year. They want to do a lot more this time around and prepare as best they can for a wildcard streak that will be tough no matter which opponent will be crucial in that regard.
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