The Blue Jays’ sloppy defense and change in pitching plan contribute to a tough loss to Rays

TORONTO — The Toronto Blue Jays’ best pitching plans fell apart around 2 a.m. when Alek Manoah contacted head coach Jose Ministral and said he was struggling with what interim manager John Schneider called “a stomach issue.”

Since the right-hander was set to start the opening game of a day-night doubleheader against the Tampa Bay Rays, that wasn’t ideal. The club’s strategy for the day depended on Manoah getting deep in the first game with a bullpen game built around Mitch White and carrying some mass in the second. A nocturnal/early morning scramble ensued.

“It’s a close-knit group that communicates on the phone and then meets when we’re here,” Schneider said of the sudden hiring. “You have many different options that are mapped out. It’s nice that we have the depth on many sides of the ball that we have at the major league level, so we’re trying to put the best pieces together as best we can.

Their construct, Julian Merryweather, ideally playing two innings as the opening game for White they wanted to extend, didn’t go to plan and some sloppy plays on the field also contributed to a 4-2 loss to the Rays on Tuesday afternoon.

Merryweather allowed back-to-back singles to open the game and Yandy Diaz finally crossed when Randy Arozarena took down a potential inning-ending double play at first base while White was burned in the third by a three-pointer thrown by some avoidables error was fueled.

White managed to throw six frames for a season high, pivotal to uncertainty as to whether Manoah would be well enough to start the backend, which he will do after recovering later in the day. But two moments in the third inning were hard for the Blue Jays to take:

• Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who didn’t put his foot on the bag to get a relay from Santiago Espinal after the second baseman made a great dive play on a Jonathan Aranda grounder, and then didn’t get a toe on base in time and she charged without off;

• Arozarena slowed as he went from first to third on a single from Manuel Margot that deflected off Matt Chapman’s glove, lulled Teoscar Hernandez to sleep as he got the ball back into infield, then charged home , resulting in an air throw to the plate and a demoralizing fourth run.

Playing better, the Blue Jays only allow one run that inning instead of three, a major reason the Blue Jays (79-62) trailed the Rays (79-61) by a half game in the wildcard race.

“That’s how (the Rays) play and you have to try to stay up front,” said Schneider. “Hopefully people learn from that and it doesn’t happen again. But we know enough of this team to know.” If you give them extra outs, they usually make you pay. Hopefully we tighten it up starting tonight and the rest of the series.

Opportunistic execution led to all four runs at Tampa Bay as they went 2-0 up as Arozarena smashed another potential double-play ball after Aranda made it 2-0 and followed David Peralta with a flyball to the left , who covered Wander Franco.

Arozarena was an absolute chaos agent in that third inning, twice thwarting steal attempts with batter interference calls before skillfully exploiting Hernandez on Margot’s base hit.

“Sometimes he’s his own third base coach, manager and he’s invisible,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said of the dynamic outfielder.

With Rays starter Jeffrey Springs picking the Blue Jays apart for six innings — a major contribution for a Tampa Bay bullpen who had carried a heavy load for the past three days — there wasn’t much for a crowd of 23,497 to think about one could fuss up a two-place in the seventh.

Shawn Armstrong, who survived a two-one-one-out jam unscathed in the seventh, wasn’t so lucky in the eighth as Guerrero and Bo Bichette opened the inning with back-to-back singles and Alejandro Kirk’s comebacker gave a run-in and mate Chapman’s base hit another.

Cash turned to closer Pete Fairbanks at that point, and he put Danny Jansen on sharp ground to end the inning before ending things in the ninth for his seventh save. The laser-firing right-hander hasn’t conceded a run in his last 18 games after sidestepping a one-off Raimel Tapia single and catcher interference against George Springer by beating Guerrero and winning a highly dramatic 11-pitch duel with Bichette. causing a game-ending Grounder to go first.

“He was on his toes and it was impressive to watch him do it,” said Fairbanks. “And so I try to attack in the strike zone for as long as possible. One of us will eventually win it. Today we get a groundout to get out of there.”

The effort from White, who rushed to the stadium after a 10 a.m. call about the pitch change, meant the Blue Jays only had to field two relievers and marked a major turnaround from the 18 runs used in his three previous starts were allowed, which led to his demotion. He was brought back when he was 29^th Man for the doubleheader and has to be sent back down afterwards and, barring an injury, cannot be recalled until September 22nd.

The Blue Jays have a hole in their rotation Friday — another bullpen game is likely — but then won’t need a fifth starter until Sept. 24 in Tampa Bay. Anyway, White’s work with pitching coach Pete Walker and Kevin Gausman, who he said was “great,” should help him the next time he’s needed, with a focus on “just sort of simplifying.” of the things”.

“What[Gausman]said is 80 percent. Nice and smooth and simple,” White continued. “I got myself into trouble trying to fall on this last outing and the few previous ones because I was trying to do too much. Today it was about speed and rhythm, nice and easy at 80 percent. …

“Most of it is just thinking. It throws me mechanically off balance,” he continued. “If I’m calm and in rhythm and attacking the zone, then it’s fine. Maybe a handful of two strike pitches that I’ll expand on, but every single pitch was like, alright, I’ll throw that in the zone.

His longest outing since joining the Blue Jays at the close of trade largely erased the possibility that they might need to field some helpers on either end of the doubleheader, although Schneider previously said “if needed, those plans have already begun.”

Bullpen coach Matt Buschmann said using someone from the bullpen twice a day is very doable, especially with relievers throwing daily before the game. Given that this happens about 4 to 5 hours before they work in the following game, “it’s not uncommon for them to throw, relax, and then build back up to throw on the same day,” he explained.

Between games, the Blue Jays planned to review everyone’s throwing load, “which we can track in a variety of ways,” Buschmann said, and if someone got the green light, “you’d pull through the outing, recover a bit, and then basically go to the.” second game as if the inning of the first game was catch.”

Manoah wasn’t in the clubhouse before the first game as the Blue Jays tried to “give him a little bit more time to drink, rest and hopefully get ready for Game 2,” Schneider said in the morning.

That’s what happened.

“He feels good,” said Schneider after the defeat. “I expect a normal outing for him. I’m feeling a lot better so just ride it out like we always do.”