Jays hope series win sparks playoff push
The next five weeks will determine whether it is too little or too late, but the rallying cry came late Saturday night in bold words from rookie Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Alek Manoah.
“This is a time where we’re either planning vacations or making that push,” the big righthander said. “I think the guys want to make a push. Hopefully, we can get on a roll right and go win a ton of ball games.”
You can’t win a ton until you take the first two, of course, but with a 2-1 win over the Detroit Tigers on Sunday, the Jays at least have something with which to work.
The matinee win at Detroit’s Comerica Park gave the Jays their first series win in their past six and with the lowly Baltimore Orioles coming to the Rogers Centre for three, could this be a start?
The Jays will take whatever celebrations they can for now and on Sunday that included the traditional beer showers for rookie Kevin Smith (whose first big-league homer was the game winner) and reliever Tim Mayza (who retired the last four Tigers hitters for his first career save).
“(George) Springer threw me in the shower and the boys were throwing whatever they could at us,” Smith said. “I just kept my head down and wore whatever was coming.
“The boys were having a little fun right there and hopefully, we can bring that back and have a good homestand.”
Nothing triggers the fun meter with this team more than the offence pounding out runs and until that happens, it’s hard to envision a serious push to the playoffs. But on another day when they couldn’t cash in baserunners, at least the Jays got a stellar effort from starter Jose Berrios, who rebounded from an ugly outing that lasted just three innings.
Working with Pete Walker over the previous five days, Berrios altered his delivery and showed the shutdown ability the Jays went shopping for at the deadline.
“He was the Berrios we expected when we made the trade,” manager Charlie Montoyo said. “He was very good. He was on the whole time, from the first pitch.”
Going seven complete — his longest outing as a Jay — Berrios had much better command than he had in his previous two starts, striking out 11 and not allowing an earned run
The Jays’ offence continued to struggle overall, however, relying on a pair of solo home runs for all of its scoring.
Shortstop Bo Bichette got it started in the first inning with his 21st homer of the year but first since Aug. 5, while Smith belted his out to deep centre in the fourth — for now a little victory that the Jays hope will be the start of something big.
“It’s nail-biters every day and we’re winning with defence and pitching,” Montoyo said. “We know we’re better than what we’re doing at the plate. It’s going to come and when it does, it’s going to be a lot of fun for this team.”
PAIN IN THE RAIN
The Jays’ coaching staff was incensed with the way the Tigers handled a brief rain shower, a move that certainly smelled like a ploy to throw off the efficient rhythm of Berrios.
When brief rain hit Comerica in the fifth inning, the grounds crew couldn’t get the tarp on the field fast enough, even though the showers had stopped by the time it was rolled out.
It didn’t come off nearly as fast, of course, resulting in a 25-minute rain delay.
TV footage showed Montoyo and Walker were livid with the shenanigans and no doubt felt it was a suspicious development at best.
“The umps left the field and we were wondering what just happened here,” Montoyo said. “There was no communication the whole time.
“I was upset because I didn’t know what happened and we had a pitcher who was dealing and then it stopped raining. It didn’t last very long.”
SAME OLD, SAME OLD
The Jays’ inability to cash in runners in scoring position has gone beyond your run-of-themill slump.
At the end of seven on Sunday, the Jays had scored just two runs and were 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position, an all too familiar inefficiency.
Sunday’s worst example came in the seventh, when the Jays loaded the bases with none out and a 2-1 lead. Guaranteed opportunity for an insurance run, right?
Instead, stone-cold Teoscar Hernandez was retired with a shallow fly ball to centre and not so fleet of foot Alejandro Kirk grounded into a double-play and that was that.
The recent struggles intensified for Hernandez, who also struck out with runners on the corners in the third — his 13th strikeout in his past eight games.
The Jays’ cleanup hitter, who like many of his teammates was on fire earlier in the summer, has gone 10 games without an RBI.
How dire is the offence getting overall?
The Jays have now scored three runs or fewer in nine of their past 10 games. On Sunday, the Jays had 10 hits and six walks and managed just two runs.