TORONTO — Up as the potential run during a sudden attempt at a seventh-inning rally, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., dug in for a fourth time against Shane Bieber and with the count 1-1, let a middle down fastball at 93.5 m.p.h. go by.
The ball barely popped Austin Hedges’ glove when the Toronto Blue Jays slugger whipped his bat through the zone, frustrated he let the pitch pass. Bieber then followed with a slider to the same spot, inducing a weak ground ball that ended the inning and preserved the lead.
It was a plate appearance symbolic of the Blue Jays as a whole right now, a team stuck between speeds, and the results are showing it. A 7-2 setback to the Cleveland Guardians on Sunday afternoon was a sixth loss in eight outings, with losses in consecutive series after splits in a pair of sets beforehand, all against fellow contenders.
The Blue Jays, now 61-52, haven’t won back-to-back August games and another tough week looms with the Baltimore Orioles, against whom they’re 2-4, arriving for three games beginning Monday before a four-game set at the New York Yankees, 4-8 thus far, right after.
A boost is expected Monday when George Springer is likely to be activated from the injured list while Ross Stripling is due to return for a start Wednesday, pushing Jose Berrios back a day to the opener in the Bronx, but neither will right things on their own.
Sunday’s loss, before a crowd of 41,002, was among the more frustrating recent losses, bled by a Cleveland team adept at delivering papercuts.
Kevin Gausman fell victim to that, allowing five runs in 4.2 innings, the four that followed Amed Rosario’s solo shot in the first inning each the by-product of BABIP blues.
Austin Hedges’ go-ahead RBI single in the second, for example, came on a blooper that dropped just in front of Raimel Tapia in centre field and then bounced over his head allowing Owen Miller to score from second.
In the third, a throwing error by Alejandro Kirk on Tyler Freeman’s stolen base put the third baseman on third and allowed him to score easily when Cavan Biggio didn’t get to a Hedges fly ball down the right-field line for a double.
In the fifth, a single by Josh Naylor of Mississauga, Ont., off a diving Whit Merrifield, deflected into centre and allowed Rosario, who’d advanced on a wild pitch, before a Miller double brought home the fifth run.
With tighter defence, the damage could easily have been far more limited and the game not quite as out of reach.
The Blue Jays did have their chances, tying the game 1-1 in the first on a Teoscar Hernandez RBI double that left men on second and third with one out, but Bieber recovered to strike out Matt Chapman before Naylor swallowed up a Tapia smash at 105.6 m.p.h. at first base.
Another chance to put up a crooked number came in the fifth when the Blue Jays again put men at second and third with one out, but Guerrero waved at a first pitch slider before again swinging at the pitch for a run-scoring groundout. Kirk then lined a ball to right-centre by Myles Straw just chased it down to end the inning.
