NEW YORK – Baseball’s maddening nature is such that a talented team can appear utterly befuddled at the plate or on the mound for an extended period, have a good game, and then suddenly find its form as if a switch was flipped.
Perhaps the Toronto Blue Jays are experiencing such a turn of fortune, although at two straight wins after Thursday night’s 9-2 smackdown of the New York Yankees, they are by no means out of the woods just yet.
Still, it’s hard to reconcile just how different they looked in beating down the American League East leaders compared to a 4-2 loss to the Baltimore Orioles two nights earlier. In that game, their approach at the plate was inconsistent and uncertain, Alek Manoah was seemingly facing both the Orioles and an inevitability of something going wrong, and the collective frustration was palpable. Catharsis arrived during a 6-1 win Wednesday over the Orioles thanks to a six-run seventh inning, breaking a 0-0 tie and ensuring a brilliant outing from Ross Stripling didn’t go to waste.
The question Thursday was whether the good vibes would carry over with them to the Bronx, or whether the Yankees, 8-7 winners Wednesday over the Tampa Bay Rays on Josh Donaldson’s walk-off grand slam, would maintain the feels.
Right from the jump the Blue Jays seized control against Frankie Montas, whom the Yankees outbid them for prior to the trade deadline, building a comfortable lead with a five-run second in support of Jose Berrios, who was at his dominant best over 6.2 innings. George Springer was a catalyst all night with five hits, including a pivotal two-out RBI single in the second that made it a 2-0 lead and preceded Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s three-run shot.
The offence kept pouring it on from there, Alejandro Kirk ripping an RBI double in the fifth and adding a sacrifice fly in the seventh ahead of a two-run double by Teoscar Hernandez. Every starter reached base and six different players crossed the plate.
At 15 runs combined in the two wins, the Blue Jays outproduced their previous six outings, in which they totalled only 14 runs. They had enough breathing room to let Yusei Kikuchi make his relief debut and after allowing the first two batters to reach, he retired the next three to escape the eighth.
All the offence was plenty for Berrios, who limited the damage during a messy third that had all kinds of here-we-go-again potential with the type of steeliness that’s waned for him in this unusual season. He got himself into trouble by walking Jose Trevino and hitting Estevan Florial to open the inning and then allowed a run to cross when he threw away DJ LeMahieu’s infield single.
Berrios steadied right after, holding Aaron Judge to a run-scoring fielder’s choice before striking out Anthony Rizzo and inducing a Donaldson fly out. He wasn’t threatened again from there, leaving a restless crowd of 41,419 to vent its disappointment at the Yankees.
Now, for the Blue Jays to maintain an extended run, they’ll need plenty more outings like this one from Berrios, who’s had a Jekyll-and-Hyde year with 16 starts of three runs or less and seven starts of five runs or more in 24 outings.
The degree of variance has caused much head scratching among coaches and staff, who have been unable to identify any significant changes that would explain the swings. No matter, outings such as this one are what Berrios is capable of on the regular and if he rights himself, the Blue Jays can really take off.
In syncing up with a resurgent offence, the Blue Jays made sure Wednesday’s pressure-easing win was a stepping stone and not a respite.
“That’s what baseball is, right? Momentum and ups and downs,” interim manager John Schneider said before the game. “You worry about yourself first and foremost and not worrying about what the other team’s doing or if they’re doing well or if they’re doing poorly. So build off (Wednesday) in that inning and sticking with that kind of approach. It was great to have that. George said it (Wednesday), it kind of just makes you remember that, man, we could do this at any given moment. Hopefully it carries over.”
