CHICAGO – Fill in the blank, John Schneider: Playing a doubleheader is …
“Tough,” said the Toronto Blue Jays manager. “The mindset is you’ve got two games to play and you’ve got to really compartmentalize each one. It’s tough on a few guys physically that play both. It just seems like you’re always happy with a split, it feels like, it’s tough to sweep them for whatever reason, whether that’s momentum or just flow of the game. But obviously, the goal is to win both. It’s more mentally locking it in for two nine-inning games.”
Well, the Blue Jays gave themselves a shot at a sweep Wednesday afternoon, breaking through with a six-spot in the 11th for a 6-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox after Jose Berrios, Lance Lynn and the bullpens dominated both offences in the previous 10 frames.
Danny Jansen, pinch-hitting for Kevin Kiermaier after Alejandro Kirk struck out to open the decisive inning, got the rally going with a 68.4 m.p.h. roller down the third-base line that couldn’t have been more perfectly placed.
George Springer broke the dam with a groundball single up the middle that opened the scoring, Bo Bichette chopped a ball through the right side to make it 2-0, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. ripped one through the 5-6 hole to bring a third run while Daulton Varsho’s bunt single made it 4-0 and ended Aaron Bummer’s day.
Bryan Shaw took over and one out after Matt Chapman hit the inning’s third infield single, Cavan Biggio ripped a two-run double that really pushed the game out of reach.
The outburst prompted the Blue Jays to use Thomas Hatch in the bottom half, but he ate into the padding provided by the offence immediately, giving up an RBI double to Oscar Colas and RBI single to Andrew Vaughn and exiting after a one-out walk to Andrew Benintendi.
Yimi Garcia took over and locked things down for his first save.
Yusei Kikuchi starts the second game against opener Jesse Scholtens.
Berrios and Lynn, set to face off Tuesday night before rain forced a postponement that set up Wednesday’s twin-bill, duelled for seven impressive innings, each allowing just one hit and one walk while overwhelming opposition batters.
“I was trying to do my best, trying to (throw) quality pitches the way I did and we held the game 0-0, he pitched well, and I did too,” said Berrios. “That’s baseball and at the end of the day we came out with a win.”
Berrios began his outing by walking Andrew Benintendi, retired his next seven batters until an Elvis Andrus single in the third and then sat down 12 of his final 13 batters, only Andrus reaching on a Cavan Biggio error in the sixth.
Lynn, who struck out a franchise record-tying 16 on June 18 at Seattle, was similarly mesmerizing before a sparse gathering at Guaranteed Rate Field. Despite a fastball that averaged only 92.6 m.p.h., he consistently beat Blue Jays hitters with it, getting 12 of his 25 whiffs with his four-seamer, while also utilizing his cutter (seven whiffs on 14 swings) to great effect.
The only hit against him was a one-out Springer single in the third, which came after a Kirk walk and Kiermaier fielder’s choice, but Bichette promptly struck out before a Brandon Belt groundout ended the threat.
Berrios is now done for the first half, a fifth outing of seven innings or more capping a strong rebound in which he posted a 3.50 ERA in 108 innings over 18 starts, with 101 strikeouts and a 1.14 WHIP. Last year, he finished with a 5.23 ERA over 172 innings in 32 starts, prone to blowing up early, lasting less than five innings eight times, something that bothered him most about his 2022. It’s only happened twice in 2023.
Not making it through five innings so often a year ago, “I’m not helping my team, I wasn’t able to save our bullpen guys,” said Berrios. “This year so far I’ve been doing that, so I feel really happy about it.
“The way that I’ve been working so far, all that hard work has been paying off. But we’re not done yet. We want to try to shut down a bit this all-star break, get that second (wind) and come ready for the second half.”
