TORONTO – The Toronto Blue Jays suffered arguably their worst loss of the season on Sunday against the Cleveland Guardians and afterward, Blue Jays manager John Schneider used an expletive to describe the extra-innings let down.
We won’t get into specifics, but let’s just say his wording loosely involved a toilet. And to their credit, the Blue Jays did their best to flush that on Monday. The offence produced strong at-bats up and down the lineup, Kevin Gausman grinded his way through five innings and the bullpen was flawless as the Blue Jays defeated the Washington Nationals 6-3 in the opener of a three-game set at Rogers Centre.
The Blue Jays jumped on Nationals starter Josiah Gray in the second inning, tagging the right-hander for four runs. Danny Jansen walked and scored on George Springer’s RBI single to left field to open the scoring for the home side. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed that with a two-run double off the right-centre field wall and Davis Schneider — batting in the cleanup spot — added an RBI single to push the score to 4-1.
Jansen added to the run parade in the third frame when he cranked his 16th homer of the season — a new career high — into the second deck in left field. The ball left his bat at 105.7 m.p.h and travelled 402 feet. The Blue Jays catcher also walked twice and scored three runs.
Nationals hitters worked Gausman into deep counts early in the game, running up the pitch count of the Blue Jays right-hander. Gausman allowed a single to CJ Abrams open the fifth inning and then hit Lane Thomas. The two executed a double steal and were cashed in on a double by Joey Meneses, who collected three RBIs on the night.
In total, Gausman allowed three runs on five hits over seven innings, walking two and striking out seven to improve his AL-leading strikeout total to 202. He tossed 99 pitches in the outing and generated 15 whiffs — five off his fastball and 10 with his splitter. The right-hander’s velocity was up across the board, with his four-seamer topping out at 97.7 m.p.h. and averaging 95.2.
Trevor Richards, Genesis Cabrera and Jordan Hicks combed to toss four hitless innings to preserve Gausman’s 10th win of the season.
The defence behind Blue Jays pitchers looked considerably different on Monday, with the Blue Jays playing without the regular left side of their infield.
Shortstop Bo Bichette, who was removed from Sunday’s game with right quad tightness, was not in the lineup and was set to undergo an MRI on Monday. Meanwhile, third baseman Matt Chapman was placed on the 10-day injured list before the game with a right middle finger sprain.
The Blue Jays called up Ernie Clement and started him at short, while Davis Schneider manned third base. Whit Merrifield and, surprisingly, Guerrero Jr. both took ground balls at third base prior to the game. The first baseman likely won’t start at third but could be moved there during a game if needed.
“It’s all hands on deck,” John Schneider said before the game. “You try to take positives out of it, right? It’s opportunities for guys to play who haven’t been playing as much. It’s opportunities for guys to play in spots that they’re maybe not as comfortable with, but it’s going to be grimy, it’s going to be dirty, it’s going to be hard. It’s going to be different than what we’re used to, running out the same guys out for basically five months.
“So, you got to look at it as an opportunity for guys to step up and you get creative when you have to.”
In other injury news, reliever Chad Green responded well to pitching in back-to-back games with triple-A Buffalo. He’ll throw again on Wednesday and if all goes well, join the team shortly after that.
