BALTIMORE – A day-night doubleheader in the clothes-soaking Maryland heat, immediately after a short outing by a starting pitcher, on the back-end of 14 games in 13 days, all as the trade deadline looms, is a pretty stern test of a team’s pitching depth.
And so the Toronto Blue Jays dug back into a 40-man roster featuring an astonishing 37 players that have seen big-league time this season Tuesday morning, recalling Easton Lucas for fellow lefty Justin Bruihl while naming Lazardo Estrada the 27th man for their double date against the Baltimore Orioles.
Needing both quantity and quality, the Blue Jays got far more of the former than the latter in a 16-4 beatdown, dropping a third straight game for the first time since they were swept at the Philadelphia Phillies June 13-15.
Down George Springer, who wasn’t in the lineup although he was said to be feeling better in the morning after taking a pitch off the side of the head Monday, Lucas started the opener and surrendered four runs over 2.2 innings, all on sacrifice flies, although he managed to keep the game from fully unravelling.
Estrada followed and was clean for 2.1 innings before coming undone during a six-run sixth, highlighted by Canadian Tyler O’Neill’s three-run homer and Ramon Urias’ solo shot right after, all after the Blue Jays squandered chances to tie a 4-3 game against trade candidate Charlie Morton in three consecutive innings.
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The Blue Jays and Orioles play a doubleheader on Tuesday at Camden Yards. Catch Game 2 at 6:30 p.m. ET / 3:30 p.m. PT on Sportsnet or Sportsnet+.
That made for three save-up-for-salvage-mode innings to close things out – Gunnar Henderson added another three-run shot and Urias a solo shot in the seventh to extend Chad Green’s ongoing struggles – leaving Eric Lauer needing to get deep to save the bullpen, let alone end a losing streak in the nightcap.
Paxton Schultz, expected to be activated off the injured list for the second game, will offer some protection, but the way the first two games of this series have gone underlines why the Blue Jays are prioritizing pitching before the July 31 cutoff.
Internally, Canadian lefty Adam Macko is the only available 40-man pitcher yet to see the majors – righty Jake Bloss is done for the year after reconstructive elbow surgery – so their own supply of arms is essentially exhausted. Already they’ve used 29 different pitchers, not including the three position players pressed into duty – including catcher Ali Sanchez handling the eighth Tuesday – making any little ripple an issue of deep concern.
Various industry sources have told colleague Ben Nicholson-Smith and myself that they are examining options across the trade market, linking them to everyone from starters Joe Ryan and Michael Soroka to relievers such as David Bednar, Phil Maton and Anthony Bender. That’s far from an exhaustive list and isn’t indicative of their preference list. And every team is engaging in some degree of value-gauging, but it is demonstrative of how the need is being viewed internally.
The Blue Jays are better set up on the positional side, having run through 21 different players so far this year, with Orelvis Martinez the only 40-man roster player yet to get called up.
Springer’s absence, along with that of Alejandro Kirk, certainly thins out the lineup but those concerns are, to a certain extent, mitigated by the pending return of Daulton Varsho, with Andres Gimenez on the horizon and Anthony Santander and his ailing shoulder a wild card.
The ability to dig so deep into their 40-man roster has been key to their success thus far, with rotation pillar Jose Berrios saying that “we understand we need all guys having success, putting all the little things together – that’s how we win ballgames.”
“Every guy in the clubhouse is being accountable and putting up a lot of big games for the team,” he said before the opener. “I think a lot of us learned that from last year. We know we’re not Superman, we’re not superheroes, we need everybody together playing well together. Our guys understand that and they’ve been playing for the team.”
The Blue Jays did much less of that in the opener:
• In the first, after Jordan Westburg’s leadoff double, Ramon Laureano followed by hitting a chopper to Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s right, which he fielded and immediately fired to third. Westburg paused and scrambled back to second ahead of Will Wagner’s relay, and instead of a runner on third one out, Lucas was first and second, none out.
• In the third, on Urias’ sacrifice fly to medium centre, Nathan Lukes threw home instead of third and Guerrero couldn’t cut it off, allowing Henderson to take third and score on Cedric Mullins’ second sac fly of the afternoon to make it 4-1.
• In the fourth, with runners on the corners and one out, Sanchez fouled off a first-pitch safety squeeze attempt, fouled off the next pitch and then struck out. Then, with Lukes down 1-2 in the count, the Blue Jays tried a delayed double steal, with Wanger pausing between first and second after drawing an Alex Jackson throw and Henderson relaying home in time to get Joey Loperfido, who jammed his left hand into Jackson’s block of the plate.
• In the fifth, Westburg losing Bichette’s pop-up in a tough sky put runners on the corners with two outs, but Morton rallied to strike out Addison Barger – who hit a two-run homer in the fourth – and keep the Orioles up.
