TORONTO – Well before the first spring training began, the pandemic hit and COVID-19 changed everything, Bo Bichette refused to accept the prevailing better-but-not-yet-ready narrative around the Toronto Blue Jays. The star shortstop told anyone who asked that he and his teammates would defy low expectations and surprise those who took them lightly.
That belief is why he chafed earlier this week when asked, had the Blue Jays been offered the scenario they’re in now – closing in on the eighth and final playoff spot in the American League in the last days of the campaign – how quickly he would have signed up for it, replying bluntly: “Not that fast.”
“We’ve played really well, but I think we could have played better,” Bichette continued. “I’m proud of the way we’ve battled this year under a lot of difficult circumstances. But this last week we’re just going to try to get a playoff spot. Like I’ve told you all along, we all expected to be here. So I don’t think we would’ve just ran at a chance for the eighth spot.”
At this point the eighth spot is most likely what’s left for the Blue Jays, as Tuesday night’s 12-1 thumping from the New York Yankees all but officially locked them into third place in the American League East. To have made a run at second in the division, they would have needed a sweep of the current four-game series between the clubs, but instead they’re now four games behind the Yankees with five games to play.
The Blue Jays also fell three games behind Cleveland – a 5-3 winner over the Chicago White Sox – for the second wild-card spot, while their magic number to clinch a post-season berth remained at three pending the Seattle-Houston game.
Locking that up remains their priority in the coming days, but the Blue Jays can also look to optimize themselves for a first-round playoff series, and experiment to see how some players could potentially fit their post-season roster.
To that end, another date with Gerrit Cole presented a chance to refine approach against the type of elite pitching they can expect to encounter on the regular in the playoffs.
Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo was thrilled with the plans his hitters employed in Monday’s series-opening win, saying, “The two-strike approach was outstanding. That was good to see, guys getting base hits, not striking out with two strikes. Hopefully that approach continues.”
It did, to some degree, against the ace right-hander, but he really didn’t give them much to work with, allowing only one run on five hits — one of them a Cavan Biggio solo shot in the fourth — over seven innings. He averaged 97.2 mph on a four-seam fastball he threw 50 times in 108 pitches, and with a vicious slider and curveball for hitters to worry about, too, it was not a fun night at the dish.
The Yankees, obviously, had a much happier go of it against Tanner Roark, bleeding out a pair in the first on a lucky-bounce triple by Aaron Hicks and a wild pitch, adding on another in the fourth before the game unravelled in a four-run fifth.
Roark was pulled after a one-out Aaron Judge RBI single and Thomas Hatch took damage for the fourth consecutive outing, allowing a two-run single to Hicks and another RBI single to Gleyber Torres before escaping the frame.
With Hyun-Jin Ryu, Taijuan Walker and Matt Shoemaker lined up to pitch the first three games of the post-season, Roark’s troubles are a secondary concern to those of the bullpen, which in many ways carried the Blue Jays to the position they’re in right now.
Hatch, who emerged as a trusted leverage arm, is suddenly hittable, which in the ongoing absence of Jordan Romano, who threw a bullpen Tuesday, is trouble. Meanwhile, once-reliable middle-innings reliever Wilmer Font is no longer fooling anyone.
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The decision to start Robbie Ray on Wednesday pushed Chase Anderson to the bullpen, and he dazzled for two innings, striking out five straight at one point, before coughing up a three-spot in the eighth. If he can be more like the guy in the first two innings, he’s someone to consider in short bursts.
The Blue Jays will need to sort out what recovering righties Romano, Nate Pearson and Julian Merryweather might offer, and the same goes for lefty Anthony Kay, optioned last week for a bit of a breather. Meanwhile, Rafael Dolis was unavailable due to a knee issue suffered in Philadelphia, and third baseman Travis Shaw was scratched with back spasms.
With the closing of the alternate training site in Rochester and the reduction to a 40-man post-season player pool, the Blue Jays now have everyone together for in-person assessments.
