TORONTO — The margins in the American League wild-card race are thin enough right now that the one-game swing between 10-5 and 9-6 through this just-concluded 15-game schedule soft spot for the Toronto Blue Jays makes a big difference.
They fell on the right side of that ledger Sunday thanks to a funky 5-2 victory that completed a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals. Jose Berríos shoved for seven innings while the offence was gifted a pair of runs on back-to-back walks and three consecutive wild pitches by Cole Ragans in the sixth before Kevin Kiermaier homered in the seventh to deliver the decisive blow.
Run-scoring singles by Santiago Espinal, on a clever bunt, and Cavan Biggio padded the lead in the eighth, helping send the Blue Jays (80-63) into a four-game series beginning Monday against the visiting Texas Rangers (77-64) in sole possession of the American League’s second wild card.
The Seattle Mariners (79-64), 6-3 losers at Tampa Bay, are a game back, while the Rangers (77-64) were two games back pending the result of their game Sunday with visiting Oakland.
It hasn’t always been pretty over the past 2½ weeks, but the Blue Jays have survived injuries to shortstop Bo Bichette, third baseman Matt Chapman, and catcher Danny Jansen to fight back from a 3.5-game deficit in the wild-card race to regain control of their fate.
“You find out who the gamers are in September,” said Keirmaier. “The teams who want it the most are going to get their foot in the door and win. What a great opportunity we have ahead of us.”
Without a doubt, but the final three weeks of the season may very well turn out to be the Blue Jays’ toughest. After the four games with the Rangers, the Boston Red Sox check in for three games before they face the Tampa Bay Rays and New York Yankees six times each, three at home, three away, to close out the campaign.
The true test, then, looms.
“We know who we’re playing. We know who we’re up against. We know the position we’re in, the position other teams are in, no doubt about it, but it’s not like we sit here and talk about it,” said Kiermaier, who feels the Blue Jays simply need to stay at their current level. “We know that we’ve got a really good thing going on right now. We’ve come with a lot more energy the last week and a half and played really well doing that. And it doesn’t matter who we are playing, we know that the more we win the better position we put ourselves in. It’s been an important stretch for a while now. It’s going to be like that until the last day of the season. I have all the confidence in the world in us and I love where everyone’s at right now.”
The Blue Jays were no lock to finish off the sweep.
Berríos cruised through the first five before Kyle Isbel opened the sixth with a triple. After Maikel Garcia walked and was thrown out trying to steal second, Bobby Witt Jr. hooked a changeup that ran back over the plate into the left-field corner for a double that opened the scoring.
Witt then proceeded to steal third, despite Berríos picking it up and throwing to second, sliding in ahead of the relay to third, and scored on Salvador Perez’s infield chopper.
Ragans, who had run his scoreless-innings streak to 26, looked set to make the 2-0 lead hold in the bottom half, getting George Springer to fly out and striking out Bichette, but chaos followed consecutive walks to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Davis Schneider.
On the first pitch to Alejandro Kirk, Ragans’ plant leg slipped and he sailed the ball to the backstop, allowing both runners to advance. After waving off training staff, his next pitch also went well over Perez, allowing Guerrero to come in. With a crowd of 35,275 roaring, Ragans again partially slipped on his third offering, again hitting the backstop, allowing Schneider to come in and tie the game.
Kiermaier’s homer followed in the seventh and after the add-on runs in the eighth, Jordan Romano worked out of a bases-loaded jam in the ninth to close out the win.
