TORONTO – An early trademark of the young season for the Toronto Blue Jays is that their games feature a whole lot of late leverage, and so far they’re thriving with minimal margin for error.
Monday night’s 6-2 victory over the Boston Red Sox, sealed on Bo Bichette’s go-ahead grand slam in the bottom of the eighth, was the latest example of their pressure-cooker life.
Limited to solo shots from Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Matt Chapman by Nate Eovaldi, a similarly brilliant Jose Berrios made the advantage stand up through seven before getting into trouble in the eighth.
Adam Cimber, who’s faced more pressure than any Blue Jays reliever other than closer Jordan Romano as measured by game-entering Leverage Index, was called upon to clean up a two-on, none-out mess. He allowed an RBI single to Kike Hernandez and a sacrifice fly to Alex Verdugo after a Kevin Plawecki sacrifice bunt, but kept the score 2-2.
In the bottom half, Santiago Espinal lined a one-out base hit off Matt Strahm, Bradley Zimmer followed with a bunt single and after Tyler Danish took over, a George Springer single loaded the bases. Bichette then delivered a rare game-breaking blow, lining a 1-0 sinker over the right-field wall for a 6-2 lead, offering Julian Merryweather some ninth-inning breathing room.
Six of the seven Blue Jays games before Monday had been decided by one run, while this was just the fourth time in 17 outings this season the decisive margin was more than three runs.
“We’re going to look forward to the days when we’re up by 10, for sure,” veteran right-hander David Phelps said before the game. “But good teams play in leverage ballgames. That’s what it is. We knew this first part of the season was going to be a gauntlet for us and it’s felt more like September baseball than it has April baseball. It’s fun but the highs and lows of those leverage games take you a little bit longer to come down from, but that’s the exciting part about baseball.”
Through the Blue Jays’ first 17 contests, seven have been decided by one run, three by two runs and another three by three runs. They’re 9-4 in those games, including 5-2 in one-run contests, which was an area they struggled with at times last year, particularly in May and June, finishing 15-15.
The experience from a year ago has been in the minds of this group, especially during the recent run of tight games Cimber descbed as having “a playoff-type atmosphere.”
“That probably goes back to how we finished last year one game away from a playoff spot,” he continued. “We realize how important every single game is. And when you’re in a close game every night, it’s kind of like playoffs for us knowing that it’s always potentially just one game away. April or September, it matters. That’s the idea right now.”
