TORONTO – If the Toronto Blue Jays do eventually clinch a post-season berth this season, it will be Bo Bichette by and large who drags them there.
The outsized importance of his contributions were on full display during Friday’s precarious 5-4 win over the Kansas City Royals, when he returned from the injured list to erase one deficit with a run-scoring double in the sixth and then another with an RBI single that kick-started the decisive four-run seventh.
The all-star shortstop won’t be able to do it alone, of course, and Davis Schneider continued to menace opposing pitchers with two doubles and two walks while Vladimir Guerrero Jr., after three poor at-bats, followed Bichette’s single with a go-ahead two-run double.
Ernie Clement, whose timely contributions helped the Blue Jays survive the nine games Bichette missed with a right quad strain at 6-3, added a pinch-hit RBI single to make it 5-2 in the seventh, but the big-league leaders in hair-pulling play still found a way to a white-knuckle finish.
Chad Green left two on with one out in the eighth for Tim Mayza, who induced an MJ Melendez grounder to third that the left-fielder beat out at first base to prevent an inning-ending double play and bring home a run. Mayza proceeded to load the bases from there prompting manager John Schneider to bring in Jordan Romano for an inning-plus for the second time this week.
Romano induced an inning-ending grounder from Nick Loftin on his first pitch to end that threat and then walked two in the ninth and allowed an RBI single to Salvador Perez before Edward Olivares flew out for the final out in front of a Rogers Centre crowd of 26,493.
The victory, a seventh in 10 games, ensured the Blue Jays (78-63) will remain at least a half-game ahead of the Texas Rangers (76-63), who were hosting the Oakland Athletics on Friday, for the American League’s third wild-card berth.
A four-game clash between the clubs begins Monday in Toronto and both will seek to use their current series against the league’s bottom-feeders to fatten up beforehand.
Still, the Blue Jays had their hands full with a Royals team that could have 100 losses by the end of the weekend, falling behind first on Dairon Blanco’s solo shot off Yusei Kikuchi in the third and then again on Loftin’s triple to right off Trevor Richards just past a charging George Springer’s in the seventh.
That put the Royals ahead 2-1 and the Blue Jays’ four-run outburst in the bottom half of the inning could very easily not have happened as Springer walked before Bichette’s tying single on a check swing that could have been ruled a strike.
Such thin margins between winning and losing is why Bichette’s return is so essential for a Blue Jays team that won’t have Danny Jansen back during the regular season after he underwent surgery to repair his broken middle finger, and is still waiting for Matt Chapman, who began hitting Friday, to return as well.
“Huge addition at the top of the order,” manager John Schneider said of Bichette. “We all know what he can do. We’re still going to have to kind of ease him in a little bit in terms of just watching his workload the first handful of games. If it’s a DH or an off-day even, we don’t want to take a step back from this injury. We’ll be in touch with him and cautious with it. But just having him back, his presence there is huge for us.”
