ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The Toronto Blue Jays have used phrases like whatever it takes to win, style points don’t matter and they all count the same often over the past month, and regardless your verbiage of choice, the bottom line is adapting to the opportunities a given game presents.
Facing an elite starter for a third straight night Friday, the nearly impossible Tyler Glasnow this time, that meant seizing on the right-hander’s command issues and largely keeping bats on their shoulders during a pivotal four-run sixth. That three-hit, three-walk, one-hit-batter rally wasn’t particularly pretty, but it combined with another Chris Bassitt gem to produce a 6-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays.
The victory, in the series opener between potential wild-card opponents, ensured the Blue Jays (86-68) will remain a half-game up on the winner of the Mariners (84-68) at Rangers (84-68) matchup later Friday, and move 1.5 games up on the loser.
While the Rays (94-61) still have hopes of stealing the American League East from the Baltimore Orioles, they’re positioned to host whoever wins the second wild-card spot, currently held by the Blue Jays.
In that way, the stakes for both clubs during their clashes this weekend and to close out the regular season next weekend in Toronto are ratcheted up by the possibility of even more drama in the post-season.
Friday’s series opener before a Tropicana Field crowd of 18,538 demonstrated the type of grinding, any-means-necessary baseball the teams will need to employ to beat one another.
A day after getting stymied by AL Cy Young Award contender Gerrit Cole at Yankee Stadium, the Blue Jays were similarly flustered by Glasnow twice through the batting order before breaking through in their third turn.
George Springer reached with one out when his 108.1 m.p.h. grounder up the middle skipped past second baseman Isaac Paredes for a single, promptly stole second and scored when Bo Bichette lashed a liner at 101.4 m.p.h. off a diving Yandy Diaz’s glove at first for a base hit that tied the game 1-1.
Then, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., back in the starting lineup, Cavan Biggio and Alejandro Kirk each followed with walks, the latter of whom brought home the go-ahead run, to end Glasnow’s night. Kevin Kelly took over and he hit Matt Chapman to make it 3-1 and surrendered an RBI single to Daulton Varsho before escaping the frame.
Bassitt, in total control after surrendering a Randy Arozarena double and Harold Ramirez RBI single in the first, delivered a shutdown inning in the bottom of the sixth and after a Curtis Mead solo shot made it 4-2 in the seventh, he left with one on and two outs.
Jordan Hicks struck out Rene Pinto to end that rally and left two on with two outs in the eighth, but Jordan Romano, after a walk to Paredes loaded the bases, got Mead to end that jam and then closed things out in the ninth.
That came after Varsho added a solo shot and Springer delivered an RBI in the top of the ninth, the type of add-on runs the Blue Jays produced during two wins at Yankee Stadium to begin this six-game road trip, one of them against Michael King, who preceded Cole and Glasnow.
The trio of dominant starters are good practice for the kind of playoff-calibre rotations they’re likely to face in the post-season, should they get there.
“Tough sledding, for sure and guys are ready for it,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “They joked about it early in the year, it seems like teams always line up their guys against us. But when you get to this point of the year, that’s all you’re going to see.”
Helping the Blue Jays in this one was that Guerrero returned to the starting lineup as DH for the first time since exiting Tuesday’s game in the ninth inning with right knee discomfort. He walked twice against Glasnow and scored once and asked what type of management his all-star first baseman would need moving forward, Schneider replied, “I don’t think anything.”
“He’ll be ready to go,” the manager added. “Hopefully back playing first base (Saturday). But I don’t think we have to do anything out of the ordinary.”
The general principle applies to his team, too. Tuesday in New York, the Blue Jays went deep three times because the pitches were there to hit. That was less the case Wednesday, when they used a five-walk, no-hit rally to score twice, Thursday against Cole and Friday against Glasnow, when they made do with what was there.
