TORONTO — Through five innings the pieces all seemed to be falling into place for the Toronto Blue Jays: Vladimir Guerrero Jr., cranking a go-ahead double, Robbie Ray powering his way through the tortuous New York Yankees lineup and the Orioles surging ahead of the Boston Red Sox in Baltimore.
The combination would have left them tied with Boston and the Seattle Mariners for the second wild card spot, a game back of the Yankees for the first, all while helping cement Ray’s case for the American League’s Cy Young Award.
Then, in a 14-pitch stretch, Anthony Rizzo, Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres, after a Giancarlo Stanton walk, each took a Ray fastball deep, a stunning reversal that turned a Thursday of ideal outcomes into a lamentable night of missed opportunity.
The deal after a 6-2 loss for Blue Jays is this: One game back of both the Red Sox and Mariners for the second wild-card spot, three games left against the Orioles and a suddenly strong rooting interest for the Washington Nationals, who host Boston, and the Los Angeles Angels, visiting Seattle, on the final weekend.
This ride isn’t for the faint of heart.
While not ideal by any stretch, the damage in dropping two of three to the Yankees (91-68), was mitigated for the Blue Jays by the Red Sox (89-70), 6-2 losers at Baltimore, dropping two of three to the Orioles. That dropped Boston into a tie with the idle Mariners (89-70), the Blue Jays (88-71) squandering the chance to get level with them both.
A wild four-team tiebreak scenario is now far less likely — the Blue Jays would need to win out, the Yankees lose out to the Tampa Bay Rays while the Red Sox and Mariners both go 2-1 — but a three-way tie in the standings remains very much in play.
The Blue Jays get the worst team of the bunch in the Orioles (52-107), but as their series against Boston shows, take nothing for granted.
To some degree it felt like a given that Ray would come out and shove Thursday, thrusting his team into prime position for the post-season while also locking down the Cy Young Award. And for the first half of the night, things trended in that direction, a monster Judge solo shot to the third deck in centre field in the first and two walks the only damage against him to that point.
But he was essentially doing it by largely beating New York hitters with his fastball.
Ray threw 39 sliders in total and the Yankees swung at only nine of them, whiffing on five, fouling off three and flying out on the other. Six others were taken for a strike, meaning 24 of them were balls and that in essence, they had eliminated the pitch.
That caught up to him in the sixth, after Guerrero timed up a Corey Kluber changeup and lined it at 112.8 m.p.h. off the very top of the wall in centre, bouncing up and returning to the field instead of falling over the wall. That scored Marcus Semien, who kept the inning alive by just barely beating out the relay on a near double-play ball, getting called out initially before replay overturned the call.
The buzz from that MVP-calibre moment quickly faded as a crowd of 29,659 watched Ray fall behind 3-1 to Rizzo before the first baseman lofted a heater over the wall in right to tie the game 2-2, Judge foul off one slider, take the next and then send another fastball over the wall in centre and after a Stanton walk, Torres whiff at two four-seamers on offer before turning on the third for a dagger that put the Yankees up 5-2.
That was his night and Ray walked off the mound to a standing ovation, perhaps in recognition of his brilliant season, perhaps in recognition that this might have been his final outing with the Blue Jays, or perhaps both.
Michael King, a Blue Jays nemesis, Luis Severino, Chad Green and Aroldis Chapman combined to allow only three hits and a walk over the final 4.1 innings, a demonstration of how effectively the Yankees bullpen shortens games.
Bo Bichette continued to be a force, delivering two hits, a walk and a stolen base that helped set up Corey Dickerson’s RBI double in the second that tied the game 1-1. Dickerson, George Springer and Santiago Espinal also had two hits, but the Blue Jays couldn’t put together a sustained rally.
They’ll need to do that on the season’s final weekend to give themselves a chance, as all they can do is try to win out, and hope someone else can help them out. After wasting a night with the promise of so much more, that’s what they’re left with.
