TORONTO — The last seven days in the American League wild-card race are a good reminder that every week in September is like a month. Consider that coming off a sweep of the Kansas City Royals, the Toronto Blue Jays looked like a sure bet to reach the post-season, holding the upper hand on both the Texas Rangers and Seattle Mariners. Then, after the Rangers delivered a four-game beatdown at Rogers Centre that flipped the standings, they nosedived in Cleveland while the Blue Jays bounced back to sweep the Boston Red Sox, once again repositioning everyone.
Two weeks remain before the jockeying stops. Things change quickly, and often. It’s going to be a trip.
“At this point I’ve just stopped looking because it’s been changing so fast, like every three days all three of the teams have flip-flopped,” said Matt Chapman, whose walk-off triple in the ninth inning handed the Blue Jays a 3-2 win, adding later: “That’s kind of been how this whole year’s been going, a lot of ups and downs for us, get swept, sweep somebody. With the focus being on how precious all these wins are, it was nice that we were able to flush that Texas series and move on to Boston, a team that had our number early this season, for sure. To be able to … get three wins like that, get right back in the mix is huge for us.”
Very much so, especially after Rafael Devers tied the game with a solo shot in the top of the ninth before a Rogers Centre crowd of 41,876. Unbowed, Cavan Biggio started the bottom half with a one-out single and then raced home as Chapman’s 105.2 m.p.h. laser off Garrett Whitlock hit the wall in centre-field, pushing the Blue Jays (83-67) a half-game in front of the Rangers (82-67), who lost 9-2 to the Guardians.
The Mariners (81-68) trail the Blue Jays by 1.5 games after falling 6-1 to the Los Angeles Dodgers. Wild-card races in September often tend to get, well, wild, but this is extreme even by those standards.
“That’s the epitome of baseball, to be completely honest with you,” said Biggio, who also singled and scored in the second and stole a hit from Ceddanne Rafaela in the first with a sliding grab in right field on a ball with a 15 per cent catch probability. “This game is so up and down, even from beginning of the season to now, every game matters, every pitch matters and you just feel it more and more at this time of year. It’s important to stay on top of what we need to do and at the end of the day, you’ve got to get it done, no matter what it looks like or what it takes.”
While Friday’s 3-0 win behind a dominant Jose Berrios outing and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. three-run homer was some masterpiece theatre, the two weekend victories – Saturday’s win helped by Rafaela misjudging Daulton Varsho’s game-tying triple in the ninth, Blue Jays pitchers holding Red Sox hitters to 1-for-14 with runners in scoring position Sunday – were of the any means necessary variety.
What’s made this race so jarring is the way the teams have gone from one extreme to another so quickly, the Rangers looking so good against the Blue Jays only to get crushed by Cleveland, while Toronto went from letting games unravel versus Texas to tight against Boston, finishing the year 6-7 versus the Red Sox after an 0-7 start. The Mariners, since a run of 13 wins in 15 games to close out August, are 5-11 in September.
“It’s weird around the league, right?” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “You look at other scores, you look at games we’ve been through, it’s definitely not fun by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s kind of where everyone is right now. You have to put what’s behind you, behind you and just look for every game to be a game in and of itself, really. But the emotional pendulum is a wild one.”
So, too, was Sunday’s finale, when the Blue Jays did a good job of picking each other up throughout the nine innings.
In the second inning Bo Bichette helped bail Hyun Jin Ryu out of jam, making a great play on a Pablo Reyes chopper with runners on second and third and none out, cutting in front of Adam Duvall and throwing home to get Devers. Duvall turned and fled back to second on the play, which proved big when Trevor Story flew out to centre next. Bobby Dalbec flew out to right to end the threat.
“Originally I thought the defence was quite deep so mentally I thought, maybe let’s just give up one run and try to minimize the damage,” Ryu, who allowed six hits and two walks over 4.2 shutout innings, said through interpreter J.S. Park. “I haven’t really seen where the runner was at the moment. I guess he had a late start or something like that, and to be able to get an out like that really did changed the whole atmosphere of the game.”
In the bottom half, Biggio hit a one-out single, took third on Chapman’s double down the left-field line and scored on Kevin Kiermaier’s sacrifice fly to make it 1-0.
In the third, Ryu again faced men on second and third with none out but did the heavy lifting himself, getting Rob Refsnyder on a shallow fly to left, Justin Turner on a groundout to third and after a Devers walk loaded the bases, lefty-masher Adam Duvall on a fly ball to right.
Varsho’s solo shot in the fifth made it 2-0 and provided the Blue Jays with some breathing room, which came in handy in the seventh when Reyes delivered a two-out RBI single off Genesis Cabrera. Chad Green took over and got Trevor Story on a flyout to left that ended the inning and then delivered a clean eighth, an important 1.1 inning effort for a depleted bullpen the way Yimi Garcia did in taking over from Ryu with two out in the fifth.
Finally after Erik Swanson, pitching the ninth with Jordan Romano and Jordan Hicks unavailable, gave up a two-out homer to Devers, Biggio and Chapman ensured the game didn’t get away.
The big swing for Chapman, playing through lingering discomfort from a right middle finger sprain, came the day after Schneider used Biggio to pitch hit for the third baseman in the ninth inning.
Schneider said the decision Saturday “was one of the really tough ones” but “to Matty’s credit, what he said afterwards was ‘I need to play better and earn the right to be up there,’” which gave the manager confidence in his player in the same spot Sunday.
Chapman responded by turning around a 95.1 m.p.h. sinker from Whitlock, triggering Bedlam at the Rogers Centre.
“I’m confident. I know what kind of player I am and who I am,” said Chapman, his finger wrapped in ice. “But in that moment, that was the manager’s decision and I’m excited that we were able to win that game. Cavan got a hit, got the job done, so that was huge. And then for me today to come up there and win the game, it obviously makes me feel good to help this team win. But I know that I’ve helped this team win a lot of games. I have no ego, so I’m OK with the decision and I’m just ready to take advantage of all my opportunities.”
The Blue Jays need to be, too, with 12 games left, six each against the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays, control of their fate back in their own hands in this wild-as-ever chase of a wild-card spot.
