TORONTO — A year ago baseball’s regional alignment schedule meant the type of gauge-the-league series the Toronto Blue Jays have been playing of late didn’t exist. While teams became awfully familiar with their divisional rivals, along with their interleague contemporaries, during the pandemic-shortened 60-game campaign, the rest of the league remained a bit of mystery.
Back to normal now, though, and Tuesday’s 6-1 loss in the opener of a three-game set against the Central-leading Chicago White Sox gave the Blue Jays their first look at the last of the American League’s best teams. The result left them a cumulative 6-8 against Cleveland, Houston, Oakland and the Southsiders thus far, offering a bit of a litmus test on where they stand relative to some of the teams they’ll be fighting with for a wild-card spot.
Robbie Ray did more than his part, striking out a season-high 13 over 6.1 dominant innings tainted only by his final pitch, a 96.6 m.p.h. fastball just off the plate that Andrew Vaughn sent 390 feet over the wall in right field. That erased a 1-0 lead scratched out off Carlos Rodon, who held the Blue Jays to just 1-for-10 with runners in scoring in position in his five innings.
.@RobbieRay was DEALING tonight!#BlueJaysOnSN | @BlueJays pic.twitter.com/SOM0xuhdBH
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) June 9, 2021
That left matters to be decided by the bullpens, and that’s where the White Sox have a decided advantage, especially with the Blue Jays’ relief corps reeling due to both injuries and underperformance.
Trent Thornton, recently elevated into leverage, took the ball in the eighth after Rafael Dolis narrowly survived a shaky seventh in relief of Ray, and hit a wall. Jose Abreu and Yermin Mercedes opened the inning with singles, and after Yasmani Grandal walked to load the bases, Vaughn sent a fly ball to the wall in centre to bring home the go-ahead run.
By then manager Charlie Montoyo had seen enough and brought in Carl Edwards Jr., who proceeded to let the levee break. Adam Eaton blooped a single to make it 3-1, Leury Garcia’s triple to right field brought home two more and a Tim Anderson sac fly plated a sixth run.
That was plenty for Liam Hendriks, the all-star closer who visited the Blue Jays complex as a free agent over the winter, to close things out. He, Jose Ruiz, Evan Marshall and Garrett Crochet delivered a combined four innings of one-hit, two-walk relief, which turned out to be the difference.
“You know why they’re tough? We know they hit — they’re one of the best hitting teams in baseball — but they’ve got pitching,” Montoyo said before the game. “That’s the name of the game. They’ve got a chance to win every day. These next three games we’re going to be facing good starters and their bullpen is outstanding. So it’s going to be a big challenge for us.”
