TORONTO – The soft portion of the schedule wasn’t supposed to go like this for the Toronto Blue Jays.
By now, you’ve heard the scenario: The Blue Jays were lined up to play five consecutive series against teams with records below .500. It represented a golden opportunity for the club to attempt to gain ground in the ever-tightening wild card race.
After dropping two of three to the Cleveland Guardians on the weekend, the Blue Jays rebounded with a much-needed win on Monday against the Washington Nationals. That offered a reset of sorts, and some hope that they’d perhaps turned a page.
However, the Blue Jays failed to build on any momentum Tuesday night, falling 5-4 to the Nationals in front of 39,722 at Rogers Centre.
With the Texas Rangers and Houston Astros both winning on Tuesday, the Blue Jays now sit 3.5 games behind the final wild-card spot.
A one-step forward, one-step back approach won’t cut it at this critical point in the season. There are just 29 games left and the Blue Jays need to string together more than just a few wins at a time. If the club has any hopes of climbing into the post-season, the Blue Jays will need to go on a serious run.
Blue Jays right-hander Jose Berrios wasn’t at his sharpest Tuesday, enduring his second consecutive rough outing. Nationals third baseman Carter Kieboom hammered a first-pitch sinker from Berrios 410 feet into the left-field stands for a two-run homer in the second inning that gave the Nationals an early lead.
In the fifth, Berrios issued a two-out walk to Lane Thomas and Joey Meneses followed with a single. Keibert Ruiz then launched a middle-up fastball over the right-field wall for a three-run shot that pushed the Guardians’ lead to 5-1.
In total, Berrios allowed five runs on six hits over six innings, walking two and striking out two. He recorded just two whiffs on 39 swings — an indicator that he didn’t have his best stuff.
Blue Jays second baseman Davis Schneider continued his torrid entrance into the majors, providing most of the offence for the Blue Jays. In the third inning, he deposited an 0-2 fastball from Nationals starter MacKenzie Gore into the second deck in left field for a solo home run. Then, in the seventh, he added an RBI double. The rookie now has six homers in 13 games and is batting .432 with a 1.451 OPS.
The Blue Jays offence was able to drive up Gore’s pitch count in the early frames, highlighted in the second inning by an 11-pitch at-bat from Alejandro Kirk and a nine-pitch at-bat from George Springer. The left-hander was removed from the game following the fifth inning after throwing 106 pitches. While getting into the Nationals’ bullpen early might have been an indicator of a sound approach from the Blue Jays, at this point in the season the results matter more than the process. And when the results on Tuesday are 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position, it’s telling.
The eighth inning looked promising for the Blue Jays. Whit Merrifield scored on a wild pitch from Nationals reliever Hunter Harvey and Kirk advanced to third. Pinch-hitter Daulton Varsho flew out to centre-fielder Jacob Young, who delivered a strong throw home to nab Kirk as he tagged up. It resulted in a double play that silenced the crowd.
In the ninth inning, the Blue Jays loaded the bases with none out, but Nationals closer Kyle Finnegan struck out Schneider, induced a groundout from Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and a pop-up from Danny Jansen to end the game.
Meanwhile, before the game the Blue Jays placed Bo Bichette on the 10-day injured list with a right quad strain and called up infielder Mason McCoy. It’s the second trip to the IL for Bichette this month — the shortstop also missed 16 games with right patella tendinitis.
Blue Jays manager John Schneider said Bichette had been playing through the injury over the past week.
“He’s frustrated,” Schneider. “At the same time, he understands and doesn’t want to do anything that’s going to [keep him]out for the season. So, [he]took it as best he could, I guess, is the best way to say it. He wants to be out there every day, especially this time of year.”
McCoy, Ernie Clement and Santiago Espinal all figure to get reps at shortstop, with Schneider conceding that the club will have to manage the position “creatively.”
Compounding matters is that third baseman Matt Chapman (right middle finger sprain) is also on the IL after being removed from Sunday’s game.
“What we told the guys yesterday is, ‘It’s not every day you lose your left side of the infield in the span of two innings,’” said Schneider. “‘And it’s going to get weird. It’s going to get dirty, ugly, crazy at times.’”
