TORONTO – George Springer’s debut with the Toronto Blue Jays is on the horizon, perhaps as soon as this weekend at the Tampa Bay Rays, which makes Cavan Biggio’s return to the leadoff spot a temporary fix.
For the time being, though, his on-base skills certainly play there, and the flipping of him and Marcus Semien in the batting order Wednesday got both going in a 6-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox, salvaging a two-game split at Fenway Park.
Biggio, back playing after taking a ball off the fingers in Kansas City last week, walked twice, scored once and delivered an RBI groundout while Semien singled twice, walked, stole a base and scored a run as the Blue Jays built an early 4-0 lead and then held on.
While by no means an offensive explosion, the six runs was a 50 per cent increase of the output from their previous three games, all losses. And it ensured that a solid night of pitching by the bullpen, started with two clean innings from Trent Thornton, didn’t go to waste, even as more shaky defensive play from the left side of the infield nearly put all the good work into the waste bin.
Blue Jays Newsletter
“For some reason, we are slow starters (at the plate), that’s why you don’t see me panicking, because I know the guys are going to hit,” Montoyo said before the game. “We’ve lost a lot of people but I still believe that we have enough to win games with what we have right now. I believe Biggio and Semien and all those guys are going to hit, and what I like about our situation right now, our pitching is doing a good job and keeping us in the game. Pitching is the name of the game and if we keep pitching like that whenever we get healthy, we’re going to be all right.”
Montoyo’s words turned out to almost be prophetic, but the way things played out underlined how narrow the margins are for the Blue Jays right now.
The first four runs came off an erratic Garrett Richards, who sprayed his fastball all around the strike zone over 4.2 scattershot innings. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., cashed in Biggio’s leadoff walk in the first with an RBI single but Rowdy Tellez hit into a double play to freeze a rally.
In the second, Lourdes Gurriel Jr.’s sacrifice fly, Biggio’s run-scoring groundout and Bo Bichette’s RBI single opened things up but Tellez again couldn’t capitalize on a chance to blow things open, grounding out to end the frame and strand runners on second and third.
The offence stalled from there until the ninth as the Red Sox chipped away at the deficit, helped by one poor throw from Bichette and two others from Biggio.
Lefty Tommy Milone worked around a low throw to first by Bichette that gave Bobby Dalbec a generously scored leadoff single in the third, surrendered an RBI groundout to Rafael Devers in the fourth and then had Biggio bounce a throw to first on another Dalbec grounder in the fifth.
David Phelps took over and surrendered an RBI double, but eventually got Xander Bogaerts on a grounder to short to escape a bases-loaded jam.
After two crisp innings from Ryan Borucki, Bogaerts turned a slider headed towards his shins into a solo homer off Rafael Dolis in the eighth that made it 4-3. After a two-out walk to Christian Vazquez, Biggio made another throwing error on a Marwin Gonzalez grounder to put the go-ahead run aboard, but Dolis got Dalbec on another grounder to third, and this time Biggio made a clean throw across the diamond.
The Blue Jays capitalized on the reprieve in the ninth, when Alejandro Kirk delivered a pinch-hit RBI single and Randal Grichuk following with another run-scoring base hit to provide some additional breathing room.
Tim Mayza surrendered a leadoff single to Christian Arroyo before getting two outs and then Anthony Castro, the seventh Blue Jays pitcher of the night, retired J.D. Martinez to end it for his first big-league save.
The all-hands-on-deck victory came ahead off an off-day Thursday, necessary for the club’s relievers to recover. Beyond Sprigner, other reinforcements potentially returning this weekend include leverage righties Tyler Chatwood and Jordan Romano, while Teoscar Hernandez is eligible to come off the COVID-19 list as soon as Friday, but may not be in baseball shape.
The Blue Jays have their best three starters – Steven Matz, Robbie Ray and Hyun-Jin Ryu – lined up to face the Tampa Bay Rays, having moved a step closer to their best selves.
