TORONTO — As Lourdes Gurriel Jr., began to grasp what had happened in the moments after Randal Grichuk accidentally stepped on his right hand, the Toronto Blue Jays left-fielder’s thoughts immediately turned to the club’s post-season pursuit.
“I asked myself, ‘Why now? Why now?’” he said after taking batting practice Friday afternoon, fit enough for an at-bat off the bench but not a start for the second straight day. “I didn’t think it was going to be that bad, but it is what it is. I want to make the playoffs badly, very badly. That’s why you see me out here on the field hitting, trying to do everything I can to help the team. I want to contribute and help the team get to the playoffs.”
Hours later, the Blue Jays did their part to keep the chase alive with a 6-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles, spurred along by three hits, an RBI and a run scored from Cavan Biggio, who was in the lineup in part because of Gurriel’s absence.
Steven Matz shoved for 7.1 innings, Danny Jansen got the offence rolling with a two-run homer in the second and a four-spot in the sixth provided breathing room that came in far handier than expected after the morose Orioles suddenly posted four runs of their own in the eighth.
Reflecting the urgency of the moment, manager Charlie Montoyo called on Jordan Romano to nurse home a 6-3 lead with two on and one out in the eighth, and he allowed a Trey Mancini RBI single before escaping the jam. He then closed things out in a clean ninth to the roar of a crowd of 28,855.
The Blue Jays (89-71) need to win one game more on the season’s final weekend than both the Boston Red Sox (89-70), who were at Washington, and the Seattle Mariners (89-70), hosting the Angels, to force a wild-card tiebreaker Monday.
“We’re definitely going to be aggressive,” Jansen, who added an RBI double and scored in the sixth, said before the game. “I don’t think we’ll really change much from what we’ve done the past month. It’s going to be believing in our starting rotation, our bullpen and our offence, it’s going to be passing the baton from one guy to another and staying on the attack.”
Gurriel’s desire to get back on the attack was evident when he rejoined the lineup Tuesday and Wednesday against the New York Yankees after missing three games following the Sept. 23 mishap.
Each swing he took, however, produced searing pain along the two stitches on the middle joints of his right middle finger, and the skin still growing back on the top third of his right index finger. Unsurprisingly, he went 0-for-8 and then sat Thursday when there was too much pain for him to get off a decent swing at the plate.
“I was having difficulty with the grip,” Gurriel, speaking through interpreter Hector Lebron, said, estimating his swing at about 80 per cent of his normal. “That’s what was most bothering me. I was just trying to find the best grip for it.”
His absence Friday opened the door for Biggio, the best remaining option for first base as Montoyo was determined to get Vladimir Guerrero Jr., off his feet with a DH day. Making his first start since Aug. 2, Biggio looked much more like his 2020 self and with Grichuk not producing, he may have earned himself more rope over the remaining two days.
Matz, meanwhile, closed out a quietly solid season by allowing two runs over his 7.1 frames, on six hits and a walk with five strikeouts. He’ll finish the regular season with a 3.82 ERA in 150.2 innings over 29 starts, numbers that should generate interest in the pending free agent during the off-season.
