TORONTO – The hardest thing to do as opportunity slowly slips away and a season’s work gets pushed closer to the brink the way it is for the Toronto Blue Jays right now is to trust in process over outcomes.
Through five fruitless innings against all-star Lance Lynn on Monday night, for example, they had managed only two baserunners, one on a Santiago Espinal single, one when Yoan Moncada booted a routine Teoscar Hernandez grounder at third.
The logical conclusion would be that Lynn was dicing them up, sending them deeper into their recent offensive funk. Yet within those five frames, the Blue Jays hit seven balls with an expected batting average ranging from .500-.750 — only one of them resulting in a knock. Factor in another liner to left field from Hernandez that carried a .410 xBA, and rather than scrambling to figure out what was wrong, there was a case to be made that they should stay right there.
Carrying the cumulative frustration of seven losses in nine outings, however, that’s easier said than done, which is why Vladimir Guerrero Jr., pumped his fist three times when he reached second base after a line-drive single to centre in the sixth tied the game at 1-1.
The moment of catharsis didn’t open the floodgates, but it did help set the stage for the Blue Jays to score the go-ahead run on a Craig Kimbrel wild pitch in the eighth inning of a 2-1 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Given the club’s recent run of gut-punch losses, pinch-runner Breyvic Valera’s dash home, sneaking in his left hand as he absorbed the spikes of a sliding Kimbrel applying a tag, made you believe that baseball karma does, eventually, balance all.
You think Vlad Jr was fired up about that game-tying RBI or what? pic.twitter.com/Zp0uHqMN0X
— Tim and Friends (@timandfriends) August 24, 2021
“We were backing up each other in the dugout, it was unbelievable,” Guerrero, speaking through interpreter Hector Lebron, said of having faith that some offence would come. “We just kept telling everyone to just keep swinging, keep swinging, they’re going to fall, they’re going to fall, continue taking good at-bats. And finally it did, and it was great the way we were backing up each other.”
That’s no matter of small import, as the impact of empty results easily compounds at this point of the summer. But their steadfastness allowed them to capitalize on six strong innings from Alek Manoah, who returned from the bereavement list after his grandfather’s death last week to work around five hits and three walks, allowing just one run on 108 pitches.
And then three clean innings of relief from their bullpen followed, Adam Cimber working around a Reese McGuire catcher’s interference in the seventh, Tim Mayza mowing through the eighth and Jordan Romano locking matters down in the ninth.
The Blue Jays’ determination was embodied by Guerrero, who aside from ripping the key RBI single, also made a nice scoop on a Marcus Semien relay to complete a tough 6-4-3 double play on a Jose Abreu grounder to end the seventh.
“It’s a combination of a couple things,” Guerrero said of the emotional displays, “the heat of the moment and I’ve been going through rough times lately and on top of that, I came through with the base hit, the double play there, you got the feeling that finally I can help the team the way I want. And then we ended up getting the win. It was great.”
McGuire started the pivotal rally in the eighth with a hustle single, diving into first base, and was replaced by Valera, who took second when Bo Bichette struck out on a wild pitch and third on a Semien groundout. Every step of his leadoff from third mattered on his pivotal dash home and he just tucked in his hand ahead of a crashing Kimbrel, who had to reach left to corral Seby Zavala’s relay and awkwardly slid into Valera.
“We were just hoping he didn’t get kicked in the face by Kimbrel’s cleats,” said Manoah. “Once we got past that, I was just real excited he got that hand in there.”
The gift run was perhaps some payback for the extended frustration over the past two weeks, amplified by a 1-4 stretch against the Washington Nationals and Detroit Tigers. Facing a stiffer test against the 100-per-cent-playoff-probability White Sox, the Blue Jays again found themselves in a slim-margin contest and Manoah battled imprecise command to keep the game in check.
Two of his walks came in the third and he ran the count full on Abreu before inducing a grounder to second, and despite not being able to hit his spots, still kept the ball away from the happy zones.
“Just continue to attack, man,” said Manoah. “Every pitch is huge, especially when you’re facing an offence like that. You can’t throw any cookies to any of those guys. I’d much rather throw a guy on first base than give up a home run or a double. I was able to battle once they did get on base and continue to give that offence a chance.”
Manoah described his late grandfather as a “huge influence” on both his baseball career and his life and thanked the Blue Jays for allowing him to “be there for my mom and to be there for my family and to just get some closure, be able to celebrate his life a little bit.”
His grandfather loved to watch Manoah pitch and would have been thrilled to see how he kept a lid on the game in the sixth, when two seeing-eye base hits by Brian Goodwin and Andrew Vaughn cashed in a Moncada base hit and opened up a 1-0 White Sox lead. Manoah quickly rallied to get both Danny Mendick and Zavala to end the frame.
“I tell you what, this guy’s got big cojones,” Montoyo said of the rookie. “That’s why it’s so easy to send him back out with 95 pitches. He’s going to give you all he’s got and right there at the end, he got back-to-back double-play balls that found holes, so he’s not doing anything wrong. He gave up one run on balls that should have been double plays, but of course a (defensive) shift here and there, and then he got the next two guys. That was the game, that this guy doesn’t crumble.”
@Alek_Manoah6’s 78 Ks are the most EVER by a Blue Jay in his first 13 career games! #WeAreBlueJays pic.twitter.com/35PRWLzHFj
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) August 24, 2021
The same went for the Blue Jays, who kept grinding as the BABIP gods kept sending them ill fates until Guerrero ripped a liner to centre that touched green in the sixth and allowed Bichette to scoot home with the tying run. It turned out to be a meaningful contribution, the type he’d struggled to make during his team’s slide.
“I felt a little bit frustrated because, I mean, it wasn’t me for the last couple of weeks,” said Guerrero. “Like I always say, I don’t take it that way, if the team wins, I feel great. Like I always do, I come here every day, get my work in, keep trying until finally a night like tonight, I could help the team a lot. And it felt great. But I’m going to keep working hard, just taking it day by day, and trying to help the team win.”
An avalanche of offence it wasn’t, but for a change, the Blue Jays scored just enough to eke out a win against two all-star pitchers on a playoff-bound club, and that’s a start.
