The Blue Jays Continue To Make Things Difficult For Themselves With Loose Play On The Sidelines

Here they all stood in tradition. White’s fastball sailed high for a ball, Alejandro Kirk popped up and fired to second without hesitation, and as Yan Gomes did, already a third down the line with Matt Chapman playing off the bag, he broke for home. By the time the ball reached Bo Bichette at second base, Gomes was already halfway there and there was no way he was going to get out at the plate, as you can see here. Wisely, Bichette kept the ball, chased down Rivas, who pulled when Kirk threw to second, and passed to Cavan Biggio who made the tag to end the frame. Still, Gomes hit a home run well before the third out, stealing a run for the Cubs that opened up a 2-0 lead. Not great, sure, but by no means insurmountable. Individually, it’s not necessarily a big deal, because baseball happens and the other team tries too. However, in the context of the Blue Jays’ current season, the play has been emblematic of the small margins in which they’ve been too loose at times, making life more difficult if not costing them games. In what ended up being a 7-5 loss to the Cubs on Wednesday night, Gomes’ streak wasn’t decisive in itself. But along with Ian Happ’s RBI single in the first on a 102.7 mph boat that faded well enough off Whit Merrifield, he made “some runs that you can look back on and replay in your mind a little bit,” interim manager John Schneider said. . When White delivered a triple that opened a 5-0 Cubs advantage, Gomes’ smart move loomed even larger. “The play, designed in a perfect world, is yes, we get to second place with the option to redirect and go home,” Schneider said. “The catcher has to look at third there, and if you see Gomes that far, that kind of replaces you at second and gives Chappie some time to get to the bag. Throwing to second, you have to check the runner and if he’s wandering as it was, you have to make an adjustment.” There wasn’t one this time and though the Blue Jays (70-59) made it interesting — getting a two-run homer from Biggio in the third and a solo drive by Franmil Reyes in the fifth to make it 6-2, and a three-run shot by Kirk in the sixth — they never got level again. Chapman nearly tied it during the sixth when he lined a fly ball off the left field wall, but after a walk by Teoscar Hernandez, Biggio walked to end the frame. A McKinstry RBI single in the seventh made it 7-5, and North Vancouver, BC’s Rowan Wick, the last of seven Cubs hitters, closed out the game in the ninth in front of a disappointed crowd of 28,572. The loss capped a disappointing 2-4 at home that followed 6-1 sweeps in the Bronx and Beetown and sent the Blue Jays into a low-key road day. At the same time, despite August 13-14, they will start in September with possession of the third and final wild card. “We feel really good,” Biggio said. “Obviously the series against Anaheim was really tough. But if you look at that road trip, I saw everything come together, starting to play, timely hitting, it was nail-biting. That was exciting to see. The Anaheim series and maybe today a little bit is the result of just the dogs of August. We’ve got a bunch of guys grinding right now and at the end of the day, that’s baseball.” A 10-game road trip that begins Friday in Pittsburgh against the lowly Pirates looms large, as it follows a crucial four-game set that includes a Monday doubleheader against the Orioles, two games back in the wild-card race. The Blue Jays have been looking at ways to retool their rotation to be at their best for that series, and three games follow at Texas, the final soft spot in a meat-grinder September schedule. “To be in every game that matters for the playoffs over the last month, it’s great,” Snyder said. “With that, if you want to call it pressure, that’s awesome, we won it and we’ve certainly won it. A lot of teams have won it up to here. The group of kids that are in there embraces the fact that every game is going to be important. It’s great for some of the young guys that we have to do it again like we did last year. And it’s great that we have veteran leadership on both sides of the ball. So we’re looking forward to the challenge.” This time the Blue Jays, of course, will be looking for a different result than the one they suffered last year when they fell one game short of the playoffs. To that end, they’ll need to get White back on track, as after allowing a career-high seven runs in his last start, he surrendered six more against the Cubs despite striking out 14 whiffs in 4.2 innings. This is an indicator that his fastball and slider can be effective, but that there may be ways to get better use of them with usage tweaks, along with the rest of his repertoire. “Those last two were obviously a little rough, so we were looking at things like that,” White said. “Whether it’s pitch selection, pitch execution, we kind of break it down with Pete (Walker) on video and then if there’s anything mechanical. We’re working on some little things in the ‘pen, but at this point in the season, it’s not like we make big old changes mechanically.’ Then, of course, there’s tighter play, as mistakes can be overcome at times against teams like the Cubs, but they’re even more vexing against tougher competition expected later this month. “That’s a tough game,” Biggio said of Gomes’ run in the second. “The first and third plays we did it was the throw, but if you see him break and you get a chance at home, try to turn it around and throw it home. a little bit from third, that allowed the baserunner to get a little bit more of a lead, so as soon as he threw the ball, he took a huge leap and there was no way we were going to get him. Just a good game of baseball that they executed very well.” The kind of little play that can make a big difference.

title: “The Blue Jays Continue To Make Things Difficult For Themselves With Loose Play On The Sidelines Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-13” author: “Denise Winslow”

title: “The Blue Jays Continue To Make Things Difficult For Themselves With Loose Play On The Sidelines Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-26” author: “Sandra Delisle”

title: “The Blue Jays Continue To Make Things Difficult For Themselves With Loose Play On The Sidelines Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-26” author: “Micah Johnson”