TORONTO – Last week, the injury list strained Yimi Garcia’s back and because the Toronto Blue Jays didn’t make a very close and late advantage in his subsequent games, his loss didn’t have an immediate effect.
Then came Tuesday night, when Ross Stripling handed a 4-2 lead to protection after keeping the Boston Red Sox in check for five innings, and manager Charlie Montoyo struck himself nine outs before passing the ball to Jordan Romano. felt the need.
Minus Garcia, bridging that gap is suddenly a lot more complicated for the Blue Jays, as they managed to blow their lead in the RBI singles before rallying in ninth for a 6-5 walk-off win by Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was discovered.
The bustling rally that sent the crowd of 27,140 into a frenzy was started by a pinch-hit single by Alejandro Kirk off Tyler Danish. George Springer followed with a walk and after Hansel Robles took over, Bichette sent a chopper from the right to tie the game. Guerrero then closed it with a base hit, a comeback that erased the earlier disappointment.
“Once I saw Kirkey pinch-hitting and he got a base hit, I knew exactly we were going to win this game,” Guerrero said through interpreter Hector LeBron. “I mean, top of the lineup, one, two and three next, I thought we were definitely going to win this game.”
Guerrero told Montoyo that he would be the one to do so before he stepped up to the plate, displaying the same confidence he had two weeks earlier, when he told himself the game was over when the Baltimore Orioles hit the 10th inning. I decided to pitch him.
He and Bichette both demonstrated maturity of approach in their at-bats, each dealing with the pitcher’s offering rather than trying to deliver a big blow to a large position. Bichette ambushed the first-pitch fastball and, instead of trying to pull it off, punched it into a hole. Guerrero let go of two chase sliders before tossing a third at the top of the zone, which is why Montoyo smiled when his slugger vowed to end things.
“Charlie gets nervous sometimes,” quipped Guerrero, “but he told me, ‘Well, I trust you guys. If you say that, well, never mind.'”
Less precisely, the Blue Jays needed to rally after the game was well under control when Stripling was gone.
Adam Cimber, the most stable of the club’s current set-up men, was used against the Heart of the Red Sox lineup in sixth and put up a void. But Trent Thornton surrendered a two-run homer to Rob Refsneider in the seventh, but Christian Vazquez carried an RBI single from Tim Maiza in the eighth.
The damage could easily have been worse, if not for a jump on a Christian Arroyo line drive from Matt Gage by Santiago Espinal, a double play with loaded bases.
Which proved to be important.
Nevertheless, the end result is that Romano never got a 4–2 lead, scoring ninth to keep the game within one run, and the Blue Jays’ fistfight against a divisional opponent nearly slipped a game. .
As a one-off, such blips are frustrating but they do happen, no matter how impressive a bullpen may be. But rather than an aberration, the absence of prominent relief arms makes it a soft spot more vulnerable whenever a game is tight late in the day.
“That’s why you need to go deep into your starts, but now you’re pitching people in different places and that’s it. Someone has to step up instead of Garcia. That’s what’s going to happen,” Montoyo said. Told. “People stopped giving hits but they only gave away one or two runs, it wasn’t like we were down to five or six. We were still in the game when all the relievers were gone and that’s what you can ask when you’re in our Like the offense has happened. If you can keep us in the game and pass, we have a chance.”
The Blue Jays envisioned greater stability in their bullpen built around García, Cimber, Maiza and Trevor Richards, who struggled before hitting the injured list with a neck strain. Hopefully Julian Merryweather’s left abdominal strain for velocity injections, and Nate Pearson, stopped over the next 3-4 weeks with a lat strain, didn’t bulge out and caused the core to be hollowed out due to a pending joint Sergio Romo, 39-year-old Wright, was released by the Seattle Mariners and is slated for a physical Tuesday night to finalize his signing.
Romo will not crumble in leverage, but whether he has enough stuff left to be dominant again is another matter. Even if the turnaround prospects aren’t particularly high, it’s a dice-roll, with Thornton shifting from mop-up duty to leverage work and Mayazza in his last five outings. Four of them have suffered damage.
David Phelps, who pitched in back-to-back days and was unavailable on Tuesday, has also remained steady, but it can’t be just him and Simber. Gage, the rookie lefty, has the big stuff but needs more runway to earn confidence in leverage, while Max Castillo and Shaun Anderson are on the roster to absorb the innings when starting sideways.
Romano aside, there are no defined roles, so Montoyo and pitching coach Pete Walker will try to navigate each late leverage spot based on the game’s submission.
“Mix and match,” Montoyo said. “You’re going to be pitching in different places than people, but that’s just part of what it is. Mix and match, for sure.”
This can be a hard way to turn off the games.
Stripling continued to pitch well in place of Hyun Jin Ryu, touching only for a Trevor Story single shot in second and Rafsneider’s run-scoring groundout in fifth. The Red Sox could have had more after the men placed second and third to start the frame, but after Arroyo was out and after Refsneider was out, Devers dropped out in a crucial position to end the frame. .
“At times I feel like as a staff we’ve done really limited damage – my last innings, Myza’s innings, that put us in the ball game and then we were able to walk it from there in the ninth, ” Said stripling. “Personally, I feel good about where I am. Obviously, want to go deeper, always, try and get to that sixth place. I understand the lineup changed there but they gave me ( Rafael) Devers. Get out and get a big out. It’s a confidence booster for me and hopefully for him in me. We only step forward with each start with me.”
This should have been enough for the Blue Jays to take the win, but the offense had to exit a bullpen speedbump to take it out. It is extremely difficult to make such an exciting comeback and if Tanner Hawk is not on the banned list, it probably does not happen at all, which is why strengthening the bullpen is a top priority, lest Garcia’s absence is felt any more. to be done. Intently.
