It’s imperative that the Toronto Blue Jays win on the days Dylan Cease starts.
That’s not a hyperbolic statement given the state of the club’s beleaguered starting rotation and the massive importance placed on each of the remaining 17 games on the schedule.
Those realities coloured Monday’s dramatic Labour Day contest as the Blue Jays fell, 6-5, to the Athletics in front of 7,467 at Sutter Health Park. It was clear that Cy Young candidate Cease wasn’t at his best and neither was the Blue Jays’ defence, which committed a series of lapses to help the A’s build an early lead.
A spirited comeback, highlighted by Andres Gimenez’s game-tying homer in the ninth inning, almost papered over everything, but the A’s secured the win when Jeff McNeil legged out a bases-loaded single in the bottom half off Blue Jays closer Louis Varland. It was their second infield single of the inning.
“A couple of infield hits beat you,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “It’s going to happen sometimes and no one else I’d rather have out there than Louis. So, good placement by them.”
The Guardians lost, 6-4, to the Orioles on Monday afternoon, meaning Toronto failed to gain ground in the wild-card race and remains one game behind Cleveland for the third spot. Texas didn’t play and sits half a game behind the Blue Jays, while Baltimore is just two games behind Toronto with a key three-game series between the clubs set for this weekend at Rogers Centre.
The Blue Jays certainly can’t look ahead to that series yet as this Athletics club is playing well of late despite owning the second-worst record in the American League and losing several of its core players to injuries.
You wouldn’t have known that given the aggressive ball the A’s played Monday. In the first inning, Cease issued a leadoff walk to Henry Bolte, who scored on Zack Gelof’s ground-rule double to open the scoring. Gelof later scored with two outs when Kazuma Okamoto botched a clean throw from catcher Alejandro Kirk during a rundown between third base and home, allowing the A’s to push across a second run, while working Cease for 27 pitches in the opening frame.
In the third inning, the home side added two more runs, helped out by a staggering four stolen bases (two each from Bolte and Gelof), along with a play at home where Okamoto bounced a throw to Kirk, allowing Bolte to score.
Schneider noted it was a conversation point in pre-game meetings that the A’s would try to run on Cease and the right-hander lamented his inability to halt that.
“I wish I had a little more focus on that,” Cease said. “I feel like looking back, I kind of just let it happen. But I mean, the biggest thing is not letting them on base would have been nice, but no, they definitely took advantage. And it’s something that I know going forward I’m going to have to really focus on and make sure I know what other teams do.”
Cease allowed five runs (four earned) on four hits over five frames, walking two and striking out six on 94 pitches. He induced 13 misses on 46 swings and featured heavily decreased velocity throughout his outing. Cease’s fastball topped out at 96.4 m.p.h. but sat at 94.9 m.p.h., down from its season average of 97.1.
“I think it’s just late in the season and I’ve got to kind of roll with what I’ve got and try to figure out how I can maybe maximize that a little bit better,” said Cease, who added that he was “pretty disappointed” with his command.
The right-hander’s first campaign with the Blue Jays has been a resounding success and his importance to the team has grown even larger due to a bevy of injuries that have left the club with three effective starters (Cease, Jose Soriano, Max Scherzer). However, his dip in velocity could complicate the Blue Jays’ decision on how to structure their rotation following this Thursday’s off day.
The club could seek to keep Cease and Soriano, who gets the ball Tuesday night, on regular rest and have them both pitch in the final two games of the key series against the Orioles. Or they could decide that the duo would benefit from gaining an extra day of rest.
The Blue Jays’ bullpen kept Monday’s contest scoreless after Cease left and allowed the offence to spark a comeback. Okamoto launched a towering solo homer to open the seventh frame and the bottom of the lineup strung together three hits, including an RBI double from Andres Gimenez, and a sacrifice fly to cut the score to 5-4.
The rally was cut short, though, when Gimenez was easily picked off while trying to steal third. However, the shortstop certainly made up for that blunder with his homer off A’s closer Hogan Harris.
Gimenez unleashed a massive cut on a looping, 74.5-m.p.h. curveball from the left-hander and pointed his bat toward right field as he watched it sail over the fence before flipping it while jogging down the first-base line.
The moment ignited the crowd that featured a heavy dose of Blue Jays supporters and carried a sort of storybook, replay-worthy potential should the team have found a way to win. They didn’t, though, and will now have to face the more difficult task of capturing a W on a non-Cease start day.
“We’ve got to shake this one off and come back tomorrow,” said Schneider.
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