George Springer slammed his bat to the ground, then screamed while lifting his arms up and down as he headed back to the home dugout. After rushing down the steps, Springer slammed his helmet several times into the bat shelf in what was a rare display of heightened emotion from the veteran.
He’d just struck out to end the second inning, and the scene of a livid Springer underscored the importance of Tuesday’s game at Rogers Centre. October baseball is just days away, and the stakes are so very high.
The Toronto Blue Jays threatened during that pivotal second frame but couldn’t score in what turned out to be a 4-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox in front of an amped up 42,927 crowd that added to the feeling of a post-season atmosphere inside the dome.
The Yankees staged a ninth-inning comeback to defeat the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night, meaning the Blue Jays’ lead in the AL East shrank to just one game over New York, with Toronto holding the tiebreaker. Additionally, the third-place Red Sox pulled to within four games of the Blue Jays.
“You kind of know it’s going to come down to the wire,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “We just got to continue to stay focused on what we have to do rather than anyone else.”
The fateful second inning saw the Blue Jays, trailing 1-0 at that point, load the bases against Boston starter Lucas Giolito with the help of an error by shortstop Trevor Story.
That set up a dramatic, two-out at-bat for Springer.
The designated hitter ripped a 2-1 changeup down the third-base line that looked fair but was ruled foul by umpire Scott Barry. Springer was clearly surprised by the call, putting his hands on his helmet as he walked back to the batter’s box after sprinting in vain to first.
Then, when he struck out on the next pitch — a sinker from Giolito that was clearly outside the zone — Springer’s frustration poured out, forcing Schneider to rush out of the dugout to make sure his leadoff man didn’t get tossed.
If Springer’s drive was ruled fair, the Blue Jays take the lead and perhaps the game’s outcome is different. Instead, the call didn’t go his way and Springer was ironically punched out on a day when MLB announced it would deploy the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System (ABS) next season.
“It’s a fair ball down the third base line,” said Schneider. “I thought it was fair. People in our replay room thought it was fair. And it’s not a reviewable play. Sucks. It’s two runs there — it’s a 2-1 game. I don’t know if it’s why we lost, you know what I mean? Things can change over the course of the game.”
While the foul ball was not reviewable, Schneider did ask home plate umpire Doug Eddings if he saw anything different than Barry.
“He said, ‘No,’ so it wasn’t even worth getting the crew together,” said Schneider. “But from my vantage point, from George’s and from replays that we did have, should have been a two-run double.”
The Blue Jays managed to tie the game in the fourth when Nathan Lukes doubled and came around to score on Andres Gimenez’s force out. Gimenez reached third on Springer’s single to centre that a diving Ceddanne Rafaela couldn’t handle but hit the brakes while rounding third as he was given the stop sign by coach Carlos Febles. Giolito then struck out Daulton Varsho as the Blue Jays again failed to plate a key run.
Kevin Gausman, who entered the day having allowed a total of three runs over his past four starts (0.90 ERA), kept the Blue Jays in the contest, but the Red Sox tagged the right-hander for three runs in the sixth that decided the game.
Nathaniel Lowe’s single to right put Boston up, 2-1, and the visitors added two more on a Carlos Narvaez double. Gausman worked a 1-2 count on the No. 9 hitter before Narvaez lifted a down-in-the-zone splitter to the right-field wall.
That chased the Gausman from the game. In total, the right-hander allowed four runs on nine hits over 5.2 innings, walking one and striking out seven.
“Not as sharp tonight as I have been,” Gausman said. “Really, that whole sixth inning [I was] kind of one pitch away from getting a ground ball that could probably get me out of the inning. But hats off to a really good nine-hole hitter. I thought it was a good pitch in a good spot and he hit it in the gap for a double.
“So, you know, that’s on me. I got to be better in that spot with the nine-hole hitter. I got to be able to get that guy out.”
Less than an hour before first pitch on Tuesday the Blue Jays announced that Anthony Santander was reinstated from the 60-day injured list and would be active for the game, while Ty France was placed on the 10-day IL with left oblique inflammation that the first baseman felt during batting practice.
That piece of news arrived with the shocker that Alek Manoah was designated for assignment. The 27-year-old right-hander was been working his way back from hybrid Tommy John surgery and posted a 2.97 ERA across seven outings and 33.1 innings with triple-A Buffalo, but general manager Ross Atkins said the decision essentially “came down to a roster crunch.”
Gausman had grown close with Manoah during their time together in the Blue Jays’ rotation and was asked about his now-former teammate.
“I love him even more as a human being than I do a pitcher,” responded Gausman. “I know he’s going to be fine but I’m going to miss being around him. And, if you know Alek at all, you know he’s a great guy to be around and an infectious personality. So, I wish him nothing but the best.”
Schneider also expressed confidence that Manoah would “land on his feet,” while also noting that “when we are where we are, tough decisions happen and you’re trying to just stay present in what can help us right now.”
The Blue Jays will certainly need some help on Wednesday, when they’re set to face Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet, whose dominant season has the left-hander positioned among the front-runners for the Cy Young Award.
With losses in five of its past six games, the pressure is certainly ramping up for a Toronto club that has already clinched a playoff spot yet watched its lead in the AL East dwindle from five games over the Yankees just last week.
“You gotta come ready and not say, ‘Woe is me,’ about anything,” said Schneider. “We know we got five games left and a one-game cushion to try to win the division. So, I don’t want to say we’re playing with house money. We’re not. The goal is to win the division.”
