OAKLAND — The Blue Jays surged again into American League Wild Card rivalry throughout their six-game West Coast highway journey, however they’re going to be completely satisfied to be again within the pleasant environs of Rogers Centre on Friday.
Toronto dropped the sequence finale towards the A’s on the Coliseum, 5-2, on Wednesday afternoon, falling wanting a three-game sweep. The Blue Jays have received seven of their previous 11 video games, together with 4 of six on their highway journey to Denver and Oakland.
“You keep winning series, and that’s what you want to do at this point,” supervisor John Schneider mentioned. “Would have liked another one or two [wins] on the road trip, but you get out of it 4-2, enjoy tomorrow and you get back after it at home.”
The Blue Jays despatched Hyun Jin Ryu to the mound, a veritable formulation for achievement of late, as Toronto had received 5 of the veteran left-hander’s six begins since he returned on Aug. 1 from his second Tommy John surgical procedure.
That was not the case within the sequence finale, although Ryu put collectively one other stable outing. The 36-year-old southpaw allowed a pair of runs on 5 hits and one stroll over 5 innings, surrendering a two-run homer to A’s catcher Carlos Pérez within the fourth.
“It’s [his] first time on normal rest, so we were going to keep him a little bit short anyway,” Schneider mentioned. “He was dealing. He was absolutely painting the first few innings. Even the Pérez homer, it wasn’t a terrible pitch, down and in.”
Ryu has not exceeded 5 innings or 86 pitches in any of his seven begins because the Blue Jays monitor his workload. He has allowed three runs or fewer in six straight outings.
“Overall, I think I pitched pretty well today,” Ryu mentioned in Korean by way of an interpreter. “Even the one where the home run came off, I did locate where I wanted to. My command and everything else in general, again, felt pretty good.”
But Ryu had a slimmer margin of error than normal to work with, as Toronto solely mustered two runs on six hits and 4 walks.
Ernie Clement opened the scoring with an RBI single within the second inning, plating Cavan Biggio, who had led off the body with a double. Rookie Davis Schneider’s solo shot within the eighth chipped away on the A’s lead, however the Blue Jays have been held scoreless the remainder of the best way.
Clement and Schneider — each referred to as up from Triple-A Buffalo in August — have been sparks as Toronto seeks to punch a return ticket to the postseason.
“It’s fun,” Schneider mentioned. “I mean, you have to go out there no matter what. Even if you’re 50 games below .500, you still have to give 100 percent. So that doesn’t really change, but it’s fun to be in a playoff race and trying to give your best for your team.”
The Blue Jays are nearing the top of a stretch of 15 straight video games towards sub-.500 golf equipment that started with a three-game set towards the Guardians and can conclude with the upcoming weekend sequence with the Royals. So far, Toronto is 7-5 in that stretch.
The ultimate weeks of the common season deliver a number of probabilities for the Blue Jays to manage their very own future, as 4 video games towards the Rangers and 6 towards the Rays loom on the schedule.
Both season sequence — and accordingly, the head-to-head tiebreakers — stay up for grabs, although Toronto trails Tampa Bay by 7 1/2 video games for the highest AL Wild Card spot, pending the end result of the Rays’ recreation towards the Red Sox on Wednesday.
But quite a bit can change in these ultimate weeks, as long as the Blue Jays can discover a method to persistently faucet into their successful model of baseball.
“We don’t really have too many games left,” Ryu mentioned. “I mean, I’m not speaking just for myself. Every game’s going to be very important for us moving on, and we need more wins than ever.”
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