{"id":35358,"date":"2025-07-30T22:07:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T22:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/35358\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T22:07:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T22:07:08","slug":"blue-jays-win-wild-finale-as-bullpen-delivers-timely-deadline-reminder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/35358\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays win wild finale as bullpen delivers timely deadline reminder"},"content":{"rendered":"

BALTIMORE \u2014 The lead-up to the 2021 trade deadline \u201cfelt weird\u201d for Jose Berrios. Some nights, he recalled, \u201cwere anxious, with a lot of thoughts\u201d about the future, especially as the rumour mill picked up. Though nothing changed in his relationships with Minnesota Twins teammates and staffers, \u201cmy agent explained the situation from May 2021, that we were going to be traded,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe didn’t know what team, but he always told me, \u2018Yes, I think we’re going to get traded.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Professional to the core, Berrios did his best to shut out the noise and carry on, business as usual. \u201cI never felt like that,\u201d he said, \u201cbut then, when the trade happened, it was real.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trade, of course, is the July 30, 2021, deal that sent him from the Twins to the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> for then-prospects Austin Martin and Simeon Woods Richardson and his experience represents a version of what dozens of players across the majors are going through in the final hours before Thursday\u2019s 6 p.m. ET trade deadline.<\/p>\n

Life, both on and off the field, moves fast under the circumstances, encapsulated by Seranthony Dominguez\u2019s wild Tuesday, when he left the Baltimore Orioles<\/a> for the Toronto Blue Jays in the middle of a doubleheader and then pitched against his former teammates.<\/p>\n

Like so many others, Dominguez was braced for change \u2014\u00a0\u201cI know how the business is right now and I knew I was one of the (players who would) probably get traded,\u201d he said \u2014 but there may not be much time to process it once it happens. \u201cIt’s a lot of things in a short time,\u201d is how he put it. \u201cI just tried to not think, just tried to go out and do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the midst of it all, there\u2019s the actual baseball, too, which hadn\u2019t gone well for the Blue Jays in the brutal Baltimore humidity until Wednesday\u2019s 9-8 victory salvaged the finale of a difficult four-game set.<\/p>\n

Berrios started and, as evidenced by a pitching line that read 4.1 innings, five runs allowed, two earned, fell victim to the uncharacteristic sloppy that marked the three losses, as Ernie Clement\u2019s first of two errors opened the door to a three-run first capped by Ryan O’Hearn\u2019s two-run homer.<\/p>\n

The second Clement error came in the seventh, after the Blue Jays had stormed back for a 9-5 lead with five in the top half, highlighted by Nathan Lukes\u2019 pinch-hit, three-run homer, when the Orioles rallied for three off Yariel Rodriguez.<\/p>\n

But Braydon Fisher<\/a> worked out of that jam by striking out Cedric Mullins and Ramon Laureano, Dominguez delivered a lockdown eighth and Jeff Hoffman was clean in the ninth to stop a four-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

The ending offered a timely reminder of how important a dominant bullpen is for contending clubs and the Blue Jays remained focused on adding back-end relief, according to industry sources. While one source predicted the bulk of action will take place Thursday, another suggested that the market on Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley was nearing an end-game, with the Blue Jays among several suitors involved in the talks.<\/p>\n

In that way, the drama is still just beginning.<\/p>\n

Whatever happens, the Blue Jays know they need to get back to playing the clean baseball that put them in position to buy in the first place, with Wednesday\u2019s contest demonstrating how mistakes compound.<\/p>\n

In the first, Gunnar Henderson hit a groundball to second that could have been an inning-ending double play, but Clement whipped his relay to Bichette into left field, leaving runners at second and third with one out. Rutschman followed by capping an eight-pitch duel with a sacrifice fly to deep centre, perhaps softening up Berrios, who then watched O\u2019Hearn mash a fastball over the wall in right field.<\/p>\n

By the time the inning was done, Berrios had allowed three unearned runs and thrown 16 extra pitches, both leaving the Blue Jays in a hole while also cutting into how deep into the righty could get.<\/p>\n

Undeterred, the Blue Jays clawed back into it, with Myles Straw hitting a two-run homer in the second. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.\u2019s RBI single in the fifth tied the game but Bichette followed with a flyball to medium depth in left, Clement tagged and was initially ruled to have beaten Jordan Westburg\u2019s throw home, but an Orioles challenge overturned the call, keeping the game 3-3.<\/p>\n

Failing to capitalize on that opportunity proved immediately costly as Alex Jackson opened the bottom half with a double, advanced to third on Holliday\u2019s groundout and scored when Jordan Westburg ripped a two-run shot that ended Berrios\u2019 day.<\/p>\n

Straw\u2019s RBI double in the sixth made it a one-run game and Mullins then pulled back a 403-foot smash by Ali Sanchez just as it was crossing the wall for a homer to end the inning.<\/p>\n

An inning later, the Blue Jays weren\u2019t to be denied, as Bichette\u2019s two-run single put them up 6-5 before Lukes\u2019 smash.<\/p>\n

In the bottom half, mistakes once again compounded. Davis Schneider made a nice play to knock down a Holliday grounder headed for the 3-4 hole, but couldn\u2019t transfer the ball for the relay. Westburg followed with a bloop single just in front of Straw in centre and Henderson ripped an RBI single.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Yariel Rodriguez seemed to have recovered when he got Rutschman to rip a groundball right to Clement at first, but instead it bounded through the usually sure-handed infielder, allowing a second run to score. Two consecutive walks made it a one-run game and ended Rodriguez\u2019s day before Fisher ended the threat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE \u2014 The lead-up to the 2021 trade deadline \u201cfelt weird\u201d for Jose Berrios. Some nights, he recalled,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-35358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}