{"id":68111,"date":"2025-08-14T04:08:13","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T04:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/68111\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T04:08:13","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T04:08:13","slug":"blue-jays-miss-springers-impact-as-bats-go-cold-in-loss-to-cubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/68111\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays miss Springer’s impact as bats go cold in loss to Cubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 Compared to the previous concussions he\u2019s had, the one George Springer<\/a> suffered July 28, when a 96 m.p.h. sinker from Baltimore Orioles reliever Kade Strowd glanced off his left shoulder and into his batting helmet, was, in his words, \u201cweird.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had days where I felt good, had days where I didn’t,\u201d the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> outfielder explained. \u201cAnd I think probably three or four days ago, I had my first great day. For me, it’s about small victories and over the last three or four days, I feel like I had a lot of small victories and had another one today. I get to go and start the process. And we’ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springer\u2019s victory Wednesday was in finally clearing Major League Baseball\u2019s concussion protocol, allowing him to begin a rehab assignment Thursday at triple-A Buffalo as DH for the Bisons. He\u2019s likely to play at least one more game in the outfield afterwards \u2013 \u201cI feel like that’s also big,\u201d he said \u2013 with next steps to be determined based on his needs.<\/p>\n

Whatever those turn out to be, Springer\u2019s return is now on the horizon for a Blue Jays team that\u2019s missed his impact over the past couple of weeks the way it did again Wednesday during a 4-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs.<\/p>\n

Whatever those turn out to be, Springer\u2019s return is now on the horizon for a Blue Jays team that\u2019s missed his impact over the past couple of weeks the way it did Wednesday during a 4-1 loss to the Chicago Cubs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays, who managed only two hits against Cade Horton<\/a> and four relievers, are 7-7 without Springer, who is tied for second on the club with 18 homers and is fourth with 57 RBIs while posting an .889 OPS. Excluding the three-game, 45-run pummelling of the woeful Colorado Rockies, they\u2019ve scored only 39 runs in the other 11 games during his absence.<\/p>\n

While their success has been built upon contributions up and down the lineup, the threat and presence Springer provides makes the order deeper while compounding the stress upon opposing pitchers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Horton didn\u2019t allow a baserunner until Bo Bichette\u2019s one-out walk in the fourth, before Vladimir Guerrero Jr. nearly put the Blue Jays ahead, but just got under a high-arcing drive to left that Ian Happ caught against the wall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThought he got it,\u201d said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. \u201cIt kind of just ran in enough to get it on the short end of the bat a little bit. I’ve seen him hit plenty of them that go out that way. Good swing on a 3-0 pitch. You’ve got to take chances there when a guy’s got good stuff. Like the approach, like the swing. He just kind of missed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their first hit didn\u2019t come until Andres Gimenez\u2019s one-out single in the sixth and an out later, Bichette\u2019s tenacious 10-pitch walk ended Horton\u2019s outing.<\/p>\n

Andrew Kittredge took over and Guerrero, after four straight sliders, ripped a 2-2 sinker down the left-field line for a double that cut a 2-0 deficit in half and ended Horton\u2019s\u00a0scoreless inning streak at 29 innings. But Barger\u2019s line drive to deep left was chased down by Happ, the Cubs added on a pair in the eighth inning off Braydon Fisher to make it 4-1 and held on from there.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was good,\u201d Schneider said of Horton, who last allowed a run July 9 at Minnesota. \u201cFastball kind of cuts, sinks and he can pitch, too. So, when you’re trying to get a good pitch to hit, didn’t hit many of them, missed them, so you’ve to give him credit. And then he made some big pitches … kind of kept us in between. He’s got a good little run going.\u201d<\/p>\n

That put to waste seven solid innings from Kevin Gausman, who allowed just two runs on solo shots by Michael Busch in the third and Matt Shaw in the fifth, despite nine balls hit at least 101.4 m.p.h. off the bat. He needed the strong play behind him on a night he only struck out three.<\/p>\n

\"WatchWatch Blue Jays vs. Cubs on Sportsnet<\/p>\n

The American League-leading Toronto Blue Jays return home for a three-game series against the Chicago Cubs. Game 3 is Thursday, starting at 3 p.m. ET \/ noon PT, with live coverage on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+.<\/p>\n

Broadcast schedule<\/a><\/p>\n

The Cubs attacked him early and often, putting seven balls in play on the first pitch and two more on the second pitch, all for outs, and the right-hander needed some solid defence behind him on a night he only struck out three.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can go into a game thinking they’re going to be aggressive, but that was pretty crazy,\u201d said Gausman. \u201cI’ll take it. Against me, you’re either going to be kind of passive as an offence or you’re going to be really aggressive. I could tell after the first that they were going to come out swinging and obviously the two homers were the difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Springer said being forced to watch the Blue Jays play while being sidelined \u201chas sucked,\u201d because \u201cthere’s nothing more that I want to do than be on the field with these guys every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s something out of my control \u2013 it’s not like I asked to get hit in head,\u201d he continued. \u201cThat’s the game. It happens, unfortunately. But for me, it was just kind of making sure that I was OK and feeling good. But it\u2019s just sucked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, he\u2019s been smart enough to play it slow and not push with a head injury, especially since after being hit by Strowd\u2019s pitch, \u201cI just kind of felt out of it for a while.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, when you take 96 to the head, it’s not necessarily ideal,\u201d he added. \u201cI’ve had concussions before \u2026 stuff can come up three or four days later. So I was pretty much in communication with Jose (Ministral, the head trainer) the whole time and making sure I wasn’t kind of outside for that long. Making sure I was doing all the right things. But from that perspective, I’m glad it’s hopefully behind me.\u201d<\/p>\n

As are the Blue Jays, who are more than ready for Springer\u2019s return.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 Compared to the previous concussions he\u2019s had, the one George Springer suffered July 28, when a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68112,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-68111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68111","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=68111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68111\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}