{"id":73446,"date":"2025-08-16T06:05:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T06:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/73446\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T06:05:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T06:05:06","slug":"blue-jays-comeback-vs-rangers-indicative-of-growth-since-last-matchup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/73446\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays’ comeback vs. Rangers indicative of growth since last matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2013 In late May when the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> arrived in Arlington after a one-sided sweep at the Tampa Bay Rays, manager John Schneider described the upcoming games against the Texas Rangers<\/a> as\u00a0\u201ca big test.\u201d <\/p>\n

They\u2019d scored just twice during a lost weekend, as they struggled to climb above .500 \u201cbecause of the ebbs and flows of offence and baserunning,\u201d and\u00a0were at a point where \u201cyou really have to revisit\u201d what they needed to do to succeed. \u201cThe way we played in Tampa turned this into a little bit of a bigger series,\u201d Schneider added back then.<\/p>\n

Well, the Blue Jays didn\u2019t exactly light it up during those three games at\u00a0Globe Life Field \u2014 scoring only four times during the three games \u2014 but still managed to eke out a couple of\u00a0stabilizing wins, taking the finale 2-0 on Bo Bichette<\/a>\u2019s pinch-hit homer in the ninth. <\/p>\n

Their odds of winning the AL East and of reaching the post-season stood at just 3.2 and 29.6 per cent afterwards (per FanGraphs<\/a>),\u00a0but they returned home to unload on the Athletics during a four-game sweep, starting a run of 11 wins in 13 outings and haven\u2019t looked back since.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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

The American League-leading Toronto Blue Jays continue their homestand with a three-game series against the Texas Rangers. Watch Game 2 Saturday on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+ starting at 3 p.m. ET \/ noon PT.<\/p>\n

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

Now, a season is never turned around by a single moment, but with some hindsight, that clash with the Rangers certainly turned out to be a springboard to where the Jays are now.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt that point, we had some good moments where we kind of showed ourselves what we could do, but we hadn’t gone on that stretch to validate it. That\u2019s where we were at,\u201d said Bichette. \u201cFor me personally, (the homer) was probably like my first real big hit. That one felt significant for me. I feel like this whole year, personally, has just kind of been building blocks towards becoming myself, if not a better version of myself. That was definitely one of them and the team has sort of been on that trajectory, as well, little-by-little finding ourselves again, getting to the point we’ve gotten to. That series is one of those blocks.\u201d<\/p>\n

All of which explains why the two teams began this weekend\u2019s return engagement at Rogers Centre in such different spots, the Blue Jays (72-51) now atop the AL East while the Rangers (61-62) are still spinning their wheels while chasing a wild-card spot.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s opener also played out very differently than the last series between the two, as the Blue Jays used a four-spot in the eighth inning \u2013 started by Bichette\u2019s RBI single and highlighted by Alejandro Kirk<\/a>\u2019s go-ahead two-run base hit \u2013 to complete their 39th\u00a0comeback win of the season, 6-5.<\/p>\n

Chris Bassitt fell behind early during a rough second inning in which he surrendered a three-run homer to Kyle Higashioka that opened the scoring and Jacob deGrom, pumping 98 and 99 all night, kept it there over five dominant innings.<\/p>\n

But Bassitt, fighting his command early and the way the Rangers were hunting his curveball, kept a lid on the damage to get through five innings while Kirk pulled the Blue Jays back into it with a two-run homer off Robert Garcia in the seventh. Louis Varland gave that back in the eighth when Marcus Semien hammered a flat first pitch slider over the wall in left for a two-run shot of his own, but as the Blue Jays have so often this year, they rallied once more.<\/p>\n

Back-to-back singles by Andres Gimenez and pinch-hitter Davis Schneider set the table for Bichette, who delivered his latest important hit with a line drive up the middle off Danny Coloumbe to begin the comeback. Later in the inning, Daulton Varsho\u2019s bases-loaded walk preceded Kirk\u2019s go-ahead knock, which came on a two-strike curveball after he\u2019d taken a massive swing and miss at a 1-1 cutter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got too big on that swing,\u201d Kirk said through interpreter Hector Lebron, \u201cso I knew right then that I had to make an adjustment, trying to get a good pitch to hit and put good contact on the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s catching Rickey (Henderson) slowly, I think,\u201d quipped Bassitt, before catching the ninth when Jeff Hoffman struck out the side\u00a0for his 28th\u00a0save.<\/p>\n

All of it a long way from some of those tough days in May.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’ve been playing really well and really functioning well as an offence since then,\u201d said John Schneider. \u201cIt takes time. Today’s a perfect example of everyone kind of doing their part. (Davis Schneider) with the pinch-hit, taking walks when you should take walks, having good at-bats up and down and putting the ball in play. Sometimes there’s a turning point in the year, and I think Bo’s home run there kind of got us going. And then from there guys are just doing their part.\u201d<\/p>\n

While deGrom kept Bichette \u2014 and the rest of the lineup \u2014 under wraps early, Bichette\u2019s RBI single in the eighth pushed his numbers with runners in scoring position this year to\u00a0an astonishing .374\/.417\/.618 with seven homers, nine doubles, a triple and 68 RBI. His 79 RBI lead the team while his 149 hits top the majors.<\/p>\n

And since that homer in Texas, he\u2019s batting .312\/.348\/.507 with 11 homers and 52 RBIs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBig hits in big moments and big homers in big moments have been a trademark of mine throughout my career, and the year-and-a-half-ish before that home run, it was something that I just didn’t feel like I was doing, for whatever reason,\u201d said Bichette. \u201cI just wasn’t coming up with those big hits late in games and it was something I was still searching for, honestly, because as much as a win is a win, I want those moments. And so then to have one was like, OK, I finally did it again, and I could kind of relax and not worry about coming up big so much.\u201d<\/p>\n

A similar feeling has applied team-wide, with the conversations around the Blue Jays shifting from the lack of big hits in key spots to who\u2019s going to be the one that delivers it this time. Within that context, Bichette\u2019s consistent production and Vladimir Guerrero Jr.\u2019s steady discipline have been fuel for everyone else\u2019s success, rather than the Blue Jays being wholly dependent on them to win the day like they were last year.<\/p>\n

In turn, Bichette has accepted\u00a0that, \u201cI’m probably never going to feel like I’m where I need to be (at the plate), but I’ve come to a decent place of just being in the moment and doing the best I can that day and being the most consistent I can be, and not really searching for that perfection.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause to be honest,\u201d he continued, \u201cI didn’t really ever feel like I got hot (this season). I feel like I managed the day-to-day really well. I was able to make adjustments really quick, I was in the moment. That’s what the best hitters do. And if I have a scorching hot week where I can’t get out, then that’s great. I still demand the same of myself. I probably make failures and successes a smaller deal and that makes it easier to move on, whether it was good or bad, make adjustments and try to learn from the successes and get better from the failures.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like this is probably the best version of myself as a hitter that I’ve been in my career,\u201d he added, \u201cjust looking to get better every day and that’s pretty much it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Especially since that fateful May series in Texas, as both he and the Blue Jays continue to do precisely that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2013 In late May when the Toronto Blue Jays arrived in Arlington after a one-sided sweep at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-73446","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\/73446","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=73446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}