{"id":742129,"date":"2026-06-17T05:54:19","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T05:54:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/742129\/"},"modified":"2026-06-17T05:54:19","modified_gmt":"2026-06-17T05:54:19","slug":"davis-schneider-helps-blue-jays-find-timely-offence-in-win-over-red-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/742129\/","title":{"rendered":"Davis Schneider helps Blue Jays find timely offence in win over Red Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2013 The first of 16 games in 16 days for the Toronto Blue Jays<\/a> began with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez returning to the lineup, the possibility of more help on the horizon and more messaging on hitting with runners in scoring position.<\/p>\n

As welcome as the former is for a team working to find consistency, the latter is essential to get there. Final at-bat losses to the New York Yankees on Saturday and Sunday, during which the Blue Jays went a combined 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position, highlighted the urgency of the problem, as two more 50-50 games slipped through their fingers.<\/p>\n

A simple correction there \u2014 they headed into Tuesday\u2019s play 25th\u00a0in average and 28th\u00a0in slug in such situations \u2014 would drastically alter their trajectory, especially with Yimi Garc\u00eda, Shane Bieber, Daulton Varsho and Addison Barger progressing toward returns.<\/p>\n

The messaging from manager John Schneider and the coaching staff centred on \u201cshrinking the zone a little bit,\u201d as \u201cwe have capable guys up there that are probably chasing a little more \u2026 so it’s just focusing your attention to that, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone wants to be the guy to get the big hit,\u201d he added, \u201cbut you still have to be really within your capabilities of doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

They did precisely that in a 6-1 win over the Boston Red Sox, playing to the situation to manufacture a run in the third \u2013 keyed by a 14-pitch Myles Straw flyout that advanced Gimenez to third and allowed him to score on a George Springer<\/a> sac fly \u2013 getting to damage in the fifth on their first back-to-back homers of the season, and then adding on in the sixth and ninth.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Davis Schneider<\/a>, who homered for the second straight outing after going 37 games without a longball dating back to March 30, was in the middle of it all. He took Payton Tolle over the monster before Gim\u00e9nez followed with a drive out to right-centre, and then added a run-scoring double in the sixth, although a bigger inning was left on the table.<\/p>\n

In the ninth, Springer\u2019s two-run shot, the 300th\u00a0homer of his career, eventually provided the extra breathing room.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou saw a complete team game, guys are getting guys over and in. It doesn’t really matter where you hit, expect to do what the game asks in that moment,\u201d said Springer, who pointed to Straw\u2019s flyout as a prime example. \u201cThat’s an unbelievable at-bat for us as a team, right? He had a plan. He was trying to get the guy over the whole time and was able to fight off a lot of extremely hard pitches to foul off. At the end of the day, he did his job, he got the guy from second to third. He did everything that we needed to do and that just fired up the dugout, got everybody going, and showed he’s playing for the name of the front, not the name on the back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with five innings of high-effort shutout ball from Dylan Cease<\/a> and Louis Varland cleaning up a mess in the eighth before handling the ninth for his 13th\u00a0save, the Blue Jays improved to 35-38 while pushing the offence-starved Red Sox to 29-41.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really just never got comfortable and never got into a rhythm,\u201d said Cease, who was frustrated by being in and out of trouble thanks to four hits and four walks, but used seven strikeouts and two key Straw catches on Caleb Durbin to avoid damage. \u201cA game like today is not sustainable, but sometimes they just go in your favour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis Schneider\u2019s awakening is especially timely with Jake Bennett slated to start Wednesday night, making it two straight lefties on the mound against the Blue Jays.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Recalled Friday as Varsho hit the injured list, he had been sent to triple-A Buffalo for a reset after his extended dry spell, instructed to focus on better attacking pitches in his hot zones. With 24 walks in 60 plate appearances with the Bisons, he didn\u2019t get much to swing at, but said, \u201cThank God,\u201d as he touched home plate Sunday.<\/p>\n

Asked what he hoped to carry forward from that swing, he quipped, \u201chit more homers, hopefully.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like I was seeing the ball middle and swinging at pitches that I know I could really handle,\u201d he added. \u201cThat’s a good sign for me, just swinging at pitches I know I can do damage on.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the wider message the Blue Jays are preaching to their offence as they seek more consistent production. Earlier in the season, John Schneider felt his team was \u201cpigeon-holed\u201d in being pitched very differently in specific counts, but now feels that\u2019s more of a league-wide trend.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Either way, his hitters need to counter and \u201cthat’s the adjustment we’re trying to get to or stay ahead of when you get there,\u201d he explained. \u201cThat’s really it. It is tricky. It comes and it goes. But I think the pitches are a little bit different. And if they’re still in the zone, but they’re not where you can handle them, that’s where you’re seeing not getting the hit, a pop up or a ground out, whatever, as opposed to a base hit or double or a home run. So just trying to adjust to that, with what the league’s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tuesday night at Fenway showed what their offence can look like when they execute like that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2013 The first of 16 games in 16 days for the Toronto Blue Jays began with Vladimir…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-742129","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\/742129","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=742129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}