Toronto Blue Jays<\/a>, on the other hand, resumed play in contention for a post-season berth only by virtue of the American League\u2019s mediocrity, taking the field only 2.5 games behind the final wild-card spot despite sitting six games under .500. They were among the six teams within 3.5 games of the cutoff point, so it\u2019s crowded, but to this point, no team\u2019s been capable of breaking off from the group.<\/p>\n\u201cThat helps us,\u201d said manager John Schneider. \u201cWe haven’t played as well or as consistently as we wanted to and if it wasn’t still attainable, it would be a different vibe in here, coming off of last year. So the league, kind of thankful it is where it is, that there are still some realistic chances of getting in the post-season. That\u2019s why we play.\u201d<\/p>\n
None of that matters, of course, if the Blue Jays can\u2019t shake off the bevy of issues that dragged them down through the season\u2019s first 3\u00bd months, many of which surfaced in a 12-4 thumping from the White Sox.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not long after Schneider identified \u201cstarting pitching and just playing more consistently,\u201d as two key areas that needed to change for the defending American League champions to make a run, Spencer Miles surrendered a five-spot in the second inning that buried the offence while sloppy play opened the door to add-on runs that negated all comeback hopes.<\/p>\n
\u201cStopping the bleeding, you need to start missing bats, essentially, so getting more swing and miss, maybe making a different pitch here and there, or whatever it is,\u201d Miles said of trying to work around several soft-contact hits before Sam Antonacci\u2019s two-run shot. \u201cA lot of it is bad luck, obviously, and then I give up a two-run homer, 3-1 count, threw another four-seamer in there. \u2026\u00a0I got ahead well (12-of-18 first pitch strikes), got a bunch of people to two strikes, just maybe making a couple of better put-away pitches.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Blue Jays did hit three home runs, but the drives by Luis Urias, George Springer and Brandon Valenzuela were each solo shots, and the one time they loaded the bases while the game was still in reach, with one out in the third, they managed only a run-scoring fielder\u2019s choice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adam Macko, Patrick Corbin and Braydon Fisher entered the game with a chance to keep the score from getting worse and didn\u2019t and by the end of the night, the Blue Jays were 45-52, matching a season low at seven games under .500.<\/p>\n
They also dropped 3.5 games off the pace in the wild-card race after what Schneider called \u201ca dud of a game, for just a variety of reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNot for lack of effort, not for a lack of wanting to come back and things like that. It was just tough to [get] back into the game, and you’ve got to give them credit for continuing to add on,\u201d he continued. \u201cI always say you got to stack positives out of every day, and the results suck today, for sure, but incrementally there are some things that build up for (Saturday).\u201d<\/p>\n
Contention by default can only last so long and underlining the urgency of the moment, the Blue Jays deployed Springer in the outfield for the first time since last Sept. 24, allowing them to DH Valenzuela against lefty Anthony Kay, one of three former Toronto pitchers they faced in the game.<\/p>\n
The 36-year-old said returning to the outfield is \u201cabout doing what I can to help the team,\u201d and if \u201cthat’s what Shneids wants me to do one day, I’ll do it.\u201d At the same time, \u201cyou just have to focus on the opportunity, focus on every day. \u2026 The good news is that we’re still in a spot where we’re not out of this thing. For us, it’s about doing something every day to help us win. We’ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
The upcoming schedule offers a good litmus test ahead of the Aug. 3 trade deadline, as after three with the White Sox, the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays arrive for a four-game set, with three games at the suddenly surging Boston Red Sox to follow. If they\u2019re going to pull themselves into this, now is the time, as while the Blue Jays continue to believe in their group, reality will dictate actions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
With Addison Barger not progressing with his back and elbow injuries, Anthony Santander stuck with his shoulder, Yimi Garcia trying to ramp up again, Max Scherzer on a pause after getting cortisone shots in his thumb Monday and only Jesus Sanchez potentially on the horizon, there isn\u2019t much internal help coming so the front office must manage assets wisely as the deadline nears.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery game is important,\u201d said Springer. \u201cIt’s a sprint. I think everyone understands that. I don’t think we focus too much on a certain date or whatever the case. Every game matters from now on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Each one matters more, too, as the margin for error shrinks with each loss, as does the runway to correct. The Blue Jays continue to believe their best baseball is ahead of them and now is the time for them to get there.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 The emergence of the Chicago White Sox is one of baseball\u2019s better stories so far this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809408,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-809407","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\/809407","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=809407"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809407\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}