Blue Jays' margin for error shrinks in Wild Card chase

NEW YORK -- This is what it’s expected to look like when you roll out a bullpen day against one of the American League’s Cy Young Award favorites.

Last week, the Blue Jays pulled off the upset against Cam Schlittler, but they couldn’t repeat that magic in Friday night’s 3-1 loss at Yankee Stadium as their offense fell quiet outside of Brett Bateman, who fell just a homer shy of the cycle.

The Blue Jays are now 1 1/2 games back of the final AL Wild Card spot.

This is what mattered most:

1. Scoreboard watching: AL Wild Card race
You still need two screens and a calculator to track these AL Wild Card standings and the many, many tiebreakers involved.

The Blue Jays’ weak schedule beyond this series has gotten plenty of attention, but everyone else’s path through September matters, too. Looking at teams that could factor into the Wild Card race entering this weekend, the Tigers are playing the Royals, the Astros are playing the Athletics, the Rangers are playing the Angels and the Guardians are playing the Rockies. Expect a couple of sweeps, or at least a couple of series wins out of that bunch.

Consider these next couple of weeks to be like Saturday in a golf tournament; “moving day,” as they call it. The Blue Jays won't lock down a postseason spot between now and early September, but they could risk leaving themselves a steeper hill to climb coming out of this Yankees series.

2. First impressions of Arrighetti
This was Spencer Arrighetti’s first appearance with Toronto, activated off the IL earlier Friday after dealing with Morton’s neuroma, a nerve issue that caused sharp pain in his right foot. The right-hander allowed three runs over 3 1/3 innings on 61 pitches. It’s not the tidiest line, and it included a two-run blast from Spencer Jones, but we saw glimpses of what the Blue Jays believe in.

“I like his stuff,” manager John Schneider said. “I think he can navigate righties and lefties with his arsenal. There’s a lot of upside. The biggest thing is just not issuing free passes.”

Think of Arrighetti as a project, and Toronto is trying to build another Chris Bassitt. Arrighetti throws a ton of different pitches, and while his fastball sits near 93 mph, his unique mix of movement profiles can keep hitters off balance. We saw some excellent curveballs and cutters from Arrighetti, in particular, on Friday night.

“I feel like the big message since I got over here is to be confident in my stuff,” Arrighetti said. “Go out there and throw it in the box. That’s been the key to me being really good in this league, and it’s also been the downfall at times. They’ve done a really great job of building me up since getting over here. I can tell they believe in my stuff and believe in the way I go about my business. That means a lot to me.”

The Blue Jays want Arrighetti to take the No. 5 job and run with it. He was used in the “bulk” role this time mostly due to his workload still being built up, but if Arrighetti can pitch as a traditional starter in this spot next time around, everyone can exhale for a moment. This bullpen, already gassed from carrying a massive workload, needs to go a few weeks without hearing the words “bullpen game."

3. Cy Young watch: Schlittler vs. Cease
It didn’t feel like Schlittler had his best stuff Friday night. It’s a credit to his immense talent that he was still able to hold the Blue Jays to just one run over six innings, but it also feels like the Blue Jays left some food on the table here.

Toronto couldn’t land a big blow against Schlittler, its only run scoring on a weak grounder from Alejandro Kirk, which snuck through the right side of the Yankees’ infield to score Bateman. The outing lowered Schlittler’s ERA to 2.16 over 158 innings, which is one heck of a Cy Young case.

“We just need the big hit. We were 1-for-14 with guys in scoring position,” Schneider said. “He’s good. He’s one of the best pitchers in the league.”

Dylan Cease, who pitches Saturday for the Blue Jays, owns a 2.42 ERA over 137 2/3 innings. His strikeout totals (201) are overwhelming, and some of the advanced metrics make the case for Cease by a hair, but his Toronto teammates could have helped him out by jacking Schlittler’s ERA up a few points on Friday night.