CLEVELAND -- The Blue Jays just took care of business in Cleveland and are now just a half-game out of the final American League Wild Card spot.
Thursday afternoon’s 6-3 win not only closes the gap in the Wild Card race, it also gives the Blue Jays a crucial tiebreaker over the Guardians in their head-to-head matchup (4-2) this season.
“We had a tough first game here, then I loved the way we bounced back,” manager John Schneider said. “They’re a good team and it’s always scrappy, it’s always tough all the way down to the end. I think it sets us up to try to do it again [this weekend against the Royals] in Kansas City. I like the way we’re playing right now.”
This is what mattered most:
1. The big picture
Never underestimate the value of a tiebreaker. Remember, the Yankees and Blue Jays both finished at 94-68 last season, but Toronto took the division crown courtesy of a tiebreaker.
Now that the Blue Jays hold that advantage over the Guardians, this is where it stands:
Blue Jays tiebreakers (full rules here):
Guardians: 4-2
Orioles: 4-3 with six games remaining
Rangers: 0-4 with three games remaining (lost)
Twins: 3-4
Mariners: 4-2
Tigers: 2-1 with three games remaining
The Guardians could quickly come back to life after an unimpressive week of baseball against the Blue Jays, but it’s beginning to feel more like the Orioles could be the biggest threat in this race when you consider their remaining games. The Blue Jays will host the Orioles at Rogers Centre from Sept. 11-13, then travel to Camden Yards for a three-game set Sept. 21-23.
It doesn’t get any simpler from here, though. The Royals and A’s aren’t powerhouses, but the Blue Jays are on a long road trip, scrambling out of Cleveland as quickly as they could postgame to get some rest in Kansas City. These trips, especially in September, can test a team.
“It’s nice to win this series, but we’ve got to turn the page and try to do it again against a team that just played us really tough at home,” Schneider said of the Royals, who won two of three games at Rogers Centre Aug. 25-27. “Every day is a new challenge. You’ve got to take the good from this series, move on and try to stack some more good days together.”
2. Vladimir Guerrero Jr.? He’s still feeling it.
This wasn’t nearly as flashy as Vladdy’s performance on Wednesday, when he launched a three-run homer and finished with five RBIs. Guerrero was still as locked in as we’ve seen him in ages, though, even flipping his bat on a walk to open Toronto’s fourth inning after battling back from an 0-2 count.
In the fifth, Guerrero shot a sac fly out to right field and was pumping his right fist the moment he made contact, knowing he’d hit it deep enough to bring in Brett Bateman from third.
“Little things like that, we’ve been a lot better at lately,” Schneider said. “It can be contagious. It always helps when you hit a three-run homer after a mistake [on Wednesday], too, but you’ve got to do that. Any crack that either team gives you, you’ve got to take advantage of it.”
The Blue Jays need Guerrero to be their leader right now, and two days in a row, he’s shown the two ways that can be done. Every at-bat and every little run matters at this point in the AL Wild Card race, and if Guerrero is playing like that, the rest of this roster will follow.
3. Keys answers Schneider’s call
Asked recently what Sean Keys had to do to make his second stint in the big leagues more successful than the last, Schneider had a quick, simple answer: “Hit breaking balls.”
Keys’ RBI single in the fourth came off a Tanner Bibee sweeper at the bottom of the zone, an important swing that gives his manager more reason to trust him. It wasn’t a rocket off the bat -- not even close -- but Keys did well to hang back on the pitch instead of flying open too early in his swing.
This is all the Blue Jays need from Keys against good breaking pitches. If he can survive those and hunt fastballs, then his power can truly shine. He’s hit 29 home runs this season between Double-A, Triple-A and the big leagues, more than any other player in this organization. Toronto needs to steal a game or two down the stretch, and with this team so obviously lacking power, it’s going to be tempting to get Keys in there as often as possible.