SEATTLE -- When the days start to dwindle in September, remember Friday’s wild 3-2 loss. If the Blue Jays plan to make a postseason run, that’s the exact type of game they’ll need to steal a win from.
Everything was clean -- until it wasn’t. The Blue Jays and Mariners played tight baseball for eight innings with a handful of standout defensive plays on either side, but the pressure built up and the dam eventually burst in Toronto’s favor in the ninth. Well, at least it looked that way.
With the bases loaded, Marcus Semien popped into foul territory behind first base and the Blue Jays sent Breyvic Valera home from third, an aggressive play with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. standing on deck. Valera dove for home and was called safe, which appeared set to be the play of the game. Valera’s hand appeared to reach in and touch the front corner of home plate, just in front of catcher Tom Murphy’s foot, but a replay review overturned the call, shocking the Blue Jays and ending the inning.
“Every angle that we saw on that replay looked like he was safe,” said manager Charlie Montoyo. “Usually plays like that don’t get overturned. I was yelling at [home-plate umpire] Jim Reynolds, ‘Great frigging call,’ because I already heard from our side that he was safe. Usually, from my experience, they usually don’t get overturned. Somehow it did, so we’ll have to see more of it.”
Then came the real gut punch.
Adam Cimber, who’s been a rock for the Blue Jays lately, jogged in and recorded the first two outs with relative ease. The next batter walked, though, then another. A chopper that tipped off Cimber’s glove and died in front of second base loaded the bases with two outs, but when Montoyo brought in Brad Hand -- the veteran lefty who’s seen hundreds of high-leverage situations in his career -- he threw four straight balls.
On a night with a playoff atmosphere where every single inch counted, it all ended with Jarred Kelenic skipping up the first-base line, pounding his chest as his Mariners teammates flooded the field to celebrate … a walk.
“It goes back to bad luck,” Montoyo said. “It was a little hopper that [Cimber] couldn’t get, then the runner had the right on that play to keep going straight, so there was a little collision with Semien. That was tough luck, too. Usually you don’t see Hand come in and throw four straight balls. Everything didn’t go right that whole inning.”
Like any great game, there were a dozen other moments that could have put the Blue Jays over the top. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was robbed of extra bases by a leaping Mitch Haniger in the first, then George Springer was robbed by Kelenic at the wall in the third. Springer returned the favor more than once, fielding fly balls and boos all night, but the Mariners ended up making just one more play than the Blue Jays did.
Robbie Ray looked like he always does, giving the Blue Jays seven innings of two-run ball with eight strikeouts to lower his ERA to 2.88. Using his fastball-slider combo almost exclusively, the left-hander mowed through the Mariners’ lineup after allowing a two-run homer in the third. His start was a reminder that the consistency he’s shown this season has been remarkable. It should have been enough, but it wasn’t.
“That was kind of what they did all night -- they battled,” Ray said. “They were able to scrap it together.”
Toronto now sits 8 1/2 games back in the American League East, but it would take a long winning streak and a misstep by the Rays to make that conversation realistic at this point. The Wild Card is easier to envision, as the Blue Jays now sit 3 1/2 games back of Boston for the second spot with Oakland one game ahead of the Red Sox. Seattle is right there, though, just one game behind the Blue Jays in the race, which makes the loss sting even more.
The loss doesn’t tarnish what the Blue Jays have done since returning home to Toronto on July 30, now a streak with an 11-5 record that’s brought back fragments of memories from those 2015 and ‘16 runs. They’ve had some big, dominant wins along the way, but as October grows closer and teams battle it out for the final spots in the postseason, games like Friday’s will determine who’s playing and who’s watching.