TORONTO -- Series by series, the Blue Jays are grinding their way back into the AL Wild Card race.
Thursday’s 7-0 loss to the Red Sox at Rogers Centre was a dud, a tight game up until Chase Lee served up a grand slam to Caleb Durbin to break the game wide open. The 3-1 series win was another step in the right direction, though, for a club that suddenly has built a sense of momentum and sits two games back of the Rangers, who play later Thursday night, for the final AL Wild Card spot.
“It’s frustrating because we had some opportunities,” manager John Schneider said, “but looking at it in totality, we’re playing really well right now. You can see that guys are tired, but they’re grinding and they’re leaving it out there. Today just wasn’t our day, but I like the way we’re playing. When you’re taking three out of four from a division opponent, it’s a good thing.”
This is what mattered most from the finale as the Blue Jays look to carry over their winning ways against the Yankees beginning Friday.
1. Mr. 3000 is officially rolling
Max Scherzer became the 139th pitcher in MLB history to pitch 3,000 innings Thursday, another accolade for the future Hall-of-Famer after he moved into 10th place on the all-time strikeouts list just last week. Among active pitchers, only Justin Verlander has thrown more innings (3,571 1/3) than Scherzer.
These past two weeks have been good innings, too. Scherzer is 42 and has battled through forearm, ankle, back and thumb issues this season, but there’s still something left in that tank. If he can do this the rest of the way, it’s major news for the Blue Jays and their injury-riddled rotation.
“I’ll never put anything past Max,” Schneider said. “I’ve kind of just learned to live with that. You never know.”
Scherzer isn’t just pitching for the love of the game at this point, either. He’s a fierce competitor, a two-time World Series champion who came so close to a third ring a year ago. Much like George Springer, his presence alone can help to keep this organization competitive down the stretch. These aren’t the types of players you keep around if you’re just trying to play out the season and get the young guys some reps.
“When he’s pitching and he’s contributing, there’s a different feel to him and the team. He has a little bit of ground to stand on. He lives for this [stuff],” Schneider said with a big grin, which you’ll often see when he talks about Scherzer. “He’s an adrenaline junkie. He lives for this. There’s always a bit of a different emotion with him. I worry about him when he’s done, when he doesn’t have all of this.”
Scherzer, of course, just wanted to win. He’ll celebrate another day.
“It’s a really cool milestone to reach. It just stinks that it comes in a loss,” Scherzer said. “When I take the mound, I’m competing to win. I wanted to win more than anything. When the team doesn’t win, it’s tough to celebrate something you accomplished, but I respect getting to 3,000. It’s a big deal, a testament to durability.”
2. Where did the offense go?
Granted, the Blue Jays haven’t been lighting up the scoreboard during their recent run, but in Wednesday’s finale the bats fell completely silent.
Red Sox lefty Payton Tolle put up an extremely unique line, holding the Blue Jays scoreless over eight innings, but he didn’t strike out his first batter until the sixth. Instead, Tolle was a weak contact machine, managing to exploit the Blue Jays’ extreme contact approach to generate plenty of harmless pop flies and ground balls.
3. Vladdy’s glove still works
His bat? That’s another story entirely, and the Blue Jays won’t be able to pull off this postseason run until their franchise player starts hitting like one. Defensively, though, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. looks better than he ever has.
His over-the-shoulder catch on a Willson Contreras pop fly in the sixth inning was the defensive highlight of the game, which left Guerrero tumbling into the netting.
Guerrero is making a fine case for his second career Gold Glove Award this season. The metrics say Guerrero is tied with Paul Goldschmidt of the Yankees for the highest Fielding Run value among AL first basemen (+4). The eye test backs it up, with plenty of highlight-reel plays. Everyone would happily trade this for a few home runs, but Guerrero’s defense can’t be overlooked.