ST. PETERSBURG -- In the final mile of their marathon, the AL Cy Young Award race between Robbie Ray and Gerrit Cole has come down to who can stay on their feet long enough to reach the finish line.
Ray lasted just 4 2/3 innings in Monday’s 6-4 loss to the Rays, who seemed to make every at-bat difficult. The three runs against Ray bumped his ERA up to 2.72, and while it’s not quite the seven-run struggle that Cole went through on Sunday night, it doesn’t do much to change the race on a day where the door was cracked wide open. This race, like everything else about the 2021 Blue Jays, will go down to the final days of the season.
You can’t say the Blue Jays didn’t make it interesting, loading the bases in the bottom of the ninth, but a pinch-hitting Breyvic Valera went down on a called strike three in a 3-2 count to end a thriller. The loss slides the Blue Jays to 1 1/2 games behind the Red Sox, who were off on Monday, and a Yankees win means that Toronto now holds just a half-game lead over New York for the second Wild Card spot.
“We’re going to battle back, and that’s what we did,” said manager Charlie Montoyo. “We had the tying run at second base and the go-ahead run at first base. It was great to see that the guys are not going to give up. It was a good game, and you have to give them credit for having Robbie Ray throw a lot of pitches. Of course we had to take him out, but still, Robbie kept us in that game. When he left, we were down 3-2, which is still fine with our offense.”
While Ray’s fastball velocity sat 1.2 mph below his season average, the lefty still had his slider working, especially against right-handed hitters. That pitch is capable of bringing a big leaguer to their knees -- or one knee, at least, after swinging over the top of it -- and with stuff as good as Ray’s, even his off-nights have some moments where the veteran lefty still looks like the Cy Young contender he is.
“They made me battle. I had to be on the whole night,” Ray said. “They worked some deep counts, laid off some really good pitches. It was just a battle all night. The one pitch [to Yandy Díaz], I made my pitch. A fastball in off the plate. The guy sucked his hands in and hit a homer. There’s nothing you can really do about it.”
The Rays forced Ray to throw 23 pitches in the first inning, which was a theme for the night, and the rare short outing from Ray puts the spotlight squarely on Alek Manoah, who is slated to start the second game of this three-game series on Tuesday night. With four relievers used behind Ray on Monday and another heavy bullpen day expected on Wednesday with Ross Stripling as the bulk guy, the Blue Jays need Manoah to go deep in the middle.
That being said, Ray didn’t get much run support while he was on the mound. The Blue Jays had just two hits entering the ninth inning, both on solo shots from Teoscar Hernández and Lourdes Gurriel Jr., before Marcus Semien made things interesting in the ninth with a two-run shot, his 41st of the season. That homer keeps Semien in fourth place in the home run race, trailing only Shohei Ohtani with 44 and Salvador Perez and Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who sit tied at the top with 46.
This offense has been a juggernaut through September, powering the Blue Jays to a 15-4 record, but Rays rookie Shane Baz looked like he belonged in his MLB debut, his first inning highlighted by a swinging strikeout of Guerrero on a 99.5-mph fastball. The Tampa Bay bullpen handled the rest, and like this talented Rays team is known for doing, they capitalized on the Blue Jays’ mistakes and every opportunity the rest of the way.
From here, Ray is in line to start on Saturday night in Minnesota against the Twins. He could then pitch on regular rest on Sept. 30 in a crucial game against the Yankees, finally leaving him lined up for a potential Oct. 5 Wild Card Game.
Two short outings in September were unexpected from Ray, but the season he’s put together should give the Blue Jays confidence that these are outliers, not the sign of anything to come. One of baseball’s best pitchers has also been one of the league’s most consistent in 2021, and if there’s one thing you want in a Wild Card starter, it’s a safe bet who’s capable of putting the team on his back.