DETROIT -- The time separating one of the Blue Jays’ best defensive plays of the year and Steven Matz’s slow trod down the dugout steps with team trainer in tow spanned just 13 pitches in the fourth inning Friday.
Quite the unlucky number, but the actual unlucky break didn’t come until the eighth inning, when center fielder Josh Palacios dove for a sinking liner and missed, allowing Detroit to score the eventual game-winning run on an inside-the-parker during Toronto’s 2-1 loss at Comerica Park.
"It's been tough lately," Matz said. "There have been some close games, and games that we're playing good baseball. We've just got to keep doing that, and eventually it'll start going our way. Everybody's just got to continue doing their part, and I think the tides will turn."
Toronto has weathered more than its share of tough luck lately, but for a while on Friday, it seemed as though the Blue Jays had skirted the worst of it.
Matz took the mound having just faced Detroit on Sunday and handled his business early. The left-hander allowed a two-out double in the first but sat down the side in order in the following two frames.
Matz was enjoying a 1-0 lead thanks to a leadoff double in the third inning from Bo Bichette followed by a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. double, and looked in prime form while taking his warmup pitches.
Then Jonathan Schoop’s 102 mph comebacker came out of nowhere and -- although he kicked out admirably -- struck Matz squarely on his right (landing) leg. The ball caromed toward second, leaving the first baseman Guerrero to dart in that direction as Matz sprinted toward first.
"[Matz] works hard," Toronto manager Charlie Montoyo said. "What impressed me about him tonight is getting crushed by that line drive and going and making the play. Many guys would've gone down, and to me, that was pretty impressive."
Guerrero did an admirable job of leading Matz with the ensuing shovel but Schoop was still a step ahead, leaving Matz to swipe out and tag out the Tigers’ first baseman with glove in hand a mere half-step before Schoop reached the bag.
The bang-bang play came at a cost: Matz wasn’t limping but Schoop’s dart had clearly pierced the zone he was in. He next allowed a ground-rule double to bring up Miguel Cabrera, who stroked a comebacker that had Matz tap dancing again before it skidded into the outfield to score the tying run.
Matz notched the next two consecutive outs before disappearing from the dugout with training staff, every indication his night was over.
But he fought back, working two more innings to finish his night with just Cabrera’s RBI against him during six solid innings of four-hit, no-walk ball.
“[It didn't hurt] in the moment; my thought was just to get the out,” Matz said. “Your mind just kind of races, however we can try and get this guy out.
“It stiffened up a little bit, but just got that adrenaline going, and everything feels fine and it's no big deal.”
Adam Cimber followed in Matz’s wake and held the Tigers to one hit in the seventh. Tim Mayza then came on and allowed what might have been a double at best to pinch-hitter Victor Reyes, except Palacios’ dive came up short, allowing the ball to scoot past him and all the way to the wall in right-center field as Reyes chugged home with the difference-maker.
"[Palacios was] trying to do the best that he could," Montoyo said. "He knows that wasn't the right play, of course. Even more in a ballpark like this. That's 420 [feet to the wall in center field], so anything goes by you, the guy's going to score.
"He's a young guy on a young team, trying to do the best to make a play, and that wasn't the right play at that time."
It was a gut punch not unlike the last time the Blue Jays faced Detroit, in Toronto on Sunday. That game ended in a 5-3 loss in 11 innings after Marcus Semien booted the throw on a routine grounder to allow the game-tying run to score in the ninth.
As Toronto continues to find itself in a variety of close-but-not-quite situations, the bigger picture is that the Blue Jays simply need to step up their offense to have any hope of sniffing the playoffs. The club is 6 1/2 games out of the second AL Wild Card spot with just 35 regular-season games remaining, and there’s no room for a night like Friday, when the Blue Jays hit just 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
“We're just not swinging the bats right now,” Montoyo said. “Everybody's struggling at the same time, and of course, we didn't see that coming. We've got [35] games left, hopefully it starts with one guy getting hot.”