TORONTO – Through the first three months of the season, John Schneider largely refused to put extra significance on AL East clashes, made rarer by the new more-balanced schedule, for his Toronto Blue Jays.
Every series matters, each game counts the same, he’d often say. That’s not wrong, although less intra-division play means less head-to-head opportunity to directly make up ground in the standings on teams they’ll likely be competing with for post-season berths.
The Blue Jays need only to think back to 2021 to remember the perils of needing help from others.
So, it was notable then that ahead of Friday’s opener against the Boston Red Sox, the first meeting between the rivals since a dismal four-game sweep at Fenway Park May 1-4, Schneider struck a different tone.
“At this point, this is the first time I’ll say a little bit, yeah,” he replied when asked if the scarcity of divisional matchups in July added anything to this weekend. “Every series is important because of the schedule. But when you’re looking at a team who’s in your division and one spot below you, you want to try to separate yourself a little bit. Guys are aware of that. And I think that we’re at a different spot as a group right now with what we’re doing, where we know we can go, a sense of urgency, time of schedule, things like that, to where we were when we last faced them. So this will be a big series.”
Justin Turner’s leadoff homer in the fifth inning opened the scoring while a two-run homer by Jarren Duran and a solo shot by new Blue Jays nemesis Masataka Yoshida in the sixth extended the lead to 4-0, the latter two on changeups when Berrios felt he became “predictable.”
That was plenty for James Paxton, who largely used a fastball that averaged 96.3 m.p.h. to pin hitters back and mostly avoid sharp contact. When he didn’t, he got some solid defence behind him, notably in the first when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. sent a drive to the wall in centre field that a leaping Duran reeled in to the chagrin of 37,218 at Rogers Centre.
The Blue Jays didn’t manage a hit until Santiago Espinal’s laser single with two out in the third, but they had only two others reach until the eighth, when Alejandro Kirk singled and an out later, Whit Merrifield walked.
“You tip your cap,” Schneider said of Paxton. “Tough guy to try to square up when he’s got 98 at the top, cutter was a good pitch for him. I think you just kind of flush this one and move on.”
Berrios, who allowed four runs on five hits with eight strikeouts, was better than his pitching line showed, gamely battling through tenacious at-bat after tenacious at-bat, beginning with a 21-pitch first inning.
Those long looks early may have served the Red Sox well late, allowing them to suss out patterns they exploited later.
“That first inning, we battled with this those four hitters,” said Berrios. “In the sixth inning, I was in my third time around, I got predictable. We were using a lot of changeups and fastballs away. We stayed with the same plan so they were sitting on it. That’s on me.”
The Red Sox lineup has done a good job of delivering damage so far, scoring 32 times during the four-game sweep in Boston and again Friday in improving to 5-0 versus the Blue Jays this year.
The victory extends the sharp reversal in results between the clubs after the Blue Jays went 16-3 against the Red Sox a year ago, largely making up the difference between the clubs in 2022. Against the rest of baseball, the Blue Jays were 76-67, one game better than the Red Sox, who were 75-68.
Against the AL East, the Blue Jays are now 7-18 this season, while going 38-20 versus everyone else.
