Bichette's return to Blue Jays' lineup crucial in precarious win over Royals

TORONTO – If the Toronto Blue Jays do eventually clinch a post-season berth this season, it will be Bo Bichette, by and large, who drags them there.

The outsized importance of his contributions were on full display during Friday’s precarious 5-4 win over the Kansas City Royals, when he returned from the injured list to erase one deficit with a run-scoring double in the sixth and then another with an RBI single that kick-started the decisive four-run seventh.

Bichette also snared Maikel Garcia’s 104.2 m.p.h. liner up the middle for the game’s first out, started double plays in the second and sixth innings and later scored from first on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s pivotal two-run double in the seventh, providing the type of dynamic impact sorely missed in his absence.

“That’s impressive, man,” said manager John Schneider. “He hasn't seen live pitching in (11) days and he's taking tough pitches, he's putting good swings on it, he just misses a ball to right-centre (on a fourth-inning flyout), it’s impressive what he can do in the box. It's just an instant shot of energy to our offence. He's really, really good.”

No doubt, but the all-star shortstop won’t be able to do it alone and Davis Schneider continued to menace opposing pitchers with two doubles and two walks while an ill Guerrero, after three poor at-bats, followed Bichette’s single with the go-ahead double.

Ernie Clement, whose timely contributions helped the Blue Jays survive the nine games Bichette missed with a right quad strain at 6-3, added a pinch-hit RBI single to make it 5-2 in the seventh, but the big-league leaders in hair-pulling play still found a way to a white-knuckle finish.

Chad Green left two on with one out in the eighth for Tim Mayza, who induced an MJ Melendez grounder to third that the left-fielder beat out at first base to prevent an inning-ending double play and bring home a run. Mayza proceeded to load the bases from there, prompting John Schneider to bring in Jordan Romano for an inning-plus for the second time this week.

Romano induced an inning-ending grounder from Nick Loftin on his first pitch to end that threat but then walked two in the ninth and allowed an RBI single to Salvador Perez before Edward Olivares flew out for the final out in front of a Rogers Centre crowd of 26,493.

The nervy victory, a seventh in 10 games, moved the Blue Jays (78-63) 1.5 games up on the Texas Rangers (76-64), 6-3 losers to the Oakland Athletics, for the American League’s third wild-card berth.

A four-game clash between the clubs begins Monday in Toronto and both will seek to use their current series against the league’s bottom-feeders to fatten up beforehand.

“I just hope we win,” Bichette of what he’s looking for in the season’s final weeks. “That's it.” 

Even with Bichette back in the fold, the Blue Jays had their hands full with a Royals team that could have 100 losses by the end of the weekend, falling behind first on Dairon Blanco’s solo shot off Yusei Kikuchi in the third and then again on Loftin’s triple to right off Trevor Richards just past a charging George Springer’s in the seventh.

That put the Royals ahead 2-1 and the Blue Jays’ four-run outburst in the bottom half of the inning could very easily not have happened, as before Bichette’s tying single, Springer walked on a check swing that was a coin-flip away from being ruled a strike.

Such thin margins between winning and losing is why Bichette’s return is so essential for a Blue Jays team that won’t have Danny Jansen back during the regular season after he underwent surgery to repair his broken right middle finger, and is still waiting for Matt Chapman, who began hitting Friday, to return as well.

The Blue Jays will monitor Bichette’s work in the coming days to ensure the quad injury, which he believes is likely to connected to the patellar tendinitis that sidelined him earlier, doesn’t flare up again, but he’s aiming to make the period of caution “as short as possible.”

“We have a little bit of a plan mapped out,” he added, “but I hope that it's finished by the time Texas comes around.”

That Bichette still managed to hit the ground running “is not surprising,” said Clement. “He's one of the most talented hitters I've ever seen. I don't think anybody's surprised that he came in ready to go.”

Kikuchi, who allowed just the one run in five innings while striking out eight, called Bichette’s return “definitely huge” and could only imagine the challenge of facing him.

“He honestly has like no holes in his approach,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “I'd want to throw a fastball and get it by him. But he told me once that no fastballs get by him. He's confident in that.”

Added Guerrero: “Bo's been consistent all year. He works very, very hard for everything that he does and seeing him hit is great, especially when he has runners on base. He does anything to bring them in. It's great to have him back.”

The Blue Jays almost didn’t have Guerrero, who is battling the stomach bug ripping through the clubhouse, but he decided just before the game that “it doesn't matter if I go out there and vomit on the field, I was going to be out there with my team.”

A payoff for his determination came in the seventh as after Bichette’s single tied the game, he worked the count to 3-0 and then turned on a 99.4 m.p.h. fastball from Carlos Hernandez and ripped it to left-centre.

“I don't like to swing 3-0 but that was the perfect scenario for me with runners on base,” Guerrero said through interpreter Hector Lebron. “I rarely see a great pitch like that. When I see it right there, I'll swing like I did tonight. But sometimes it's not there 3-0, so I'd rather take a walk.”

He didn’t have to this time, as with Bichette leading the way, the Blue Jays resumed their September push.