CLEVELAND — As the late innings of Tuesday’s game developed, the strikeouts piled up for Gavin Williams and time started running out on the Blue Jays.
This offence has been searching for answers all year and with Williams at his best, scoring would be an even greater challenge than usual. The Blue Jays kept it close with a bullpen game, but Cleveland’s pitching was ultimately too much at Progressive Field.
Thanks to a career-best 13 strikeouts from Williams, the Guardians won the series opener 6-1 over the Blue Jays to expand their lead over Toronto to 2.5 games in the American League wild-card race.
"That's just a tough draw tonight through seven," said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. "A lot of swing and miss. He's got good stuff, but when you put command on it too, there's outings like that one."
The Blue Jays still have two opportunities to regain that ground, and with Dylan Cease and Jose Soriano lined up for Wednesday and Thursday they like their chances. Yet every game is precious for the 68-71 Blue Jays, which makes Tuesday’s lack of offence sting.
As a group, the Blue Jays managed just three hits — singles by Alejandro Kirk, Kazuma Okamoto and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Otherwise: nothing but a lone walk.
"You've got to get a guy or two on and then you've got to clip one,” Schneider said of facing Williams. “To really string three, four or five hits in a row, you've got to time it up perfectly."
At times this year, the Blue Jays’ offence has been to blame. As the final month of the season begins, the group ranks 29th of the 30 MLB teams in runs scored. This time, Williams deserves lots of credit, but that doesn’t change the disappointment of the end result.
On the pitching side, there were some positives. Spencer Miles opened the game with a scoreless inning, touching 100 m.p.h. on the radar gun a couple of times. It’s been a remarkable season from start to finish for Miles, who’s seemingly getting stronger as the year progresses.
"Pete (Walker, the pitching coach) and I were kind of looking at each other like, damn, that was pretty good," Schneider recalled. "He continues to impress us and continues to get better. I'm running out of good things to say about him."
Miles found out Monday night that he’d be opening the game, but his body responded well to the challenge as he reached triple digits for the first time in his career.
"It was hot and humid, so I'm like a rubber band out there," Miles said. "A little more elastic. I just felt good out there, the muscles felt good and I was letting it rip."
When told that he was preparing for the Arizona Fall League a year ago this time, Miles briefly reflected on the strides he’s taken since the Blue Jays took him in the Rule 5 Draft. Then just as quickly, he turned his focus back to the here and now.
"It's quite astonishing," he said. "But I try not to think about it too much. Stay where my feet are, be there for the team, and just be a good clubhouse guy and treat everyone with respect and keep working hard."
After a scoreless inning from rookie left-hander Ricky Tiedemann, Spencer Arrighetti entered for some bulk coverage and provided 3.2 innings of two-run ball – a respectable performance despite the two-run homer he allowed to Guardians catcher Patrick Bailey.
"He was, for the most part, better in terms of stuff, and velo and being in and around the zone,” Schneider said.
It wasn’t until Angel Genao homered off Joe Mantiply that the Guardians took full control of the game. Angel Martínez’s eighth-inning homer off Michael Lorenzen pushed the score further out of reach.
For this game, the Blue Jays looked flat. More importantly, they didn’t get the result they needed. Yet bigger picture, the Guardians were wary of the Blue Jays entering this series.
“They're good,” Guardians manager Stephen Vogt said Tuesday afternoon. “So are we. And we're fighting with each other, so it should be a fun series.”
Before the game, the Blue Jays finalized four additions as active rosters expanded to 28 for the month of September. Left-handers Tiedemann and Mantiply joined the pitching staff with utility player Josh Smith and corner infielder Sean Keys joining the position-player group while Daz Cameron was designated for assignment in a corresponding move.
With those four additions, the roster keeps evolving rather considerably as the season winds down.
“Good teams get better as the season goes on,” Vogt said. “And both these teams are getting better at the right time.”
For that to hold true for the Blue Jays, they’ll need to make the most of these next two days in Cleveland. The opportunity’s still there. Now’s the time to prove they belong with the best.
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