Concern abounds for Blue Jays as Springer suffers injury in loss to Mariners

SEATTLE — As the ball flew at 105-m.p.h. off Ty France’s bat towards the wall in deep centre, George Springer tracked it over his right shoulder, sprinting 60 feet towards the section of Seattle Mariners fans that had been heckling him all weekend.

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He had a shot. He’s made crazy catches on screamers like that before. But the ball reached the top of the fence just a split second before he did, thudding off the thin yellow stripe ringing the outfield, only centimetres beyond Springer’s outstretched glove as the Toronto Blue Jays centre fielder leapt in vain.

Absorbing the wall’s impact with his left shoulder, Springer came down on his left foot first, then his right. Then the glove came flying off. Then he was immediately on his back, clutching his left leg. Then you knew something was wrong.

Maybe he spiked himself. Maybe he rolled the ankle. The broadcast replays weren’t clear. There was only Springer, trying to get to his feet, limping a few steps, and doubling back over as the two outfielders on either side of him waved to the dugout for the trainers.

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That Springer apparently avoided a serious injury on the play, suffering only a mild left ankle sprain according to Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo, is close to the best outcome the club could’ve hoped for from an alarming situation. Montoyo said Springer’s X-rays returned negative. He said that, for now, the Blue Jays were considering their star outfielder day-to-day. He said that for as bad as the play looked, Springer was optimistic he’d be back out in centre before long.

That he walked off the field under his own power — slowly, gingerly, uncomfortably — is the only good thing to say about it. Springer’s been immense since hitting his stride a few weeks following a half-season’s absence with a right quad injury, leading the American League with 11 homers since the all-star break and winning consecutive AL player-of-the-week awards. Missing his bat atop the lineup for any stretch of time would be a considerable loss for a team in the thick of a competitive wild card race that needs all the help it can get.

“He just came into my office saying, ‘Hey, man, good news — I’ll be all right.’” Montoyo said. “That made me feel a lot better when he said that to me.”

No kidding. Springer’s injury was the macro concern for the Blue Jays on a night in which there were many micro ones such as another bullpen implosion, another quiet night offensively, and another loss to the Seattle Mariners, 9-3. Those Mariners — who’ve made a habit of winning games like these — have now drawn level with the Blue Jays in the American League wild-card race and will have an opportunity to surpass them in Sunday afternoon’s series finale. That’s not ideal. Not much that happened for the Blue Jays on Saturday was. But a major injury for Springer would’ve trumped it all.

“That was a scary moment for the whole team — because he’s George Springer,” Montoyo said. “Since he got back, we’ve been playing great. And, of course, we don’t want to miss him.”

Springer certainly won’t play Sunday, as the Blue Jays can leverage Monday’s off-day to keep him off his ankle as much as possible while he prioritizes recovery. But Montoyo didn’t rule out a return in only a few days, which seemed unlikely as Springer walked off the field under his own power — slowly, gingerly, uncomfortably — before reaching the Blue Jays dugout and limping down the stairs.

“Hopefully it’s not more than a couple of days,” Montoyo said. “We’ll see. Whenever he’s ready to go, he’ll play.”

It is no coincidence that Springer’s recent tear coincided with the Blue Jays playing some of their best baseball of the season. The club was 35-35 through June 21, the day before Springer returned from that extended, early-season absence. With the three-time all-star and two-time silver slugger back in the fold, it went 27-18.

His plate appearances set a selective-yet-aggressive tone atop a lengthened batting order. His heavy bat sprayed missiles all over the yard, 23 of his last 31 hits going for extra bases. His centre field defence was spotless. He’d been everything the Blue Jays paid for with the largest free agent commitment in franchise history, putting up 1.8 fWAR over only 48 games.

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Already needing to score runs at a relentless clip to create large enough leads for a combustible bullpen to not burn through, Toronto would have sorely missed Springer’s 163 OPS+ production atop its lineup. And even with Springer making four trips prior to his injury Saturday, the club still couldn’t generate enough offence to bounce back from Friday’s ninth-inning implosion and avoid a third consecutive loss.

The Blue Jays certainly had their chances early against an unusually shaky Yusei Kikuchi, who walked four, hit another, and began his third trip through Toronto’s order in the fourth inning. But he also stranded six through those four frames and held the Blue Jays to 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position, repeatedly MacGyvering his way out of jams.

Toronto did get two early runs off Kikuchi thanks to Teoscar Hernandez, who hit a solo shot in the second and drove in another with a single in the third. But too many opportunities were missed. Reese McGuire and Springer both struck out looking with the bases loaded in the second. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. struck out swinging with two on in the third, before Hernandez was caught stealing second to end the inning. And Marcus Semien struck out with a foul tip of a hung slider in the fourth, leaving two more runners on.

Bo Bichette came across on a Gurriel groundout in the fifth, as the Blue Jays finally scratched across a third run. But this was a night they should’ve gotten to Kikuchi for much more.

Meanwhile, Hyun Jin Ryu bounced back well from his worst outing as a Blue Jay six days prior, settling in after allowing a two-run France homer in the first to retire 14 in a row. A leadoff baserunner was quickly erased with a double play in the sixth. And Ryu was back out for the seventh having thrown only 75 pitches.

“My first and second inning, I found myself in a little bit of trouble. But as the game progressed, I found that my pitches had more life to them,” Ryu said. “My command got better. I felt like my overall game became better as the game went on.”

But then the wheels came off. At the end of an eight-pitch battle, Ryu left a full-count cutter up for France, who drove it just beyond Springer’s outstretched glove in centre. And after the Blue Jays centre fielder hobbled off, Ryu’s next pitch was a 90-m.p.h. fastball up and over the plate. That Kyle Seager just missed it, grounding out into a drawn-in infield, is a good example of results belying process. And Ryu missing the zone with four of his next five pitches — issuing only his second walk of the night — was enough of a signal for Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo to turn to his beleaguered bullpen. Not that Ryu agreed with the decision.

“My pitch count wasn’t that high, I didn’t think that my stuff was going down,” Ryu said. “It’s one of those parts of the game that the players can’t really control. So, it’s just what it is.”

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And Ryu can point to the result to support his argument, as Trevor Richards entered, missed badly with three pitches to give Luis Torrens a dead red fastball count, and left a heater up over the dish that the Mariners designated hitter lofted into the left field bullpen. Two pitches later: a better-located heater, but a similar result, as Jerred Kelenic went after one just off the plate and muscled it into that same bullpen.

Montoyo pointed to Richards’ strong recent performance — he’d allowed only two hits and a walk while striking out seven over 7.1 scoreless innings this month — in explaining the move. And while Ryu thought he had more to give with his pitch count at only 89, the Blue Jays manager said he saw it differently.

“You know what? He almost gave up a home run. That’s when Springer got hurt. And you could tell when he walked Toro, in our opinion, it was, ‘OK, he’s done the job. Great job. You know, almost 90 pitches. And now I’m bringing one of my best relievers,’” Montoyo said. “It just didn’t work out.”

It was truly a disastrous inning, one the Blue Jays entered with a 64.6 per cent win expectancy and exited at 7.2. One in which they coughed up a lead, brought eight batters to the plate, couldn’t keep the score close, and watched their star centre fielder limp off the field. One in which nearly everything went wrong. How could things possibly get any worse?

Enter Rafael Dolis. Taking over in the eighth, the mercurial right-hander went double, wild pitch, walk, walk, single, double before Montoyo mercifully got him out of there. He threw 12 pitches to five hitters and didn’t record an out. From a guy who’s had his share of rough innings this year, it was by far Dolis’ worst. Staked to a six-run lead, the Mariners cruised to the finish line from there.

Not ideal. Not what you want. But the Blue Jays can salvage a win Sunday and push the Mariners back to merely being on their heels. They can head into next week’s two-game set against the Nationals still having a chance at a winning road trip. They can turn this mini-skid around. And they may have avoided a catastrophic injury to one of their best players. On a night in which concern abounded for the Blue Jays, it’ll have to do.

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