Rangers make Blue Jays pay for sloppy baseball, move half-game back

TORONTO – One of the main differences the Toronto Blue Jays will encounter in these games of consequence against the Texas Rangers compared to those they just played against baseball’s bottom-dwellers, is just how unforgiving the competition in them can be. 

Mistakes happen and they always create risk, but a team can perhaps get away with them when facing, say, the Kansas City Royals or Oakland Athletics, although as two Saturdays ago in Denver versus the Colorado Rockies showed, nothing should be taken for granted.

Top clubs, though, tend to make opponents pay if they don’t play clean baseball, which is precisely what the Rangers did to the Blue Jays during a 10-4 thumping on Monday in the opener of a pivotal four-game series.

There was a Chris Bassitt balk on a third disengagement in the second, when he came off the mound to try and chase down Mitch Garver as he danced up the third-base line, to bring in the game’s first run. 

There was an arguably risky send of Kevin Kiermaier by third-base coach Luis Rivera with none out in the fifth inning that led to an out at home and froze the momentum of a building rally.

There was a wild pitch by Bassitt that brought home a run during a two-run sixth, when a case could be made that extending the righty a third time through a run of left-handed hitters wasn’t the best call.

Each helped the Rangers build a 5-2 lead before they broke the game open in the seventh, when Robbie Grossman delivered a sacrifice fly ahead of a Jonah Heim grand slam. And they negated a series of tremendous defensive plays by the Blue Jays – a pretty 3-6-1 double play that ended the fourth and a brilliant twin-kill started by a heads-up Cavan Biggio in the fifth – that ultimately did little more than stem the tide.

“That's baseball,” said manager John Schneider. “We've obviously played a really, really good defence the entire year. You look at (Daulton) Varsho's catch down the line (in the seventh) when we're down and George's effort down the right field line when we're down, the double plays that we turned today with Bassitt covering first. It's an outlier thing really. You can't really point the finger at our defence. We've been so good all year, especially lately. Tonight was just a tough night.”

The end result before a light and quiet Rogers Centre crowd of 23,451 left the Blue Jays (80-64) a half-game up on the Rangers (79-64). The Seattle Mariners (79-65) are now one back of Toronto, and out of a playoff position, after losing to the Los Angeles Angels later Monday.

“In the first five innings or so, it was a very competitive game, definitely back and forth, I thought they had some good at-bats and laid off some tough pitches to put them in good hitters' counts. And that one swing really put the nail in the coffin,” said Biggio, who walked and scored in the second, hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth and homered in the ninth. “Both these teams know what's at stake here. Just pick our heads up and get after it tomorrow.”

Compounding matters for the Blue Jays is that Brandon Belt, back in the lineup for the first time since Sept. 2 due to back tightness and a stomach bug, left the game after two at-bats with what the team called lower back muscle spasms.

He’ll be re-evaluated Tuesday.

Erik Swanson also rejoined the Blue Jays but didn’t see any action with the game out of hand late and Bowden Francis covering the final innings on mop-up duty.

The lopsided end belied the entertaining start to the contest.

Bassitt’s automatic balk came with runners on second and third and two out in the second. With Biggio positioned where a shortstop usually stands, Garver moved further and further up the third-base line and with Bassitt’s two disengagements already used up, he was unsure what to do and opted to charge at the runner in search of a tag.

“I was pretty much just watching him to see how far he's going to go,” explained Bassitt. “He wasn't stopping. I have to watch the video and figure that out, but it got to a point where if he breaks, I can't get the ball to home, he's going to steal home. That's the reason why I did it.”

He limited the damage there and the Blue Jays responded in the bottom half, on RBI singles by Alejandro Kirk and Springer. Notably, Rivera held Kirk on Springer’s single, not wanting to risk an out at home with Bo Bichette coming up. The shortstop flew out to deep centre to end the frame.

The Rangers tied the game in the third on Evan Carter’s first career home run and then took the lead in the fifth when Corey Seager ripped a two-out, RBI single. Biggio helped mitigate the damage earlier in the inning with a spectacular double play, fielding a Marcus Semien chopper and tagging Josh H. Smith at third base for one out before throwing to first for a second.

“If (Smith) was going to go home, I was going to throw him out, or if not I was going to go to second,” said Biggio, who has made a number of strong plays at third over the past two weeks and produced an Outs Above Average of one, according to Statcast, in 51 innings there. “It's one of those plays as a baserunner where he was left in no man's land. I caught it, reacted and tagged him pretty quick, so I figured I had enough time (to turn two) so I let it rip.”

The Blue Jays looked set for a big response in the bottom half when Kiermaier opened the inning with a double and Springer followed with a 104.7 m.p.h. base hit to left. Carter got to the ball quickly and though it was in his glove with Kiermaier still roughly 15 feet from third, Rivera sent him, and an 89.8 m.p.h. throw from the 21-year-old got him at the plate. 

“KK is one of the best baserunners in baseball,” said Schneider. “When you're coaching third, you trust that. I haven't really looked at it closely, but I think when Kevin Kiermaier is on the bases, you trust him to make some things happen.”

While replays suggested Kiermaier might have slipped a hand in ahead of the tag, the video wasn’t conclusive enough to overturn the out call on the field. After the out, Dane Dunning rallied to get Bichette on a grounder to short and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. swinging to escape the inning without any damage.

Regardless, there’s an argument both for holding Kiermaier given the quality of hitter coming up, and for sending him and forcing the Rangers to execute perfectly to get the out.

“It's almost like a playoff atmosphere between the two of us – we’re going to have to be aggressive and take risks,” said Biggio. “If he's safe, that's a huge momentum shift for us. It was a great throw, great play by the left-fielder and a good tag. Send him or not? I like the aggressive call. Whenever you're playing aggressive, good things usually turn out.”

Francis did a nice job of covering the final 2.1 innings while Biggio added a solo shot in the ninth but by then the damage had been done. On a night the Rangers were tight and clean, the Blue Jays were not and lost ground in the wild-card race as a result.