Schneider's 14th-inning homer caps wild Blue Jays win over Pirates

TORONTO – Back and forth the Blue Jays and Pirates went Friday night, matching each other run for run and missed opportunity for missed opportunity. 

Then, in the bottom of the 14th inning, the Blue Jays got yet another chance to end it once and for all. Genesis Cabrera had just struck out Connor Joe to keep the score tied 3-3, and Matt Hague approached Davis Schneider in the Blue Jays dugout. The assistant hitting coach had a little advice on how to handle Pirates right-hander Kyle Nicolas.

To that point in the day Schneider was hitless in five at-bats with three strikeouts. He’d reached base just once, when a fastball hit him on the side “right in the fat, below the ribs above the hip.” From the dugout, Hague thought Schneider’s timing wasn’t quite right.

“This guy’s throwing 98,” Schneider recalled Hague saying. “You’re a little late today, even on guys throwing 92. You’ve got to start earlier.”

As anticipated, the first pitch from Nicolas was a hard one – 98.1 m.p.h. – but Schneider was ready, sending it over the right-centre field wall to give the Blue Jays a walk-off, 5-3 win.

“I only saw one pitch, but I made the most of it,” Schneider said. “Ninety-eight is pretty fast. I was still a little late, but it was a good late.”

And so, after 14 innings, the Blue Jays extended their winning streak to four, a season-high, while improving their record to 27-29. Wearing their dark City Connect uniforms for the first time, they earned their first walk-off win of the season in front of 33,356 at Rogers Centre 

Now clearly, there’s lots of work remaining if the Blue Jays are going to re-emerge as legitimate contenders. But Friday represented much-needed progress.

“Weird game,” said manager John Schneider. “Weird game for both sides (but) end of the day, we got the job done.”

Along the way, some key questions arose for the Blue Jays. Jordan Romano never warmed up, as he “didn’t really bounce back” after his Wednesday outing in Chicago. While the Blue Jays are hopeful the issue is minor, it was enough to keep the closer on the sidelines Friday.

“A little bit of soreness,” Schneider explained. “When you’re talking about a guy like him, you want to be careful. Hopefully he bounces back.”

Plus, Daulton Varsho was unavailable as a bout with food poisoning meant he “couldn’t really hold anything down,” according to Schneider.

Regardless, the Blue Jays missed chances to do damage earlier in the game against Bailey Falter. The Pirates left-hander was far from overpowering, with a fastball that averaged 92.6 m.p.h., but the Blue Jays managed just two hits and two walks against the 27-year-old, who pitched six scoreless innings.

Meanwhile, Jose Berrios was at his best for seven innings, allowing just one run on six hits. He struck out five without walking a batter on a day his season ERA dropped to 2.78. 

It’s been a remarkably consistent start to the season for Berrios, who tied Kansas City’s Seth Lugo atop the MLB leaderboard with his 10th quality start of the season. In doing so, he became just the third Blue Jays pitcher ever to have 10 quality starts before June, joining Dave Stieb (1983-84) and J.A. Happ (2016).

Afterwards, the right-hander credited the bullpen for seven innings of work without allowing an earned run. Along with Cabrera, Tim Mayza and Nate Pearson both contributed multi-inning relief stints while Chad Green and Yimi Garcia pitched an inning apiece. As a collective, Blue Jays pitchers allowed just one earned run in 14 innings.

“We’ve been having fun,” Berrios said. “We’ve been fighting and working really, really hard every day. Things haven’t (always) gone the way we’ve wanted, but we’ve got to keep fighting.”

Given the heavy workload for the bullpen on Wednesday and Friday plus Romano’s uncertain status, the Blue Jays will be counting on Yusei Kikuchi for an extended outing Saturday. Otherwise, newcomer Ryan Burr could be counted on sooner than expected, or the Blue Jays might have to push relievers harder than they’d like to.

Major questions persist in the rotation, too. Before the game, the Blue Jays placed Alek Manoah on the injured list with a sprain in his right elbow and announced he has plans for further testing next week.

While no plans will be finalized before Manoah’s upcoming meeting with Dr. Keith Meister, it’s possible the right-hander will require an extended stint on the injured list, which means the Blue Jays must come up with contingency plans in the meantime. That starts Tuesday, when Bowden Francis is a candidate to be activated from the injured list, perhaps in tandem with Trevor Richards against the Baltimore Orioles.

Before then, the Blue Jays have plenty of work to do in their two remaining games against the Pirates. Thanks to Schneider’s big swing, there’s still some momentum to build on as the climb back to .500 continues.