SACRAMENTO — John Schneider sat in the visitors’ dugout at Sutter Health Park before Tuesday’s first pitch as the temperature reached 33C on the field. With sweat forming on his brow, the Toronto Blue Jays manager brushed aside any talk of conditions, whether it be during the recently completed series in Kansas City or here in Northern California.
“This is what you play for,” Schneider said. “They understand that. I don't think that the environment or the weather or anything has any bearing. We've got to go out and just play a little better than we did yesterday.”
And just like that, the Blue Jays proceeded to rebound from a mistake-laden loss with a buttoned-up, 4-2 win over the Athletics that featured everything from strong pitching to excellent defence to home runs.
“Just a better game overall,” acknowledged Schneider afterward.
The victory allowed the Blue Jays (73-73) to keep pace with the Cleveland Guardians (74-72), who defeated the Baltimore Orioles (70-76) earlier Tuesday. Toronto sits one game behind Cleveland in the race for the third AL wild-card spot.
Blue Jays starter Jose Soriano set the tone by turning in one of his best performances since joining the club at the trade deadline. The right-hander was in control of the A’s lineup, with the only blemishes being solo homers to Carlos Cortes and Donovan Walton in the fourth and seventh innings.
Otherwise, Soriano pitched to contact and relied on an effective sinker that limited hard contact and kept the ball on the ground. He walked one batter, struck out three and recorded 16 outs via ground balls.
“That's him at his best right there,” said Schneider. “Just had a really good sinker, leaned into it as the game went on.”
Soriano said he had a good feel for the pitch while warming up in the bullpen prior to the game and as it began, his mindset was to simply “attack the strike zone” and “not overthink or overdo it.”
His efficiency allowed him to get through seven innings on 89 pitches — a relatively light workload that could allow the Blue Jays to keep the right-hander on regular rest to pitch in the weekend series against the Orioles, as opposed to giving him an extra day afforded by Thursday’s off day.
While Soriano did his part, the Blue Jays’ infield defence acted as a vacuum, with Kazuma Okamoto, Andres Gimenez, Ernie Clement and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. each contributing strong defensive plays. It was an overall cleaner brand of baseball than Monday’s game, which featured three errors along with a few generous official scorer rulings that could also have been considered errors.
“Unbelievable,” Soriano said. “Incredible defence. I think I have one of the better defences behind me and today they showed what they can do.”
On the offensive side, Josh Smith and Okamoto blasted back-to-back homers in the second inning off A’s starter Jack Perkins. Okamoto’s homer was his team-leading 30th, and it ensured that he became the fifth Japanese MLB player to reach that mark in a season.
Joining the 30-homer club was one of his goals for his first campaign in North America, admitted Okamoto.
“It's great to get to 30 in my first year,” he said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “But we still got a few more games to go here, so I want to hit the switch and focus on the games moving forward.”
Perhaps just as impressive as his homer on Tuesday was Okamoto’s shored-up defensive work. He spent time with infield coach Carlos Febles on the field before the contest and was keen to improve on Monday's rough game when he committed several costly miscues at third base.
“He works his tail off defensively,” said Schneider. “It's (nearly) 100 degrees (Fahrenheit) out here and he's one of the few guys out there working today early with Carlos.
“The speed of the game, he's gotten a hold of that and he's settled in really nicely.”
Up next for the Blue Jays is Wednesday’s series finale against the A’s. Right-hander Braydon Fisher will start the bullpen game for Toronto, and the temperatures are expected to be even hotter, with an early forecast predicting it could reach as high as 38C.
Given the overall improvement shown during Tuesday’s contest, though, there won’t be a need for Okamoto, or others, to kill themselves in the blistering pre-game heat.
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