TORONTO — It was evident relatively early on Tuesday night that, win or lose, this game belonged to the Toronto Blue Jays’ bullpen.
The Houston Astros put up a five-spot on Blue Jays starter Jose Berrios in the fifth inning and despite tossing an economical 60 pitches, the right-hander’s night was over. He escaped the arduous inning but didn’t come back out to start the sixth.
Blue Jays reliever Nate Pearson did and, if you’re a fan of the team, you probably held your breath. Leaving a game in the hands of Toronto’s bullpen has seemed like the baseball version of Russian Roulette this season.
This is a beleaguered group that ranks 28th in MLB with a 4.73 ERA and is currently operating without closer Jordan Romano and setup man Yimi Garcia.
And yet, here it was being asked to nurse a two-run lead.
The Blue Jays bullpen accomplished its goal on Tuesday with Pearson, Trevor Richards and Chad Green navigating a nervy four innings and only allowing one run to prevail over the Astros in a 7-6 win in front of 26,308 at Rogers Centre.
“We won because they held the game right there,” Berrios said.
That was a positive development for the Blue Jays and one the club needs to see more often this month. How the bullpen performs in July is essential because if the club is going to climb out of the massive hole it’s dug, it will need to do so by improving from within. Given that the Blue Jays are 7.5 games behind the third wild-card spot, it’s hard to envision the front office adding reinforcements ahead of the July 30 trade deadline.
“Obviously our starters are what we rely on,” said Blue Jays manager John Schneider. “We’ve talked about it for a while (that) there’s opportunities for guys to step up and today was a really good example of Nate doing that and then Trevor throwing again to bridge that gap to Chad.
“But, we’re going to need it from everyone for sure.”
Garcia can potentially be part of the solution as the right-hander is progressing from an elbow injury and could rejoin the relief corps within a few weeks but Romano likely won’t return anytime soon. The right-hander visited specialist Dr. Keith Meister in Texas on Tuesday, a meeting that’s expected to shed light on the next steps for Romano and determine whether he’ll require a procedure.
The Blue Jays’ offence did its job early on Tuesday by jumping on Astros rookie starter Spencer Arrighetti in the early innings. Spencer Horwitz drilled a fastball from Arrighetti off the facing of the second deck for a solo home run that put the Blue Jays up 2-0 in the third inning and that lead expanded later in the frame on George Springer’s three-run bomb.
It was Springer’s third three-run homer in the past six days as he continues an offensive resurgence that’s boosted his OPS nearly 100 points to .650. Meanwhile, Horwitz’s OPS stands at an impressive .942 and the rookie has seamlessly transitioned from Buffalo, where he dominated before his call-up in early June.
“I’m just keeping my workload pretty much the same that I’ve been doing and was doing in triple-A to bring me some success,” Horowitz said. “I’ve learned that the work’s never going to stop. You always think about, I want to get to the big leagues, I want to get to the big leagues. And I got a taste of it last year. And I had that feeling down in Buffalo this year that, I want to get back to the big leagues. I want to get back to the big leagues. But not much changes besides the third deck and the (pitchers’) stuff is a little harder and a little sharper.”
Schneider has been impressed with Horwitz’s approach at the plate.
“For a younger guy in the league he has a really good idea of what pitchers are going to try to do,” the manager said of the second baseman. “When you look at just the quality of the at-bat, not being in a rush, having a plan every single time, that’s the impressive part. And you add in some defensive versatility to it, tough to take him out of the lineup.”
The Blue Jays added two more runs to build a 7-0 cushion that was nearly erased in the fifth inning. The Astros put together a rally against Berrios with Cesar Salazar and Jose Altuve’s consecutive RBI singles and Yordan Alvarez then put a charge into a 3-0 changeup from Berrios, connecting for a three-run homer that capped Houston’s five-run frame and cut the score to 7-5.
Berrios said that he wasn’t burying his pitches deep in the zone and felt he wasn’t as explosive in his delivery as he would have liked. That paved the way for his removal and a highwire finish to the contest.
Pearson tossed two innings of scoreless relief, allowing just one hit while striking out three. He touched 99.4 m.p.h. in the outing and Schneider said the big right-hander has re-introduced a two-seam fastball to his repertoire that’s yielded success. It’s a pitch Pearson used during his days as a starting pitcher.
“He threw one about a 100 (m.p.h.) to (Jeremy) Pena that he fouled off of his shin,” said Schneider. “It’s pretty useful. Something we kind of broke out recently. It’s a credit to him and (pitching coach) Pete (Walker) but he threw some really good pitches tonight.”
Richards came on for the eighth and was immediately greeted with a high-stress scenario as Alvarez reached on an infield single and advanced to second on an error by Blue Jays shortstop Bo Bichette. Richards committed his own throwing error and Alvarez later scored on a groundout but the right-hander escaped without giving up the lead.
Green allowed a leadoff double but recovered by punching out the next two batters en route to a scoreless ninth and his third save of the season.
“I feel really happy about them,” said Berrios of the bullpen. “Tonight was a team win.”
