TORONTO — For this makeshift bullpen-day rotation spot to be sustainable for any sort of short-term, let alone long-term, period, the Toronto Blue Jays are going to need Jose Berrios to consistently follow up with the type of performance he delivered Wednesday.
And if the Blue Jays are going to nudge their front office from sell to buy before the July 30 trade deadline, their offence will need to deliver more timely hits the way Isiah Kiner-Falefa did in a walk-off 3-2 win over the Baltimore Orioles.
Kiner-Falefa was mobbed by his teammates on the field as a crowd of 27,929 roared in delight after he broke through in a tightly pitched affair, sending a drive to deep right field that allowed Cavan Biggio to scamper home with the decisive run.
Following consecutive thumpings from the American League wild-card leader that reality-checked a 5-1 week against the Chicago White Sox and Pittsburgh Pirates, it was a refreshing and needed change of pace.
“It felt good. Especially my first year on the team, to get that moment as a Blue Jay, it meant a lot to me,” said Kiner-Falefa, adding later: “Hopefully it’s a little momentum shift and gets things rolling.”
Justin Turner — who had three hits, including the 1,500th of his career, after being dropped to sixth in the batting order — led off the ninth with a single off closer Craig Kimbrel and Biggio promptly came in to pinch-run for him. An errant pickoff throw moved him to second and he took third on Alejandro Kirk’s flyout to deep right, setting the stage for Kiner-Falefa.
The entire rally was a product of smart, deliberate execution, elements the Blue Jays are working to make a consistent part of their game.
“A lot of times in those situations, guys want to do too much, they have a chance to be the hero and make the big swing, but just trying to take a good at-bat, fight, find a way to get on-base,” Turner said of his approach. “Hit a soft little line drive to right and the ABs after that were spectacular. Cavan gets to second, Kirky could have tried to yank and hit a homer but he played the game the right way with a guy at second and nobody out, drives a ball deep into right to make sure to get Cavan to third and Izzy does a great job staying in the big part of the yard and winning it for us.
“And that was big for us to win it there with our bullpen taxed after (Tuesday) and the Orioles have got the top of the lineup coming up (in a 10th inning if needed).”
Berrios’ six innings of two-run ball set the stage for the late dramatics while giving the Blue Jays bullpen a needed breather, the day after six relievers, beginning with Trevor Richards’ two shutout innings, filled the injured Alek Manoah’s vacant spot in Tuesday’s 10-1 loss.
That left precious little margin for error against an Orioles offence that produced 17 runs in the first two games of the series.
Second-inning aside, when Anthony Santander went down to get a 1-2 slurve falling out of the zone and sent it 436 feet to left-centre and Ramon Urias doubled home a Cedric Mullins walk, Berrios kept the dangerous lineup very much at bay.
“He did his job, but he knows my best pitch after fastball is my breaking ball, so sometimes he’s looking for it. It was a good pitch, but we need to, like, almost bounce it against him,” Berrios said of the Santander homer. “They’ve been doing really well in the box, but we keep trying, we keep competing and we held the game right there.”
Manoah is slated to visit specialist Dr. Keith Meister in Texas on Thursday, giving the Blue Jays a better sense of how severe the UCL sprain in his right elbow is. At the moment, no one is taking the vacancy and running with it, leaving a modified bullpen day to cover it, one that could soon include Yariel Rodriguez.
The Cuban right-hander threw 43 pitches over three no-hit innings on rehab for triple-A Buffalo on Wednesday, striking out four, and his next step could be to rejoin the club. He and Bowden Francis could then combine to fill the rotation vacancy, with Richards in the mix if he’s not needed in leverage in between.
That spot next comes up Sunday.
“I have the confidence that our guys are going to do their job,” said Berrios. “If that’s going to be the plan for I don’t know how many more starts, we need to believe in them and have trust in them.”
The same goes for the offence, which tied the game in the bottom of the second as George Springer walked, advanced to third on Turner’s double and scored on Kirk’s sacrifice fly. Kiner-Falefa followed with an RBI single that evened the score, a steely moment after the previous two nights spun out of control quickly.
“The two runs right there were huge,” said Kiner-Falefa. “Getting those two runs back gave us a little bit of life and just kept us in the fight. If we don’t score that, we’re pretty deflated after the first two games. So just a never-quit attitude, guys coming up in big spots tonight and we really, really need to start clicking. And we’re hoping it’s soon.”
Turner reverting back to his April form would help and he followed his double in the second with a single in the fourth that gave him his milestone, one that came in a full circle moment.
“It’s definitely a milestone that I didn’t necessarily know I’d ever get to, even when I got to the major leagues,” he said. “I was a role player starting with the Orioles, going to the Mets as a role guy for three years, signing with the Dodgers, being in that same role for a couple of years there and not really becoming an everyday player until later in my career. It’s pretty cool and hopefully I can play another 16 years and get to 3,000 looking like Bernie Mac (in the film Mr. 3000) out there.”
Bo Bichette doubled to lead off the sixth and two outs later, Kirk singled sharply to right. Ryan O’Hearn fielded it instantly and fired home before Bichette had even rounded third, prompting third-base coach Carlos Febles to rightly throw up a stop sign.
Kiner-Falefa proceeded to strike out, ending the frame, but didn’t miss the next time an opportunity came up.
“Guys were working at-bats,” said Kiner-Falefa. “I remember (Kevin Kiermaier) going 3-2, eight pitches (on a groundout in the fifth) and Davis Schneider comes up next at-bat, gets a hanging breaking ball for a base hit. I just feel like when you put pressure on, as a full lineup, it just opens up other opportunities for other guys, tires the pitcher out, gives guys hanging breaking balls or something over the plate. As a team, we could do a better job of being pesky, scrappy and more guys would just end up with better pitches.”