TORONTO — Sitting in the visitors’ dugout at Rogers Centre Thursday afternoon, Ron Washington reflected on the challenge of building a winning team.
Now 72, Washington has managed two clubs to the World Series but his current team — the last-place Angels — has no such aspirations this season. Success for the Angels means playing well between the lines, of course, but there’s also the mental side of the game. As Washington sees it, a young team must make progress on both fronts: on-field performance along with presence, the ability to navigate all that comes with being a major-leaguer.
“Winning is acquired,” he said before this late-August series against the Blue Jays. “This is not easy and we’ve got a lot of first timers going through it. (But) you’ve to go through it to do it.”
Clearly, the same could be said about the 2024 Blue Jays. On Friday they put together one of their most compelling wins of the season, beating the Angels 5-4 thanks to the back-to-back homers of two rookies. With the Blue Jays trailing by one run in the ninth, left fielder Joey Loperfido crushed a Roansy Contreras fastball over the left field wall to tie the game at four.
“It just feels good to come through for the guys,” Loperfido said afterwards. “I was struggling earlier (this month). To work hard, grind, make those adjustments and be able to come through feels good.”
One batter later, third baseman Addison Barger homered to right field for the first walk-off home run of his career.
“When I saw the flight, I knew it was gone,” he said. “I just don’t do a good job of pimping homers.”
He said afterwards that it was the best moment of his professional career, but acknowledged his recollection of the home run trot is less than perfect.
“I probably won’t remember anything to be honest,” the 24-year-old said. “I blacked out.”
When the season began, no one expected the Blue Jays to be in this position. Loperfido was on the Astros until the Blue Jays became summer sellers while Barger was still a minor leaguer. Yet it’s by challenging those players that the Blue Jays will get glimpses into what’s possible from their youngest contributors.
“Great swing from Joey. Great at-bat from Barger,” said manager John Schneider. “That was pretty cool. It’s fun for me, the staff and the guys.”
Before the game, Schneider remarked on the importance of opportunities just like this.
“You want to finish strong, but you want to see what these guys can do,” he said in his office. “You want to see what they can do while in the back of your mind, knowing that maybe in a different world, they wouldn’t be in those spots.”
In the fifth inning of Friday’s game, Loperfido made an impressive catch against the left field wall, robbing Nolan Schanuel of an extra-base hit. Meanwhile, in right field, Steward Berroa made a nice catch of his own and threw out Schanuel trying to turn a single into a double. Those plays don’t go unnoticed by team decision makers, but maybe more importantly they show the players themselves they belong.
“Being able to play the same spot most days and just stack days on top of each other defensively, I think the comfort level definitely goes up,” Loperfido said.
From the pitcher’s mound, Bassitt appreciated their efforts.
“Loperfido has really shown himself and obviously Berroa is doing things too,” the right-hander said. “That throw was obviously really good. They’re both showing they can play here.”
While Alejandro Kirk isn’t a newcomer to the big-leagues anymore, he has been taking on a bigger workload ever since the Blue Jays traded Danny Jansen to Boston. So far, Schneider likes what he sees from Kirk, who singled twice while driving in two.
“He can hit,” Schneider said. “He’s not chasing as much — controlling the zone a little bit better. And when he’s not chasing, he’s usually hitting the ball hard.”
Now granted, it’s easier to find silver linings on a losing team than it is to assemble the combination of performance and presence that allows for division titles, first-round byes and deep playoff runs. These positives are just the beginning for a Blue Jays team with lots of work ahead, first internally and then this off-season.
If you ask Washington, young players are better off staying focused on the moment and letting the front office take care of those bigger picture concerns.
“In this business if you try to become a hero you become a zero,” Washington said. “Their heart beats so fast their nervous system is all over the place. They put themselves in trouble.”
On Friday, Loperfido and Barger did just the opposite, and some memorable late-game heroics followed.