TORONTO — As Lourdes Gurriel Jr., began to grasp what had happened in the moments after Randal Grichuk accidentally stepped on his right hand, the Toronto Blue Jays left-fielder’s thoughts immediately turned to the club’s post-season pursuit.
“I asked myself, ‘Why now? Why now?’” he said after taking batting practice Friday afternoon, fit enough for an at-bat off the bench but not a start for the second straight day. “I didn’t think it was going to be that bad, but it is what it is. I want to make the playoffs badly, very badly. That’s why you see me out here on the field hitting, trying to do everything I can to help the team. I want to contribute and help the team get to the playoffs.”
Hours later, the Blue Jays did their part to keep the chase alive with a 6-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles, spurred along by three hits, an RBI and a run scored from Cavan Biggio, who was in the lineup in part because of Gurriel’s absence.
Steven Matz shoved for 7.1 innings, Danny Jansen got the offence rolling with a two-run homer in the second and a four-spot in the sixth provided breathing room that came in far handier than expected, after the morose Orioles suddenly posted four runs of their own in the eighth.
Reflecting the urgency of the moment, manager Charlie Montoyo called on Jordan Romano to nurse home a 6-3 lead with two on and one out in the eighth, and he allowed a Trey Mancini RBI single before escaping the jam. He then closed things out in a clean ninth to the roar of a crowd of 28,855, ensuring his team lived another day.
“I mean, this is the season,” Montoyo said of the decision to call on Romano once Adam Cimber got in trouble behind Matz. “I (thought beforehand about) using Romano for five outs because he’s fresh. That’s what happened and Jordan does what Jordan does. He got the last five outs and it wasn’t easy. You’ve got to give them credit, making him work. He was outstanding.”
The Blue Jays (89-71) need to win one game more on the season’s final weekend than both the Boston Red Sox (90-70), 4-2 winners at Washington, and the Seattle Mariners (89-70), home to the Angels, to force a wild-card tiebreaker Monday.
A wild scenario for a four-team tie also remains in play after the New York Yankees (91-69) lost 4-3 to the Tampa Bay Rays.
More drama and tension looms.
“It just comes down to controlling what you can control,” said Biggio. “We’ve got to take care of business (Saturday) and Sunday to give us a shot to get the wild card and that’s what we’re going to worry about. We’re not going to worry about what other teams are doing during the game. We’ve got to go out, do our work and get ready for each game, finish out strong and just hope that we can get in there.”
Gurriel’s desire to get back in there was evident when he rejoined the lineup Tuesday and Wednesday against the New York Yankees after missing three games following the Sept. 23 mishap.
Each swing he took, however, produced searing pain along the two stitches on the middle joints of his right middle finger, and the skin still growing back on the top third of his right index finger. Unsurprisingly, he went 0-for-8 and then sat Thursday when there was too much pain for him to get off a decent swing at the plate, ending what had been a dominant September in which he posted a 1.084 OPS and drove in 30 runs.
“I was having difficulty with the grip,” Gurriel, speaking through interpreter Hector Lebron, said, estimating his swing is at about 80 per cent of his normal. “That’s what was most bothering me. I was just trying to find the best grip for it.”
His absence Friday opened the door for Biggio, the best remaining option for first base as Montoyo was determined to get Vladimir Guerrero Jr., off his feet with a DH day. Making his first start since Aug. 2, Biggio looked much more like his 2020 self and with Grichuk not producing, he may have earned himself more rope over the remaining two days.
“I never lost confidence in Biggio — the one thing that he did that people don’t know is he played hurt all year,” said Montoyo. “He had a tough neck, the back and he kept playing. I appreciate guys like that. Of course, it got to a point where he had got to go through rehab and try to get it going because now he’d lost too much time… But the plays he made at first and the big hits, he was key.”
Matz, meanwhile, closed out a quietly solid season by allowing two runs over his 7.1 frames, on six hits and a walk with five strikeouts. He’ll finish the regular season with a 3.82 ERA in 150.2 innings over 29 starts, numbers that should generate interest in the pending free agent during the off-season.
As he does when he’s at his best, Matz commanded his fastball, kept the Orioles honest with his changeup and flipped in some curveballs to push them off balance.
“This is what you want to feel,” Matz said of pitching in games of high stakes. “It’s Oct. 1, you want to be pitching in important games, so it’s a good feeling, definitely the crowd is awesome here, got a little extra adrenaline boost, but it’s exciting. We’re playing important games in October. It’s a lot of fun.”
The Blue Jays will try to keep it going Saturday to give themselves a Sunday with meaning and see where things land. Gurriel is aiming to be more than a spectator and says the mindset is simple: “Just win. We’ve got to win and see what happens.”
Urgent Blue Jays keep playoff chase alive but more drama, tension looms
Source: Pinas Ko Mahal
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