Toronto – The Blue Jays de Toronto were seated safely on their plane, sheltered from the time that was raging around them. It was on Sunday evening, only five hours after winning a berth in the playoff series, and three days before reaching the edge of the famous American League East control.
They faced a storm.
The players and the coaches pushed on screens in front of them, participating in the Trivia competition integrated at the back of their seats. Bo Bichette won a tour, as is the typing coach David Popkins. Outside, the storm raged and the jet turned, in search of a gap to land through the groan clouds and descending the showers. They withdrew to Detroit to refuel and took off once again. They finally landed in Toronto long after midnight. They had resisted a storm.
Now, with four games to do in the regular season, they have to start again. They face a storm that brings together strength.
The Blue Jays, deeply in a slide that launched the last week of the season in chaos and their chances of division in danger the last week, absorbed a body with a 7-1 defeat against the Boston Red Sox on Wednesday. The defeat combined with another New York Yankees victory means that the American League East is equal.
The Jays do not hold the head of division only because they have the break in equality. It is a division stamp that has gone from five to zero in just nine games. They have lost six of their last seven games, with an average of 1.85 points scored.
Frustration is clear.
Friday, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. He had an incredulous smile while taking up the canoe after the second ejection of his career. Popkins quickly joined it after an exchange full of explanative with the home plaque referee. Myles Straw threw his gloves and his bats after a raised strike in the eighth. Addison Barger’s shoulders swayed after the final.
“I know I have the impression that the sky is falling right now,” said manager John Schneider. “It’s F-Ing not. We have 90 victories and we are in the playoffs. And if the season has ended today, you win the Al East. So I want them to go out and don’t press. I want them to go out and play confident.”
The missed calls and missed opportunities frustrated the Jays, and although they tormented the team in recent competitions, it was a greater frustration – born from one of the worst weeks of the team at the worst time. The place of the JAYS qualifiers is guaranteed, but everything else is uncertain. The division is still at stake. October of trades.
“We are not scoring enough races,” said Schneider. “So, frustration is boiling a little? Yeah, they are competitive. I like it when the guys are competitive. But it’s not a singular terrain here or there condemning the Blue Jays.”
The drop in Toronto in Al East, from clear division leaders to besieged suitors, comes from many places. The team is without a Bichette, the best second half’s contact striker in baseball, due to a sprained knee. The offensive, which always ranks seventh in races, hardly resembles the group that prompted Toronto in the standings. The rotation went from the overflow to a sparse, with José Berríos relegated to relief, Chris Bassitt (rear) on the injured list and Max Scherzer to the difficulties in September. Through all this, the Yankees have increased, winning seven of their last eight games. Toronto stacked the bad days while New York has accumulated the right ones.
There are a lot of pieces in the fight. However, the Jays always hold an advantage in the division. If Toronto wins or simply corresponds to New York victories, he will head around October with a Bye and the best record in the American League. However, it will take an immediate turnaround – a path through the storm.
“I understand,” said Scherzer. “Tonight feels, the way we play, has the impression that we are at the bottom of the world. But baseball can go back in the blink of an eye. Things can change overnight, for no apparent reason.”
The Jays are not confronted with four essential mathematics wins in the last section of the season. They will enter in October whatever happens. They have already gained a chance to gain glory at the end of the playoffs, but these last competitions will define the fashion for this entry into a playoff series – a joker team from Joker or a rested division champion. They can align the rotation and win the bichette necessary to return or immediately enter another best of the season.
The Blue Jays spent most of the summer to build a real threat from October. They were the best home team in AL, with an intimidating record against potential opponents in the playoffs. The enclosure of the readers has been largely reformed and the offense an implacable threat. Perhaps this version of the Jays returns for October, shaking this funk ending when the games undeniably count. However, the Jays have slipped into joker towers in three of the last five years and have been smothered immediately each time.
This year poses a chance to be different, but to win the first division of the franchise in a decade, they will have to find a means through the storm.
“We just have to win matches,” said Guerrero Jr. “obviously, we have not played as if we were playing. We have not struck as if we were struck. We just have to come back where we were and start winning.”
(Photo by Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
