Blue Jays Need Shane Bieber to Stop Rays Slide
A practical survival guide for a team that has turned the Rays series into a self-owning kitchen appliance.
Congratulations, you have reached finale mode.
Please keep your hands inside the Blue Jays season at all times, because parts may detach without warning.
Thursday is the last game of this home set against the Tampa Bay Rays.
Shane Bieber starts for Toronto.
Ian Seymour starts for Tampa Bay.
The Blue Jays are trying to avoid a fourth straight Rays-shaped dent in the furniture.
This preview will now become an emergency manual, because apparently baseball has become something we assemble from Swedish instructions with one missing screw and a bag labelled hope.
Step one: admit the room is on fire
The Jays lost Monday 7-1.
They lost Tuesday 12-2.
They lost Wednesday 4-2.
That is three of three against Tampa Bay, all at home, which is a little like inviting someone over for dinner and watching them take the dining table.
The standings are not wearing a fake nose either.
Toronto is 46-56.
The winning percentage is .451.
The Jays are fifth in the division, 3-7 in the last ten, and on an L4 streak.
Those are not vibes.
Those are the numbers on the dashboard while the check-engine light starts speaking in Latin.
A finale cannot fix all of that.
But a finale can stop the current bit from becoming even worse.
There is value in stopping a bit.
Ask anyone who has ever watched a mascot dance too long on a dugout roof.
Step two: feed the starting pitcher
Bieber gets the ball, which means the Blue Jays have handed him the baseball equivalent of a toddler covered in jam and said, good luck with the paperwork.
He cannot hit for everyone.
He cannot pitch and also run the entire concession stand of offence.
He can start the game.
The lineup has to provide something sturdier than decorative parsley.
Wednesday was not exactly a buffet.
The Jays scored in the bottom of the first when George Springer grounded out off Griffin Jax, bringing in Nathan Lukes and moving Vladimir Guerrero Jr. to third.
Then the next Toronto run waited until the bottom of the seventh, when Alejandro Kirk homered off Cam Booser for homer number 3.
Kirk went 2-for-3.
Yohendrick Piñango went 1-for-2.
Guerrero had a hit.
Toronto finished with 2 runs, 4 hits, and 3 left on base.
That is not a baseball offence so much as a polite knock on a locked door.
The season totals say the offence is not imaginary.
Toronto has 402 runs, 102 home runs, a .241 batting average, a .680 OPS, and 3.94 runs per game through 102 games.
There is machinery here.
Sometimes it just appears to be powered by a hamster who has questions about management.
Step three: respect the sixth inning
The sixth inning on Wednesday did not sneak up on anyone.
It arrived in a reflective vest and began moving traffic cones.
In the top of the sixth, Chandler Simpson hit a sacrifice fly off Jeff Hoffman, scoring Yandy Díaz.
Then Victor Mesa Jr. singled off Hoffman, scoring Junior Caminero.
Then Ben Williamson walked with Mason Fluharty pitching, and Cedric Mullins scored.
Three Rays runs.
One inning.
A 4-2 final that felt like the game stepped on a garden hose and sprayed everyone watching.
The strange part is that Toronto pitching was not a smoking crater in the box score.
Spencer Miles went 3.2 innings with 0 earned runs and 4 strikeouts.
Louis Varland had 1.0 inning with 0 earned runs.
Brendon Little had 1.0 inning with 0 earned runs and 1 strikeout.
Tyler Rogers had 1.0 inning with 0 earned runs and 2 strikeouts.
The staff total showed 9 strikeouts and 1 earned run.
And yet the Jays lost 4-2.
This is the sort of thing that makes a box score feel like a magic trick performed by a raccoon in a vest.
Step four: operate the baseball machine
Against Seymour, the Jays do not need to become a fireworks depot.
They need to operate the baseball machine.
Put pressure on the Rays before the game becomes another Tampa Bay seminar.
Give Bieber breathing room before every pitch feels like he is defusing a novelty bomb labelled AL East.
Catch the ball.
Finish innings.
Do not turn small mistakes into a parade with permits.
This is basic, which is precisely why it feels so luxurious.
A clean win on Thursday would not erase Monday.
It would not erase Tuesday.
It would not make Wednesday any less of a compact emotional blender.
But it would stop the homestand from becoming a full four-game tire fire, and sometimes not making the fire bigger is the closest thing to growth available.
The Blue Jays have Bieber.
The Rays have Seymour.
The fan base has one eyebrow permanently raised.
Please follow the manual.
React