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The Toronto Blue Jays bullpen appears to be deteriorating before our eyes.

Toronto lost Joaquin Benoit to a calf tear this week, sustained while he was trying to evacuate the bullpen and join an on-field scrum against the New York Yankees. Over the last couple of weeks, Jason Grilli has had a difficult time finding outs. Closer Roberto Osuna is struggling as well. The timing couldn't be worse for the Jays as the games grow in importance down the stretch of the regular season.

Toronto would love to be patient with Grilli and Osuna, but time is running out. Joe Biagini has had a nice rookie season but he hasn’t pitched in high-leverage situations. He may be asked to grow up quickly. Brett Cecil seems to be getting back on track again after a horrific start to the year. He has experience in big situations and has shown the ability to get on a good run when he has his confidence. He is an obvious option to help late in games this weekend and in October. Maybe he can handle the seventh inning, replacing Benoit.

The Toronto bullpen situation has reached the point of serious concern. The Jays must strongly consider all options available to them. If Ross Atkins, Mark Shapiro and John Gibbons make the wrong decision as to who should get the ball, Toronto may finish out of the postseason. This is no time to worry about feelings or the future. The marathon that is the regular season has turned into a desperate sprint to the finish line.

The Red Sox have a formidable offence that can do damage to pitchers who are at their best, let alone those who are struggling. Desperate measures call for desperate times. That means roles don’t matter anymore. The Jays need to have the most possible innings thrown by their best available pitchers. If they go down, they need to go down with their best.

When the season began, Aaron Sanchez was the Blue Jays most important pitcher. They really needed two of him — one for the rotation and one for the bullpen. Toronto opted to use him in the rotation and chose to piece together the pen. Today, Sanchez is still the most important member of the staff. He needs to be used in the way he can best help the team.

Sanchez has shown the ability to be a quality reliever in the past.  He has been arguably their best starter this season. But here is the reality: The difference between Sanchez and the other starters is not as significant as the difference between Sanchez and the struggling arms in the bullpen.

If Sanchez is to start a game in the playoffs he will most likely not complete the game. He will need bullpen help.  He could very well toss seven quality innings, but if the bullpen falters, it would all be for naught. If J.A. Happ, Marco Estrada, Marcus Stroman or Francisco Liriano throw seven quality innings, Sanchez could come out of the pen and ensure a victory. Sanchez as a reliever for the rest of the year gives the Jays the best chance to win the most games.

Sanchez can be Toronto’s secret weapon. He has the ability to pitch one inning, but he can also pitch multiple endings on a given night if necessary. Because of the off days scheduled in the postseason, Sanchez could be in position to impact just about every game for the remainder of the season.

Weighing potential wild-card opponents

Despite the fact that the Jays have fallen into a tie with the Orioles with losses on Wednesday and Thursday, I believe the team will find a way to get to the American League wild-card game on Tuesday.  

As it stands now, the potential candidates to face Toronto are the Orioles, Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners. Any of the three teams would be a formidable opponent.  

The Blue Jays and Orioles have played a lot of games over the last few years and many of those have gotten heated. It would certainly be a rivalry game if these two AL East foes matchup in a one and done.

Toronto had a slight advantage against Baltimore this year, winning 10 of 19 games. It is never easy though, as the Orioles have a powerful offence that leads all of baseball in homers. Opposing pitchers need to be very careful because any mistake can go out of the ballpark.

The Orioles don’t have great starting pitching, but they have the best bullpen in baseball. If it turns into a battle of relievers, Baltimore rarely loses. The way the starting rotation currently lines up, Baltimore would have an option of Chris Tillman or Ubaldo Jimenez available to make the start on Tuesday.

The Tigers have the best potential opposing starting pitcher in Justin Verlander. Although the Tigers righty doesn’t quite have the same fastball velocity as he once did, he can still locate it well and he has exceptional secondary pitches to keep hitters off-balance. He also has a postseason pedigree that separates him from the Toronto starters. Verlander is slated to start on Sunday for the Tigers, making him unavailable for Tuesday.

The next best starter for Detroit is rookie Michael Fulmer, but he is also unavailable for Tuesday since he is slated to start on Monday in the make-up game against Cleveland. That leaves Anibal Sanchez as the most likely candidate to start for Detroit. The Tigers’ offence is as good as any, led by veteran sluggers Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez, who are among the most professional clutch hitters in the game. Detroit’s bullpen is a bit vulnerable, but overall they're a well-balanced team.

When it comes to the Mariners, it's all about the big three in the middle of the lineup: Robbie Cano, Nelson Cruz and Kyle Seager. They all have 30 or more homers and will likely all end up with more than 100 RBI. They still have Felix Hernandez as their ace and leader. He isn’t quite as good as he has been in the past, but he can still make good hitters look bad. The Mariners face the same challenge as Detroit in that Hernandez is slated to start on Sunday and wouldn’t be available for the wild-card game on Tuesday.  

The likely starter for the Mariners would be James Paxton, a young power lefty who has come on strong at the end of the year. They developed a young closer in Edwin Diaz this season. He has power stuff but is still a bit green.  

In a single-game elimination, the starting pitching matchup is critical. Of the three possible opponents, the Jays would prefer to play Detroit, then Seattle and then Baltimore.

The Tigers have the weakest starting pitcher in Sanchez for Tuesday, so they are the best potential matchup. Although Paxton has exceptional stuff, he is young and misses his spots on occasion. Jimenez kept the Jays hitters off-balance all night on Thursday. I would prefer not to face him again so soon after his registered success.

Get in, and you can win

Over this final weekend you'll see teams fighting desperately to make the postseason. One thing we've learned over the years is that once you get in, you have a chance to win. It is not always the best team that advances to the World Series; it's the team that plays the best. Just ask the San Francisco Giants, winners of three of the last six World Series, including a title in each of the past three even-numbered years.

The Giants got off to a great start this year and had the best record (57-33) in baseball at the All-Star break. But the second half of the season has been a miserable, with Giants holding the worst record in the National League (27-42).

Everything has gone wrong. When they've hit they haven't pitched; when they pitched they haven't hit; and when they did both their bullpen let them down, over and over again.

Yet, San Francisco still has a chance, entering the final weekend one game behind the New York Mets and one game ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals in the wild-card race. They are slated to play the final three regular season games against the Los Angeles Dodgers at home. It will certainly be a challenge as they will face the Dodgers best three starters in Rich Hill, Clayton Kershaw and Kenta Maeda.

It has been a struggle for the Giants to get to the playoffs, but they understand that once you get there the slate is wiped clean. Sure, at best, they are likely the second wild-card team, but they won the championship from the same position just two seasons ago.

This year’s team has a legitimate shot if they can get there and win the wild-card game, likely against the New York Mets. I would never bet against a team led by Bruce Bochy. The Giants have starting pitching depth, led by World Series hero Madison Bumgarner. Johnny Cueto won a championship last season with the Royals. Matt Moore, acquired from the Tampa Bay Rays at the deadline, is the number three starter, while Jeff Samardzija holds the four spot.

The offence is led by the familiar names of Buster Posey and Hunter Pence. The Giants are ranked 14th in runs scored in the second half, but it is the same lineup that scored the fourth most runs in the first half.

Every team in baseball should be rooting against the Giants. It’s an even year, which means it’s their year.

Spitting Seeds

- I gasped for breath when I heard the news about Jose Fernandez. The Marlins pitcher died in a boating accident early last Sunday morning. Fernandez was one of the top five pitchers in the game. He was also one of the top five personalities.

It feels so unfair. This poor kid defected from Cuba on his fourth try to come to the United States. All he wanted to do was play baseball. He loved the game. He lived a life of gratitude and happiness. His energy was infectious. A loss like this certainly can put things in perspective.

The Marlins organization took the news hard. There is no script or manual on how to handle such a tragedy. But the team showed such class and dignity over the past week while mourning in front of the world. Clearly, none of us who knew and appreciated Fernandez will ever be the same.

- The New York Mets showed tremendous class as well while playing the Marlins in Miami this week. Manager Terry Collins did an amazing job balancing compassion with trying to win baseball games.

- I am a big fan of instant replay. I was one of only three general managers who voted in favour of it in 1998. Slowly but surely the rest of baseball came around. I never wanted to lose a game on a mistake by the umpires when we could ultimately get the call right.

The Cardinals beat the Reds on Thursday night in walk-off fashion as Yadier Molina ripped a double to left field, scoring Matt Carpenter. About 34 seconds after the game ended, Reds manager Bryan Price realized that Molina’s hit was a ground-rule double. It had bounced off the warning track and hit a secondary wall. Price popped out of the dugout and went looking for the umps, who had already exited the field. All four umpires on the field missed the call.

Carpenter should have been sent back to third base and Molina should have been awarded the double. The game should have continued. However, it was ruled that the Reds did not challenge the play “immediately” after the game, so the umpires would not be able to return to the field to review the play.  

It just doesn’t feel like the proper result. Sure, left fielder Adam Duvall should have signalled immediately that the ball hit the second wall, but he was just trying to make a play in a critical situation. How is the onus on the Reds coaches when they are sitting in a sunken dugout 360 feet away? If the four umps couldn’t initially see it, how could anyone in the dugout?  

I understand what the rule says, but the rule needs to be changed. Maybe every game-ending play needs to be reviewed automatically. They review every scoring play in the NFL, even when it isn’t really a question. A rule change could protect against a play like this. The Cardinals may have still won the game if the call had been made properly, but we will never know. If St. Louis gets in the playoffs and either the Giants or Mets don’t, this will become a historical mistake. Stay tuned.

- The Blue Jays’ bench-clearing incidents against the Yankees early this week may cost them a chance at the playoffs, or a chance to advance if they get there. Benoit and Devin Travis were both injured in the skirmishes. It seems that Travis will be okay (he returned to the lineup Thursday night), but Benoit will likely not return.

This all could have been avoided. I don’t know if Yankee starter Luis Severino meant to hit Josh Donaldson in the elbow, but even if he did, it did not call for immediate retaliation. J.A. Happ hit Chase Headley in response, leading to the benches clearing. Happ missed Headley on his first attempt, but drilled him with the second try. Warnings were then issued to both teams. Obviously, that didn’t mean much to Severino as he plunked Justin Smoak on his send try in retaliation. Again both benches emptied.  

I understand that pitchers want to protect their star teammates, but someone needs to speak up and cool everyone down. Maintaining health and avoiding suspensions is more important than sending messages in the final week of the season. Baseball players have long memories. If the Jays were to hit a Yankee next year, most everyone would know what it meant.  

The Jays may have won the battle, only to lose the war.  

- The Blue Jays head to Boston for the final weekend of the regular season for what will be a farewell to David Ortiz. The Sox are headed to the postseason, but it will be a chance for the fans to show their appreciation, since you never know when the season will end in the playoffs.  

The game won’t be the same without Ortiz. His personality and love of the game will be missed.  AL East pitchers sure won’t miss him, but the game will be less without him as a whole. Farewell Big Papi.

- Rain, rain go away! The Tigers - Indians game on Thursday was cancelled due to bad weather. The game has been rescheduled for Monday, in case it is needed to decide the playoff situation. The entire playoff schedule could be compromised by rain this weekend. Precipitation is in the forecast all across the Midwest and Northeast.

As it stands now, the AL wild card may not be determined until the Tigers and Indians play on Monday. The Jays are hoping they can be waiting in Toronto for either Detroit or Baltimore (or Seattle) to come to them. There is a possibility the game on Monday could lead to a tie for one of the wild-card spots and therefore a play-in game on Tuesday to see who is in the playoffs. This season may not be decided until Canadian Thanksgiving.