The Toronto Blue Jays had an opportunity to move into a playoff spot with a victory in Monday night’s series opener against the Detroit Tigers, but a blown save by star closer Louis Varland paved the way for another disappointing loss.
Leading 5-4 in the top of the eighth inning, Varland was brought in with two runners on to protect the lead with one out. A bloop single scored the tying run, and the eventual winning run scored in the top of the ninth when Varland committed a fielding error trying to cover at first base.
The significance of the loss was doubled by the fact that the Cleveland Guardians, who own the final wild-card spot in the American League playoff chase, lost earlier in the evening to the Chicago White Sox.
ESPN’s Buster Olney joined First Up on TSN1050 Tuesday morning to discuss the loss, his thoughts on the playoff hunt the rest of the way and the seasons of two Blue Jays infielders.
“My head spins trying to follow this American League playoff hunt,” Olney said. “Cleveland (76-75) is barely over .500 and they have a chance to be the No. 2 seed in the American League. That is absolutely bonkers.”
Entering play on Tuesday, the three best teams in the AL all play in the East Division - the Tampa Bay Rays, New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Behind them, the White Sox (77-73) currently lead the AL Central, while the Houston Astros (75-75) currently lead the AL West.
“You just keep waiting for someone to grab this situation by the throat and unfortunately for the Jays... what a tough loss last night when you have a lead and you go an inning and two thirds with your All-Star closer and you don’t come out with a win. It feels a little bit like a double loss at this point.”
The Blue Jays had a chance to mount one more comeback rally in the bottom of the ninth with the heart of the order due up - George Springer, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Alejandro Kirk. Springer reached on a walk, and with the stadium chanting his name, Guerrero struck out looking in yet another disappointing at-bat before Kirk grounded into a game-ending double play.
Guerrero electrified the Rogers Centre crowd on Sunday against the Baltimore Orioles when he finally launched his first home run at home of the season. The imposing slugger, who had launched 183 home runs in 975 career games entering this season and blasted eight homers in 18 games in the playoffs a year ago to help send the Blue Jays all the way to Game 7 of the World Series, has just nine in 136 games this year.
“I do think [Guerrero] probably needs an off-season to reset, take a deep breath, make his adjustments at the plate,” Olney said. “I thought ‘Okay, now that he has that first homer out of the way, maybe he’ll relax a little bit,’ and I loved how he handled it, I love how the fans handled it.
“Watching the plate appearances last night [though], he’s still putting a ton of pressure on himself. They’ll ride this thing out - maybe in the postseason, maybe you go to a new season he’ll relax, and that’s certainly what happened last September and October, but I’m sure there’s a part of him that’s looking forward to an opportunity to take a deep breath and think about what went wrong [this year].”
Guerrero signed a 14-year contract worth $500 million in April of 2025, and Olney thinks that Guerrero will be facing more pressure than just about anyone in the sport to turn things around next year.
“We are a long way away from the first games of 2027,” Olney said. “We have the last games of this season, we have the labour situation and we don’t know when baseball’s going to resume, but nobody’s going to be under more pressure to get off to a good start [next year] than Vladdy.
“That’s the part that drives me a little crazy is that you see folks on social media will talk about ‘Oh, he doesn’t care.’ No that’s the problem. He cares so desperately - I’ve seen players not care, I’ve seen players quit. That’s not what’s going on. It’s the other way. It’s that great internal engine. He’s self-cannibalizing.”
In the seventh inning of Monday’s game, the Blue Jays got a key hit from the team’s unexpected centrepiece on offence - Kazuma Okamoto.
Okamoto delivered with a three-run homer that gave the Blue Jays a temporary 5-4 lead, his 33rd home run of his rookie campaign after coming over from Japan in the off-season.
“In talking with evaluators on teams last winter, they were talking about Okamoto like he was going to be a more consistent player than [White Sox first baseman] Munetaka Murakami, the other free agent that was coming over from Japan,” Olney said. “They’re naturally compared, because they’re both corner infielders, and what I got back was that Okamoto’s going to be a better player defensively, could be a better hitter overall. But I didn’t hear anybody predict this kind of power, I didn’t hear anybody predict that he was going to be hitting 35 homers in his rookie season, it’s tremendous.”
Okamoto has already set Blue Jays rookie records for home runs and runs batted in (88).
“I think that [Tigers infielder] Kevin McGonigle is likely to be the American League Rookie of the Year, but Okamoto’s been a fun watch and he has been a saving grace for that offence.”
The Blue Jays continue their series against the Tigers on Tuesday at the Rogers Centre.
