Blue Jays only path forward is one pitch at a time

Well, that didn’t go quite as the Blue Jays had hoped. We all called it the biggest series of the season, but someone forgot to tell the players.

Toronto was sitting in the second wild-card position when the series against the Texas Rangers started on Monday – a game ahead of the Seattle Mariners, who were in the third spot, with the Rangers a game-and-a-half behind the Jays.

The Rangers flipped the script in just four days. Texas swept the Jays, outscoring them 35-9. The Rangers dominated the Jays in every component of the game. 

If the season were to end today, the Jays would miss the playoffs. But the season doesn’t end today. Sure, the Jays are a game-and-a-half behind the Mariners for the third wild-card spot and are now two-and-a-half games behind Texas, but there are 15 games remaining on the schedule. 

The risk of making a single series so important is what can happen to a team’s psyche if you get swept. Is your season over? The answer is obviously no. The series starting Friday against the Boston Red Sox is now important.

At this point, the Jays can’t start doing math. They can’t think that they might be a playoff team if they can just win 11 of the next 15. They still have a chance if they win nine or 10, but they would need either Seattle or Texas to dominate the other in the seven games they have left against each other.

But the Jays can’t worry about any of that. The team needs to narrow its focus. That doesn’t mean focusing on winning one game at a time, either. It means focusing on winning this pitch, in this inning, in this game. Then win the next pitch. Then the next.

Toronto’s offence disappeared in the Rangers series. As much as everyone wants to blame Vladimir Guerrero Jr., this was a poor performance team-wide. I saw hitters swinging late on 93 mph fastballs down the heart of the plate. Hitters chased pitches out of the zone over and over again.

These are signs of players who are uncertain and who are caught in between pitches. When a team doesn’t hit the players look flat and uncaring, but that is the furthest thing from the truth. The Jays are trying too hard.

The way out of this team-wide offensive funk is to take more pitches. The way to hit better is to show more patience.

The Jays have been swinging at pitchers’ pitches or pitches out of the zone. They need to be more selective. Sometimes the best pitch a batter gets to hit isn’t the first strike he sees. Wait for a pitch to drive and be ready for it. The more patient hitters are, the more walks they will get. Hitters who get ahead in the count force pitchers to throw the ball over the plate. That’s when a batter can tee off on the ball and look to drive it.

There is no doubt that the Rangers series was extremely disappointing. The players, coaching staff, front office, and fans are down. But the season isn’t over. Things can turn back in the Jays’ favour. Remember, the team that just thrashed the Jays was coming off a bad run of its own. The Rangers had gone 4-16 before winning their past six games.

Fortunes can turn on a dime in baseball. The Rangers were in a complete freefall. They had been in first place for 148 of the first 149 days of the season before their collapse. The Rangers have put things back together and so can the Blue Jays. Toronto is just a game-and-a-half out of a playoff spot with 15 games to go. There are at least 14 other teams in baseball that would swap their current situation with Toronto. 

Familiar foes await

Taylor Walls Vladimir Guerrero Jr. Tampa Bay Rays Toronto Blue Jays

The Jays have five series remaining, all against familiar AL East rivals. They play the Red Sox (three games), Yankees (six games) and Rays (six games). The challenge is that the Jays are 12-25 within the division so far this season.

The Red Sox are not playing very well lately, with a 5-8 record in September. They also just fired chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom. The Yankees and Rays, however, are playing extremely good baseball lately, and are a combined 18-9 this month. 

The Jays can be a playoff team. They need to stay close until the last three series of the season. The Mariners play 10 games against Texas (six) and Houston (four). The Rangers play the Mariners and Angels (three). The Jays are going to need help, but if the Mariners or Rangers can dominate the other, it could open the door.  

Keep in mind that there will not be a game 163 to break ties in the standings. Head-to-head matchups matter. Unfortunately for the Jays, they do not hold the advantage over the Rangers or Mariners. The Jays lost the season series to both, so finishing tied with either means the Jays miss the playoffs.

Making the postseason may seem like a daunting task after getting swept by the Rangers, but it can be done. The first step for the Blue Jays is winning one pitch at a time, one inning at a time, and one game at a time.