TORONTO, ON - JULY 20: Jordan Luplow #7 of the Toronto Blue Jays hits an RBI single against the San Diego Padres during the second inning in their MLB game at the Rogers Centre on July 20, 2023 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/Getty Images)Mark Blinch/Getty Images
After the power outage that had sucked much of the life out of the Rogers Centre over the opening two games of the series against the San Diego Padres, something approaching normal service was resumed on Thursday.
Vladimir Guerrero and Alejandro Kirk both went deep for the Blue Jays’ first extra-base hits of the three-game series, but it took a spare part brought up from Buffalo to flick the on switch, setting Toronto on its way to a 4-0 victory.
Jordan Luplow was promoted from Triple-A Buffalo in the hours before the team’s shutout loss on Wednesday night. Batting eighth in the order Thursday, he registered his first hit as a Blue Jay in the bottom of the second inning, snapping the career-long 22 2/3-inning runless streak of former Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell.
His line drive up the middle off the left-hander scored Whit Merrifield to give the Blue Jays their first lead of the series, and went a little way to turning over the engine of the team’s offensive machine.
His contributions didn’t go unnoticed by manager John Schneider, who had plugged him in for a reason.
“His numbers have been good historically in his career versus lefties,” Schneider said. “You know, we joked about him being 2-for-3 with a homer off Snell [in his career] and gets us on the board with an RBI single.”
Snell finished with five innings of one-run ball, giving up five hits and issuing seven walks.
Joined by his two sons at the postgame news conference – “reinforcements” was how Schneider introduced Gunnar and Grayson – Schneider had every reason to be happy with his afternoon’s work. The win, his 100th as Blue Jays manager, matched the legendary Cito Gaston for the franchise’s fastest to the century club, both reaching it in 171 games.
His team now heads out on a six-game West Coast trip – first to Seattle and then to Los Angeles to play the Dodgers – with the team very much in the thick of the wild-card race at 54-43.
And the play of his rotation should give Schneider every reason to feel optimistic going into that six-pack of contests.
“Love this rotation,” he said. “They’ve been as consistent as any in the league really, I think. And I like the fact that we have some other people that are getting ready to come [to] hopefully help us but those five guys you know, I take them against anybody.”
On Thursday, it was the turn of Chris Bassitt to take centre stage. He responded with his typical star turn, spinning his seventh start of the season of at least six runless innings, the most in the major leagues. The Blue Jays are 12-2 in games in which Bassitt pitches at least six innings.
He’s proved almost invincible at home as well, moving to 6-1 with a 2.24 earned-run average over 10 starts at Rogers Centre. Thursday was no exception, with the right-hander giving up just four hits and one walk, while striking out five, improving to 10-5.
Earlier in the week, Bassitt – in conjunction with his wife Jessica – committed to make a difference in the community as well as at the ballpark. The couple announced an initiative to donate $10,000 to the Jays Care Foundation for every game that the Blue Jays win in which Chris pitches.
Thursday’s performance necessitated a dip into the Bassitt family pocket book, in addition to the $120,000 they already donated at the announcement.
“I hope I have to donate a lot more money, I’ll say that,” Bassitt said after the game. “Obviously to a good cause.”
Like Schneider, Bassitt was naturally complimentary about the state of the Blue Jays’ starting pitching, which has combined for 47 quality starts this season.
“The truth of the matter is we threw five all-star pitchers together on one staff, we better be good,” he said. “And I mean obviously we have been this year, but overall, I mean, if you were expecting something else, I don’t know what you were expecting.”
With just 65 games remaining in Toronto’s drive for the postseason, the Blue Jays will need Bassitt and Co. to bring it every time on the mound, with Bassitt saying it will take more than 100 wins to win the American League East this year. But don’t expect the right-hander to be caught keeping a close eye on the standings.
Having been through a number of playoff races during his tenure in Oakland – playing alongside Blue Jays third baseman Matt Chapman – Bassitt has learned from experience.
“When we were in Oakland, I think we made a mistake of constantly checking standings and [being] worried about standings and stuff like that when it really doesn’t matter,” he said. “You have to control that day. Don’t worry about what everyone else is doing in our division, wins-losses. They don’t matter. We have to win that game that we’re in.”
Try telling that to the home run king though. Preparing to head back to T-Mobile Park – where he won the home run derby earlier this month – Guerrero Jr. is an avid scoreboard watcher, and will be monitoring the situation in Tampa this weekend, where the top two teams in the AL East, the Orioles and Rays, meet.
“I’m always on top of that since that first game since the first game of the season,” he said through a translator. “I’m looking at the standings or where we are at in our division. I try to tell all our guys to remind [them], ‘Hey, guys, we got so many games left. So we’ve got to do it right now,’ but I’m always on top of that.”