The Toronto Blue Jays’ push for an American League wild-card berth suffered another setback Tuesday night, with a 10-1 loss to the Detroit Tigers leaving Toronto two games behind Cleveland for the final playoff position.
Toronto managed little offensively at Rogers Centre, with Alejandro Kirk’s RBI single accounting for the Blue Jays’ only run. The defeat became even more costly after Cleveland rallied to beat the Chicago White Sox 7-6, strengthening its hold on the third and final AL wild-card spot.
The playoff picture tightened further when the Texas Rangers defeated the Boston Red Sox 4-2 later Tuesday. That result moved Texas half a game ahead of Toronto in the wild-card race.
With only 10 games remaining in the regular season, Blue Jays second baseman Ernie Clement said the team has little choice but to quickly move past the loss and approach each remaining contest with urgency.
“Every game’s a playoff game at this point,” Clement said, adding that Toronto needs to return with energy and concentrate on one game at a time.
The Blue Jays, now 75-76, have dropped the first two games of their three-game series against Detroit and have lost five of their past eight contests. The skid comes after Toronto had fought its way back into serious wild-card contention.
Despite the recent results, Clement said he believes the Blue Jays have been playing solid baseball overall, pointing to the club’s hitting, pitching and defence. He acknowledged Tuesday was far from Toronto’s best performance but said the team needs to put the defeat behind it immediately.
Toronto used a bullpen-day approach against Detroit, beginning with reliever Braydon Fisher before turning to Brendan Cellucci, Michael Lorenzen, Brendon Little, Spencer Arrighetti and Joe Mantiply.
Manager John Schneider said the club adjusted its pitching plans with an important series against the Rangers beginning Friday. Dylan Cease is now scheduled to start the opening game in Texas, followed by Jose Soriano, while Arrighetti was used for multiple innings Tuesday.
The Blue Jays will first try to avoid a sweep against Detroit in Wednesday afternoon’s series finale. Veteran Max Scherzer, who enters with a 2-8 record, is scheduled to start for Toronto against Tigers right-hander Keider Montero, who is 9-8.
With Cleveland holding the final wild-card position and Texas also ahead of Toronto, the Blue Jays have little margin for error over their final 10 games. For Clement and his teammates, the postseason race has effectively already begun.
