Blue Jays balance optimism with urgency as playoff race quickens

Article content

PITTSBURGH — September baseball leads to October baseball — and in the case of the Toronto Blue Jays, anyway, has the potential of flushing the mediocre performance from an under-achieving August.

Article content

The Jays arrived here in the Steel City on Thursday, a travel day/off day to collect their thoughts and prepare to put up a better effort against another of the sub standard opponents that have been filling up their schedule of late.

Article content

And yes, the stench of a 13-14 August — the team’s first losing month since the 2019 season — is still hanging over a team still digging to unearth its best form over an extended period.

Article content

There are all sorts of rationalizations you can attach to the most recent poor showing, the most common being — well, they’re still in a playoff spot, so how bad can it be?

While technically true, this is a team that few would have expected to be clinging to a wild-card spot at the top of the season’s stretch run, much less a group that could find itself in the final week of the season needing a series win in Baltimore just to advance.

Article content

So does Ross Atkins think his team has come anywhere near to playing its best thus far in 2022? The general manager knows better than trying to suggest otherwise.

‘No, I don’t,” Atkins said when we asked him just that earlier in the week. “We’ve played really well at times, but I don’t think we’ve ever been at a point where we’ve been pitching very well, playing great defence and scoring a lot of runs. And we’re capable of doing all three of those things.”

Capable, yes. On the verge of doing so? We shall see over the remaining 33 games, beginning with a nine-game road swing through Pittsburgh, Baltimore (home of those pesky Orioles) and Texas.

If the Jays have learned anything over the past week — in which they went 2-4 against the Angels and Cubs in a Rogers Centre home stand that was fertile for extending the good fortune of a 6-1 road trip — it’s that they can’t take weaklings like the 49-81 Pirates lightly.

Article content

And at some point over the final full month of the season, they’ll need to find at least a hint of consistency. Without it, they’ll remain in the American League’s third wild-card spot or, as inconceivable as it may be, worse.

After the Pirates series, 21 of the Jays next 24 games are against teams that are either currently in a playoff position or on the cusp of one. That schedule is top heavy with games against the Orioles and Tampa Bay Rays and includes a pair of double headers eight days apart.

https://torontosun.com/sports/baseball/toronto-blue-jays/this-is-not-repeat-not-a-crisis-for-blue-jays

As well, 19 of the remaining 33 are on the road.

Article content

‘I think we’re getting to that point,” Jays reliever David Phelps said, when asked when the Jays need to sharpen up. “We’ve seen it at times what this team can do, but the biggest mindset has to be to flush those games (in the recent homestead ) and let’s get back to the team we know we can be.

“The teams that we need to beat are still on the schedule so we can kind of control where we want to go and there’s some comfort in knowing that.”

The difficulty, of course, is the peak powers of that team haven’t been surfaced often enough — and when they do appear, they don’t stick around. In getting swept by the Angels and taking two of three from the Cubs, the flaws were exposed.

From sloppy defence on the weekend against the Halos, to an ice-cold offence at times, to questions at the back end of the rotation, the concerns are real.

Article content

Remember, this was a team of which much was expected in the pre-season. At sports books across North America, such as Bodog, the over/under on Jays wins was 92 1/2. Just to match their 91-win total of 2021, manager John Schneider’s team will need to go 21-12 the remainder of the way.

‘It’s good our fans expect big things out of us,” Phelps said. “It’s the team we can be, and we know that. Trust me, we’re as mad at ourselves over a sweep (at the hands of the Angels) as anyone’s going to be.

https://torontosun.com/sports/baseball/toronto-blue-jays/long-ball-important-stretch-for-blue-jays

“We’re all our own biggest critics. But the coolest thing about playing for a passionate fan base is what we’ve seen in the biggest moments this year.”

Article content

Underlying that sentiment is that Phelps and his teammates are well aware of what awaits, should they find that elusive form. They’ve had a taste of it from Rogers Centre crowds regularly surging past 40,000 and in the roars associated with last weekend’s 30th anniversary celebration of the 1992 World Series champion Blue Jays team.

For now, anyway, optimism of what’s possible mixes with the urgency to make it happen.

“There is something to be said about the calendar actually turning to September,” Schneider said before his team hit the road. “Going forward, everyone understands the magnitude of the games. These guys know what’s at stake and what they need to do.”

AROUND THE BASES

The arrival of September means expanded rosters and the Jays will have a pair of additions for the series at PNC Park — outfielder Bradley Zimmer, who returns to the Jays after being picked up from the Phillies on waivers and some pitching depth with right hander Casey Lawrence being recalled from triple a Buffalo.