Those of us who scrambled to save our grades in the final weeks of the college semester might be tempted to sympathize with the Toronto Blue Jays.
The surging Blue Jays clawed back to .500 on Friday night, moving within a game of the final Wild Card spot with a 9-2 victory over the lowly Royals. However, the Guardians swept a doubleheader from the Tigers, pushing Cleveland to 72-70 and into sole possession of the No. 6 seed.
Depending on how the AL East turns out, two of the Junior Circuit’s Wild Card berths will go to the Rays, Yankees, or Red Sox. As for the Blue Jays, they’re feeling the ramifications of a mediocre first half and disappointing seasons from numerous key contributors, most notably Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays don’t deserve baseball fans’ pity
John Schneider and the Blue Jays deserve some credit because they’ve spent so much of the season under .500. Toronto is 20-12 since the start of August despite Guerrero’s incredibly concerning regression and questions about Schneider losing the locker room. Barring a deep playoff run, we suggest that management do a full audit to properly identify what’s held the Jays back.
As we’ve said before, this is why every game matters. Once September hits and you start looking through the standings, you realize that an extra-inning loss in March or a 2-0 shutout win in April counts just as much as a 5-4 game in August. Rallying in the second half is meaningless if you miss the playoffs by two games.
If and when the Blue Jays miss the postseason, it won’t be hard to figure out why. Toronto is 18-21 in one-score games, and the Jays have lost another 21 games by at least five runs. Schneider’s club is only 37-35 at home, and that 51.4% winning percentage is shocking when compared to last year’s 66.7% mark.
A significant amount of this falls on Guerrero, not that he needs to worry about any consequences beyond an early start to winter. It’s bad enough that he’s managed just eight home runs and a .692 OPS in the first season of a 14-year, $500 million deal, but he’s also failed to elevate the club from a leadership standpoint.
The fact that the Blue Jays even still have time to dig themselves out of this hole is a reflection on the modern-day playoff system. If we still had the Wild Card Game, we’d be asking which AL East team would have home-field advantage that night. Counting the Guardians, there are four teams within three games of the last Wild Card seed
Luckily for the Blue Jays, they own the head-to-head tiebreaker over Texas (two games behind Cleveland) and Baltimore (three games out). However, they split the season series with Cleveland, and the two clubs don’t meet again.
But for now, the Blue Jays are still in the hunt, and they still have one final Loonie Dogs Night on the schedule. Cheap hot dogs are usually enough to make fans happy, but a game that could make or break the team’s playoff status is far more exciting than which condiment to apply.
And the answer, by the way, is ketchup. Always ketchup.
Add us as a preferred source on Google