Back in a Playoff Spot, Toronto Now Looks for Series Sweep -

The Toronto Blue Jays are currently holding down the final American League Wild Card playoff spot.

Despite a record-setting month of August by the Seattle Mariners, a broken bone to the right hand of catcher Danny Jansen, a disastrous campaign by Cy Young finalist Alek Manoah and a new MLB lowlight for Vladimir Guerrero Jr., the Jays have managed to weasel their way back into postseason contention.

Vladdy just set the record for most double plays before the age of 25 in MLB history.

— Jesse Rubinoff (@jesserubinoff) September 6, 2023

Yes, it’s been a rough, up-and-down season for the boys in blue representing the country of Canada.

The emergence of rookie Davis Schneider, paired with sensational starting pitching from Chris Bassitt, Kevin Gausman, Hyun Jin Ryu and oftentimes Yusei Kikuchi has fans in Toronto champing at the bit for some fall ball – and hopefully a better showing than last October’s miserable two-game collapse to the Mariners at home.

Coming off a 1-2 three-game series loss to the rival Baltimore Orioles on August 24, the Jays were set to face the weakest stretch of 15 games they have seen all season. And all the team did was go out and lose two of three to Cleveland before losing a game to both Washington and Colorado. Despite that, Toronto has strung together three-straight victories and is looking for its first series sweep since a three-game weekend set against Boston over a month ago.

Toronto will turn to Ryu for the final of three games against Oakland before the team gets a much-deserved day off and returns home for three critical series against American League opponents (Kansas City, Texas and Boston).

“Everything that we want to accomplish, I think, is still in front of us,” clubhouse manager John Schneider said following the second of the three matches at the Coliseum on Tuesday. “There are still a lot of games to be played. I’ll be way happier at the end of the season when we’re in that position than we are right now.”

Thanks to Bassitt’s sensational outing on Tuesday, the Jays leapfrogged Texas for the final Wild Card spot, pulling the team right back into the mix, with an up-and-down month of August seemingly behind them.

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“This place is basically my home,” said Bassitt, a former pitcher for the Athletics postgame.

“We’re showing a lot of maturity behind the scenes in not chasing a 3-1/2 game deficit within one game,” he added. “Just concentrate on ourselves, win every series. If we win every series the rest of the way we’re going to be world champions. That’s the way it is. So just win every series, worry about one game at a time. We’ve got to worry about tomorrow, not worry about what everyone’s doing and that’s it. If you worry about what everyone’s doing, if you worry about how many games back or how many games up we are, it’s just too much crap to worry about. Just worry about your job and worry about yourself.”

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Bassitt lasted eight innings and picked up seven strikeouts against seven hits, alongside no issued walks. He gave up his only run in the seventh inning on a Jordan Diaz RBI single. It was his franchise record-tying ninth start of at least six scoreless innings on the season (Roger Clemens) and his 14th win of the season.

“He’s a horse, man,” outfielder Kevin Kiermaier said of his starter. “He says there’s guys who can strike 300 guys out a year and there’s guys who can eat innings and go out there and does what they’re supposed to. And that’s what he does. He gets us six, seven, eight innings every time he’s out there. He wants to go out there and let the bullpen chill and relax down there… I appreciate it, and I know everyone else does. He’s a veteran. He knows what his role is and what he’s trying to do, and he is excellent at his craft.”

Toronto will now look to close things out against Oakland before shifting its attention to the final 22 games of the season. Opening pitch is scheduled for 2:37 PM central time on Wednesday afternoon.