BALTIMORE — John Schneider put it simply following the Blue Jays’ nightmarish loss on Saturday evening.
“We were playing with fire the whole day,” said the Blue Jays manager, minutes after the Orioles staged a ninth-inning comeback to complete a 6-5 win in front of a boisterous crowd at Camden Yards.
Blue Jays starter Trey Yesavage walked a career-high seven batters over his five frames yet navigated trouble effectively and was in line for the win as his club entered the ninth with a comfortable four-run lead.
However, right-hander Jeff Hoffman entered the game and after striking out the first batter on a nasty splitter, he suddenly and dramatically lost command of that pitch along with his slider.
Here’s how it unfolded:
“Just lost the zone,” said Schneider of Hoffman. “Kind of the theme for today.”
Hoffman was removed with one out and the bases loaded as the Blue Jays were clinging to a one-run lead. Connor Seabold entered the near-impossible situation and walked Adley Rutschman to tie the contest, before Pete Alonso ended it with a single through the right side.
The loss snapped the Blue Jays’ win streak at four and prevented them from climbing above the .500 mark for the first time since the season’s opening week.
Yesavage walked the first batter he faced on Saturday and it was quickly apparent he didn’t have his best stuff. He loaded the bases with one out in the third and fourth innings yet escaped both threats by inducing double plays. The right-hander made pitches when he needed to but was helped by the Blue Jays’ stellar defence, which turned four double plays on the afternoon.
“It’s frustrating,” Yesavage said. “I’m a professional baseball player. Shouldn’t be walking seven guys. But defence stood tall behind me and backed me up and got me out of some jams.”
In total, the 22-year-old right-hander allowed just one run on two hits, with four strikeouts against his seven walks on 92 pitches (48 strikes). His typical swing and miss, particularly from his splitter, was not there as he generated seven whiffs on 39 swings.
“It was just one of those days of spraying all over the place,” said Yesavage, who noted he plans to look back at video to see what he can deduce from his struggles.
“He laboured,” said catcher Tyler Heineman. “It’s pretty amazing that he got five innings in and only allowed one run. That just means he did a really good job of bearing down when he needed it.”
Meanwhile, the Blue Jays offence built a lead with RBI doubles from Jesus Sanchez and Kazuma Okamoto. Ernie Clement added a run-scoring single while Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 4-for-5 to raise his batting average to .302.
Yariel Rodriguez, Tyler Rogers and Louis Varland each contributed scoreless frames setting Hoffman up for the ninth inning.
Schneider said that if the Blue Jays had scored one more run and increased their lead to five, he would have opted to bring in Seabold instead of Hoffman to begin the ninth.
“I mean, bullpen’s running hot, you know, we are cycling through guys and we’re aware of that,” said Schneider. “We’re trying to keep guys’ appearances and innings down and things like that and it’s tough to do sometimes.”
Hoffman’s meltdown interrupted what has been a positive stretch for the reliever. He hadn’t allowed a run over his past six innings, striking out 10 without issuing a walk.
The right-hander pitched on consecutive days twice during that span and Schneider pointed out the bullpen as a whole has carried a hefty load during the club’s current stretch of 17 straight games without an off day, which will finally arrive Monday.
“We’re asking a lot of them,” said the manager. “And outings like that happen. It sucks. It is unfortunate when you go into the ninth with the lead, but these guys are all pitching a lot and we’re asking them to cover a lot of innings, asking them cover a lot of high-leverage innings. So, this kind of stuff happens, but they’ve really put us in this position, I think, to where we’ve gotten. And it’s tough, 17 in a row, you know what I mean?
“So, you got to regroup tomorrow, quick turnaround and get after it.”
Spencer Miles will start in the series finale but given that he’s not yet built up to five innings, the Blue Jays will need to ask for even more from their beleaguered bullpen on Sunday.