BOSTON – The fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants approach injuries have forced the Toronto Blue Jays to take with their starting rotation is no biggie to set-up man Tyler Rogers. In 2023, he was part of a San Francisco Giants team that led the majors with 705.1 relief innings and had only three pitchers reach triple-digits in frames logged.
“We had, like, two starters for the whole year (Logan Webb and Alex Cobb) – it was crazy,” said Rogers, which is why the Blue Jays’ recent stretch with three starters “felt not as crazy as that, so that’s good. And then in New York (with the Mets last summer), we didn’t have a lot of starters, either. So for me, that was nothing different than anywhere else I’ve been. And that’s the message I tried to share, like, look, this is part of a baseball season. Weather this little storm and we move on. It’s not going to last long all season, I don’t think.”
Well, Max Scherzer’s return to the injured list Wednesday, a mere week after he came off it, ended the Blue Jays’ brief respite from bullpen days, although Shane Bieber’s next outing could be in the majors, so they may be back to a five-man rotation next time through.
Still, on Day 2 of 16 games in 16 days, the toll of a seven-man effort featuring Braydon Fisher opening for the fifth time, Simeon Woods Richardson delivering three innings of bulk and Jeff Hoffman, Rogers and Louis Varland each pitching a second straight day in a 3-0 win over the Boston Red Sox makes navigating the next two weeks even more complicated.
“You’ve got to use everybody and you’ve got to be pretty deliberate with what the game state is,” manager John Schneider said of the challenge. “You’re always trying to win the game at hand and you go, OK, do you go forward or do you ask guys to kind of pick up some innings and leverage that they normally wouldn’t? You’ve got to gauge that out.
“There are going to be a handful of those games throughout this stretch where it could be someone not used to the eighth inning pitching the eighth in a one-run game or something like that. You’ve got to use everybody.”
The just-recalled Chad Dallas and Tommy Nance were the only relievers who didn’t pitch in the Blue Jays’ second straight win at Fenway Park, which makes it possible there’s another move coming ahead of Thursday’s series finale.
At the same time, their flexibility is somewhat limited as the optionable relievers aside from Dallas, who’s fresh and offers length, aren’t going anywhere, so they may need to soon churn through their depth. Bieber, who made another rehab start at triple-A Buffalo on Wednesday and may be ready for his next turn, and Yimi Garcia, throwing for the second time in three days with the Bisons on Thursday, are on the cusp and may alleviate some of those concerns.
More offence, easing the burden on the Blue Jays’ leverage arms, would help and they clawed out enough to keep this game in medium leverage.
Davis Schneider played catalyst in the third, as after ending the second with a sliding grab of a Marcelo Mayer blooper to left that saved a run, he opened the inning with a double. A single by Andres Gimenez brought him home, and after he stole second and third, Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s groundout scored him to make it 2-0.
They added on in the eighth when Gimenez singled, stole second, took third on George Springer’s flyout to left and scored when Guerrero’s blooper to short right touched green.
Gimenez missed Sunday’s 8-3 loss to the Yankees after slamming his left wrist into the base sliding in for a single Saturday but returned with a homer and a double in Tuesday’s 6-1 win over the Red Sox.
Guerrero, who missed both weekend losses to New York with back tightness and also returned Tuesday in an 0-for-4 effort, had two hits and two RBIs.