NEW YORK — A way to navigate the New York Yankees lineup with the arms available to Toronto Blue Jays manager John Schneider in the finale of a four-game set in the Bronx appeared relatively straightforward.
Open with righty Braydon Fisher and get him through Paul Goldschmidt, a span of five batters. Follow with Adam Macko for fellow lefty Spencer Jones on down and let him handle Ben Rice when the top of the order comes back around. Begin Spencer Miles’ bulk innings at Aaron Judge’s second time up and let him rip for some 60-65 pitches, however deep that lands. Ideally that’s into the seventh, where Tyler Rogers and Jeff Hoffman can carry the game past the finish line.
With no Mason Fluharty and Louis Varland after both pitched on consecutive days, that’s a pretty solid deployment plan, at least on paper.
In practice, making it work largely depended on Miles, who not only got the Blue Jays to the seventh, but got them through the frames with new career-highs of 4.1 innings and 63 pitches, leading the way in a 2-0 win Thursday night.
Miles allowed only two hits and a walk with six strikeouts in his second bulk outing since the club’s parting with lefty Eric Lauer, continuing his impressive emergence from Rule 5 dice-roll to reliable contributor.
Forced improvisation has thrust him into an increasingly larger role, and the contrast between his work in a three-inning opener stint May 10 versus the Los Angeles Angels set the stage for his current progression. He threw 3.2 shutout innings of bulk in Detroit last weekend and followed that up with an even better outing as the Blue Jays (23-27) secured a series split after dropping the first two games in New York.
Offence was again hard to come by, but a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. walk and stolen base off Carlos Rodon in the first set up Daulton Varsho’s RBI double that the pitchers made hold up while George Springer’s solo shot in the seventh added a little margin for error.
Still, everyone needed to be nails and they were, Fisher and Macko each going 1.1 innings ahead of Miles, while Rogers in the eighth and Hoffman in the ninth, for his fourth save, closed the game out.
Kevin Gausman starts Friday’s series opener against Bubba Chandler and the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates and the Blue Jays will need some innings from the right-hander to help the bullpen reset.