The Blue Jays let a massive opportunity slip away Monday night, falling 6-5 to the Detroit Tigers in a game Toronto appeared to have under control multiple times. The loss drops the Jays to 75-76, but Cleveland also lost, keeping Toronto just one game back of the final AL Wild Card spot with only 11 games remaining.
On game 152 preview of Flight Deck, Dan Riccio breaks down one of Toronto’s most painful losses of the season. José Soriano was nearly untouchable early, carrying a perfect game into the sixth inning and a no-hitter into the seventh before Detroit finally broke through. Soriano ultimately allowed four runs over 6.1 innings, but his performance gave the Blue Jays every opportunity to take control of the game.
Toronto jumped out to an early 2-0 lead before watching Detroit score four times in the seventh. But Kazuma Okamoto answered immediately, crushing a three-run home run to put the Blue Jays back in front 5-4. It was Okamoto’s 33rd homer of the season, continuing an incredible rookie campaign at exactly the time Toronto needs him most.
Unfortunately, the bullpen couldn’t make the lead stand up. Detroit tied the game in the eighth before a disastrous sequence in the ninth ultimately decided it. After Zach McKinstry stole second, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. made the throw across the diamond on a ground ball, but Louis Varland couldn’t handle it at first, allowing McKinstry to score the eventual winning run.
Dan will also look at just how costly these missed opportunities are becoming. Toronto remains only one game behind Cleveland, but the Blue Jays are now below .500 again and running out of time to make their move. Every mistake is magnified with fewer than two weeks remaining in the regular season.
Looking ahead, Toronto turns to Braydon Fisher in another bullpen game. Fisher enters at 3-4 with a 3.22 ERA and 72 strikeouts and is expected to once again work as an opener. He has a 1.93 ERA across six appearances in September and hasn’t pitched more than two innings in an outing all summer.
Detroit counters with Drew Anderson, who enters at 4-6 with a 3.80 ERA and 105 strikeouts. Anderson has pitched to a 2.97 ERA over his last 33.1 innings and has already handled Toronto once this season, throwing four scoreless innings of relief while allowing just one hit back in May.
