The Blue Jays聽have been at their best this year when they are getting contributions from the unlikeliest of places. This team might have star power, but it鈥檚 the guys on the bottom of the roster who have made the post-season run possible.
That element of their game was missing the last two weeks when the entire lineup slumped and yet it was the unsung heroes who returned on Friday to help the Jays maintain their share of the American League East lead.
Nathan Lukes went 2-for-4 with a homer and three RBIs while Ernie Clement also chipped in with a key RBI in the Jays鈥 4-2 victory over the Tampa Bay Rays at the Rogers Centre. The win lowered their magic number to clinch the top spot to two with a pair of games remaining in the regular season.
鈥淚t鈥檚 weird, but I think the season always comes down to the final weekend, where you鈥檙e scoreboard watching,鈥 Jays manager John Schneider said before Friday鈥檚 win. 鈥淚 think it鈥檚 just remembering that we pur ourselves in a good spot. You want some clarity but you can鈥檛 do anything about it until at least tomorrow.鈥
George Springer got things started for the Jays in the bottom of the first inning with a leadoff double. Lukes then cashed him in with an RBI single to left. An inning later, Clement delivered an RBI single to give the Jays more than one run in a game for just the third time since Sept. 17.
The big blast occurred in the fifth. The Jays and Rays were locked in a 2-2 tie when Lukes hit a scorching line drive over the wall in left-centre field for his 12th home run of the season. The ball left his bat at 101.7 miles per hour and travelled 399 feet to put the Jays in front.
The Jays should feel relieved their role players are stepping up again because the middle of the order continues to struggle. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. went 1-for-4 with a single on Friday and it has been almost three full weeks since he last homered. Dating back to Sept. 6, Guerrero has been limited to three extra-base hits, all doubles.
The struggles of cleanup hitter Addison Barger date back even further. Barger, who went 0-for-3 with a walk on Friday, is batting .168 average (20-for-116), two homers, 13 RBIs and a woefully low .526 on-base-plus-slugging percentage since Aug. 12. No. 5 hitter Alejandro Kirk, who also went hitless against Tampa Bay, is batting .167 in September.
It鈥檚 hard not to contrast that with what the New York Yankees have been doing of late. Their biggest star, Aaron Judge, is a candidate to win the AL most valuable player award and this month has shown why. The seven-time all-star has gone deep nine times since Guerrero last homered and he entered Friday with a 1.515 OPS in September.
Judge and his partner-in-crime Giancarlo Stanton combined for three home runs in an 8-4 victory over the Baltimore Orioles on Friday. That gave the Yankees鈥 their sixth consecutive win as they continue to apply pressure and leave no margin for error for a Jays team that had a five-game cushion as recently as last week.
Runs are still coming at a premium for the Jays, but they arrived just in time Friday to make a winner out of Shane Bieber. The 30-year-old veteran allowed two runs on five hits and two walks across five innings. All the damage occurred during the second when Junior Caminero and Jonathan Aranda hit back-to-back solo homers.
The pitch to Caminero came on a high 93.6-m.p.h. fastball that was outside the zone. Despite the placement, Caminero got his barrel on it and hammered the ball over the wall in right. That鈥檚 the kind of at-bat where Bieber will tip his cap, but his followup pitch to Aranda was mistake. He threw another fastball down the heart of the plate and the Rays first baseman didn鈥檛 miss.
Bieber鈥檚 outing wasn鈥檛 perfect but it was at least encouraging, especially because he was originally scheduled to start Thursday鈥檚 series finale against the Boston Red Sox but had his outing pushed back as he continues to work his way back following Tommy John surgery. The concern is that if the Jays are forced into a wild-card series, Bieber would have to start Game 2 on normal rest, instead of getting an extra day.
The Jays鈥 fate now comes down to the final weekend. Six months and 160 games weren鈥檛 enough to decide a winner in the AL East but the next two sure will and it鈥檚 the Jays who have the edge because of the tiebreaker, even if they鈥檙e holding on by the skin of their teeth.
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