Blue Jays takeaways: Sweep slips away against Rays. The defence wasn’t quite all-star calibre

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This article was published 04/07/2021 (1598 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 5-1 loss to Tampa Bay on Sunday:

BUFFALO—Given the fact that they only scored one run, the Blue Jays would have needed perfection in order to complete a sweep of their longtime nemesis, the Tampa Bay Rays, and they got that perfection for seven of the first eight innings.

But the sixth happened, and that one frame cost the Jays what could have been a 10th win in their last 13 games.

It started off well enough with Randy Arozarena’s leadoff walk being erased, thrown out trying to steal second base by Danny Jansen, just activated off the injured list Saturday. Two pitches later, though, 20-year-old Wander Franco — the consensus best prospect in the game — hit the first slider Robbie Ray had thrown in 23 pitches off the top of the wall in right-centre for his second major-league home run, tying the game.

That was a bit of bad luck, but what followed wasn’t.

A second straight hard-hit ball off Ray got over Teoscar Hernandez’s head in right field for a double, and Austin Meadows followed with another fly ball to right that Hernandez played into a go-ahead double.

The all-star outfielder has had his issues in the past, to be sure, but we hadn’t seen much butchery from Hernandez on defence this season. Meadows’ fly ball was eminently catchable, but Hernandez hesitated and got caught flat-footed. By the time he recovered, the ball was over his head.

To the all-star’s credit, he managed to track it down and get it back to the infield in time for Meadows to be thrown out sliding into third.

Ray retired the next four to finish seven innings of five-hitter, but that three-batter blip wound up being the difference in the game.

• No-star defence: Bo Bichette had a couple of hits and found out after the game that he would be joining three teammates on the American League all-star team next week in Denver, but it wasn’t a good day overall for the Jays’ young shortstop.

The 23-year-old made two errors in the field and another on the bases, three mistakes that stood out in what was a one-run ball game until Tampa Bay added on in the ninth.

The first mistake, a booted ground ball, didn’t cost anything but two extra pitches for Ray, but the other two hurt a lot more.

In the bottom of the sixth, Bichette lined an 0-and-2 slider into left-centre for a leadoff single, putting the tying run on immediately after the Rays took the lead in that ugly top of the frame, but after Vladimir Guerrero Jr. flied out to deep right, he got happy feet looking to steal second base and was easily picked off first.

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The biggest mistake came in the ninth, when Bichette made a nice play just to get to a ground ball up the middle by Yandy Diaz leading off the inning. He then made a wild, off-balance throw to first despite having no chance to get the runner and Diaz wound up at third base with nobody out, helping kick-start the three-run inning that put the game away.

• Mc-Who? Collin McHugh bridged the gap between Tampa Bay starter Ryan Yarbrough and closer Diego Castillo with three brilliant innings of long relief.

The righty gave up the Bichette sixth-inning single, but picked him off first and retired the other eight Jays he faced, striking out six.

The 34-year-old, who opted out of the 2020 season and signed with the Rays just before the start of spring training, baffled Jays hitters in his one trip through the order, getting five strikeouts on his swing-and-miss slider while chewing up important innings that often require three or four relievers to get through. For his fine efforts, he was rewarded with a hold.

Tune into Mike Wilner’s weekly Blue Jays podcast, Deep Left Field, wherever you get your podcasts.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness