Robbie Ray and the Blue Jays get back on track against the Twins. The pathway to the playoffs is clear

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This article was published 25/09/2021 (1499 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MINNEAPOLIS—With their backs against the wall and faced with the possibility of falling even further behind in the standings, the Blue Jays turned to Robbie Ray in a desperate plea for help and the Cy Young contender delivered.

Ray did what an ace is supposed to do in Saturday night’s 6-1 victory over the Minnesota Twins, a game that was much closer than the final score indicates. He overcame a slow start by his offence, tossed six strong innings despite not having his best stuff and played a pivotal role in snapping the Jays’ losing streak at three games.

By the time Ray took the mound in the bottom of the first, the Jays had already received word that Giancarlo Stanton hit a grand slam to propel his Yankees squad to a dramatic comeback over the Boston Red Sox. Another loss by the Jays would have dropped them three games back of both wild-card spots with seven to play.

The pressure was on Ray, and he entered knowing there was a possibility he wouldn’t have much margin for error. The Jays might have one of the top lineups in baseball, but the bats had gone ice cold of late, scoring four runs or fewer in each of their last five games. Saturday’s matchup was more of the same until four late runs put the game out of reach, yet with Ray on the mound the Jays were in good hands.

It wasn’t a vintage Ray performance. He struggled with his command, issuing four walks and hitting another batter, but he found a way to grind through and come up with the big pitch whenever it was required. After a one-run first, he stranded two baserunners in the second, one more in the fifth and two more in the sixth. The outing wasn’t always pretty, but it was certainly effective.

“That has been my focus all year, coming in, putting up zeroes and giving my team a chance to win,” Ray said. “Especially tonight, knowing this was pretty much a must-win ball game. For us to stay where we are, stay in this thing, it felt like tonight was a must win for me and to be able to go out and do that was huge.”

With his league-leading 23rd quality start of the year, Ray also moved one step closer to potentially wrapping up the AL Cy Young award, which has become a two-horse race with Yankees ace Gerrit Cole. Ray’s latest outing dropped his ERA to an AL-best 2.68 while Cole sits a distant second at 3.08.

Ray also holds the edge in strikeouts (244 vs. 237) and innings (188 vs. 175 1/3) while the two are tied in walks and hits per inning pitched at 1.04. With both expected to have one more start remaining, likely during the upcoming series at the Rogers Centre, Ray figures to be the favourite although Cole’s big name should still result in some support from voters.

The personal accolades are nice, but the pressing priority for the Jays is catching at least one of the Red Sox or Yankees. They will enter the series finale vs. Minnesota trailing both teams by two games, with New York and Boston set to face each other for the final time on Sunday. If the Jays piece together another win against the Twins, they’re guaranteed to gain a game in the standings.

The easier team to catch should be the Yankees, but they also happen to have won five consecutive games. With the three-game series vs. New York starting Tuesday in Toronto, the Jays will have a say in how the Bronx Bombers finish the year, unlike the Red Sox, who close out the season against last-place Baltimore and Washington.

Then there’s the pesky Mariners, who just won’t seem to go away. They entered play on Saturday dead even with the Jays at 85-69 and have a pair of series remaining against the Oakland A’s and Los Angeles Angels. They also own the tiebreaker over the Jays and can’t be ruled out of this race quite yet, even though most of the attention has gone to teams in the AL East.

“I think these guys are ready,” said Marcus Semien, who hit his 43rd homer of the season to tie Davey Johnson for the most by a second baseman in MLB history. “Yes, we’re young. Yes, playing in a playoff race might be new. With fans in the stands, it’s different than last year. But we’re ready. I think the young guys that we have are ballplayers. When we go out there and do our thing and play our game, no matter what the circumstances are, I’ll take us over anybody.”

The Jays’ offence started off somewhat slow again on Saturday, but eventually came to life. After a two-run second, the Jays were held off the scoreboard until Semien hit a solo shot in the sixth. One inning later, George Springer broke the game open with a two-run shot over the wall in left for his 18th home run and first since Sept. 11.

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Prior to the game, Springer had been mired in a dreadful slump. He entered the night batting .157 with a .488 on-base plus slugging percentage since returning from injury on Aug. 30. The performance had been so sluggish of late that some had been calling for him to be removed from the leadoff spot, but in recent days the three-time all-star insisted he was feeling better, and he believed a breakout was just around the corner. Maybe he was right.

“I’ve never seen the dugout so happy, to see George hit that ball,” Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “Because we know he can be that guy who can carry us for the next seven games. That’s George Springer. We all know he’s done it before this year, and he’s done it before in the past.”

The Jays now have a chance to salvage the four-game series by earning a split on Sunday. If they manage to do that, the Jays could go 2-1 against the Yankees and still have a chance to make the post-season. If they lose in the finale, it’s entirely possible the Jays will have to win out the remainder of their games to earn a spot.

One week to go and still a lot to play for. The Jays haven’t made this easy on themselves following this week’s mini-skid, but the pathway to the post-season remains clear. They just have to stay on course and avoid any more slip-ups.

Gregor Chisholm is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star. Follow him on Twitter: @GregorChisholm or reach him via email: gchisholm@thestar.ca