Blue Jays takeaways: Second game gets away against the Royals, but don’t blame the bullpen

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This article was published 17/04/2021 (1668 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on Saturday’s second Blue Jays-Royals game:

With Jordan Romano, Julian Merryweather and Tyler Chatwood all on the injured list not even three weeks into the season — not to mention Kirby Yates being out for the year before he even threw a pitch — the Blue Jays’ bullpen is behind the eight-ball.

They may be well rested, thanks to the rainout Friday and Steven Matz taking care of all but one inning in the opener of Saturday’s doubleheader against the Royals, but it’s still a collection of bounceback candidates and waiver claims for the most part.

In Saturday’s nightcap, four relievers followed “starter” Tommy Milone to the mound. Milone, a late-spring minor-league signing who isn’t yet stretched out to start, got the first seven outs before handing it over to the bullpen.

Following the veteran lefty were: Anthony Castro and Joel Payamps (claimed on waivers in the off-season — Payamps four times!), Trent Thornton (who threw just 5 2/3 innings last season prior to elbow surgery) and Ryan Borucki.

The collection of misfit toys, as it were, did a great job to put together 4 2/3 shutout innings, allowing the Jays to tie the game and giving them the chance to take the lead, which they couldn’t manage to do.

Eventually, they blinked, and it was Payamps who coughed up Salvador Perez’s walk-off home run with two out in the bottom of the seventh, taking the loss.

• Don’t forget the wheels: Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. may have had his hit streak snapped at nine games in Saturday’s night’s 3-2 loss in Kansas City, but he drew a walk in the fourth inning, meaning he’s still reached base safely in every game this season.

He also scored the tying run in that inning. Guerrero went first to third on the single up the middle by Rowdy Tellez that followed his walk. It was a hard-hit line drive and Royals centre-fielder Jarrod Dyson has a good arm, but Vladdy noticed that Dyson’s momentum was carrying him toward right-centre and that he would have to throw across his body.

Guerrero never broke stride and slid headfirst into third safely ahead of the throw, then managed to keep his hand on the bag as he tumbled over it.

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On the next pitch Lourdes Gurriel, Jr. hit a fly ball to medium-depth right field and Guerrero took off, daring Jorge Soler to throw him out on a very makeable play. Guerrero’s bit of derring-do paid off, as Soler’s throw was well up the line toward third and Vladdy scored easily.

As much as Guerrero has been delivering with his bat so far this season, he loves to run. Three times last season he was erased on the bases trying to make something happen, but it appears as though with his off-season training regimen he’s now as fast as he thought he was then.

• Be ready to throw: The Royals scored their first run in the bottom of the third, when Dyson led off with a triple and raced home on a one-out grounder to first by Andrew Benintendi. Dyson’s still one of the fastest players in the majors, so scoring on an infield grounder isn’t unexpected, but he shouldn’t have scored on that particular one.

The Jays played the infield in, trying to cut the run off at the plate, and it worked when Whit Merrifield hit a grounder to short. Bo Bichette made a nice play on it, and Dyson stayed put at third. Benintendi was next and the Jays kept the infield in. The K.C. left-fielder hit a scorcher to first and Tellez played it nicely, slightly to his right. Dyson took off this time, and it appeared to catch Tellez by surprise.

Rowdy looked as though he was going to go to first for the out, not expecting Dyson to be taking off on a ball hit that hard and basically right to him. Caught slightly off-guard, Tellez then made a poor, rushed throw to the plate and bounced it past catcher Alejandro Kirk, allowing the tying run to score.

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