Blue Jays takeaways: Control freak Robbie Ray’s brush with greatness ends in win over Atlanta

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This article was published 11/05/2021 (1647 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on Tuesday night’s 5-3 Blue Jays win in Atlanta:

The Blue Jays’ game-winning rally was helped along tremendously by a couple of huge mistakes by Atlanta defenders that allowed the top of the eighth inning to keep rolling along.

Trailing 3-2, Jonathan Davis led off the frame with a double off the right-field wall, but he got caught straying too far from the bag when Marcus Semien followed with a ground ball to the mound. A.J. Minter picked it up and saw Davis, but didn’t make a throw right away. By the time he finally decided to throw to second, Davis had enough time to dive back into the bag, just ahead of the tag, and everybody was safe.

Bo Bichette and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. followed with back-to-back singles to tie the game, leaving the bases loaded for Teoscar Hernandez, who hit a routine ground ball to first with the infield in.

Freddie Freeman fielded the ball cleanly and looked home, but didn’t throw. He then looked up and saw that he was too far away to beat Hernandez to first base, so he just stood there, with no play to make, as the go-ahead run scored.

Two easy grounders and two outs right there to be had for Atlanta, but two moments of hesitation led to a Blue Jays win.

• Pitchers ‘hitting’: The Jays had to play without a DH for the first time this as they opened a three-game series in a National League ballpark — the first of 10 games this season in which they’ll have to send a pitcher to the plate with bat in hand.

While some believe that having pitchers hit leads to all sorts of intricate strategic decision-making, the truth is that it really doesn’t. Most moves are very paint-by-numbers: pinch-hit for the pitcher, then put the new pitcher as far away in the batting order from hitting as you possibly can, etc.

There was one situation where manager Charlie Montoyo had a real decision to make, and that was when Robbie Ray was due to lead off the sixth inning with the Jays down 2-0.

I’m biased in these cases, because I firmly believe that if there’s ever a reasonable case to pinch-hit for a pitcher, you should, because almost every pitcher is a poorer hitter than a team’s worst bench bat. When you’ve got a starting pitcher coming up in the sixth inning (or later), you know he’s not very long for the game anyway, so unless there are two out and nobody on, the move is almost always to leave him in the dugout.

Montoyo sent Ray out to hit to lead off the sixth inning and, given the situation, it was one of those rare times when it was the right move.

The Jays began a stretch of six games in six days and, more important, 19 in 20 on Tuesday night. They’re dealing with an already overworked bullpen that’s missing important arms in Anthony Castro, Rafael Dolis, Julian Merryweather and David Phelps and the starting rotation isn’t exactly overflowing with guys who can be relied upon to get deep into games.

Ray grounded weakly back to the mound, but the out was worth it to get another three outs from him in the bottom of the sixth, even though he gave up a solo homer to Marcell Ozuna that gave Atlanta a brief lead.

• Walk talk: Ray came into the game looking to tie a Jays record by making a fourth straight start of six innings or more without issuing a walk.

It’s pretty incredible that Ray would be the guy to attempt it, since he and the strike zone hadn’t exactly been on the best terms the last few years. When the Jays traded for the lefty at last year’s deadline he had walked 31 batters in 31 innings, but when he took the mound in Atlanta on Tuesday he had gone 19 innings without handing out a free pass.

Ronald Acuna Jr., who has had Ray’s number early in his young career, led off the bottom of the first with a single, which brought up Freeman, who walked on four pitches.

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Sort of.

Ray missed away with the first two pitches to the Atlanta slugger, then threw a slider that stayed up but caught the inside corner. He didn’t get the call, and was behind in the count 3-and-0. The southpaw geared up and threw a 96-mile-per-hour fastball, but missed badly up and in and Freeman went to first base.

It was scored a walk, but a look at the replay showed clearly that the ball hit Freeman on the jersey as he tried to jack-knife away from it. Home plate umpire Dan Iassogna didn’t see it, though, so it was scored a walk, ending Ray’s streak.

It’s too bad, because Ray wound up going six innings without “another” walk, striking out 10, but won’t get a place in the Jays record book, though the official scorer has 72 hours to change his mind.

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