Blue Jays takeaways: The bullpen delivers again to sweep Marlins … but where did they find that ump?

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This article was published 23/06/2021 (1608 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 3-1 win in Miami on Wednesday, sweeping the season series:

Robbie Ray had another brilliant outing for the Blue Jays, taking a three-hit shutout into the sixth inning having been given a three-run lead.

But in the bottom of the sixth, he started to falter. Starling Marte took him deep leading off the frame, then Jesus Aguilar grounded out to third but blistered the ball at 107 miles per hour off the bat.

As good as Ray has been this season, he has tended to run out of gas in a hurry. When facing hitters a third time, he’s allowed an OPS of 1.041, as opposed to allowing .601 and .691 respectively in the first two trips through the order.

Though the Jays’ bullpen has looked a lot better lately, they needed Ray to get through the sixth, and after giving up those two missiles he got a more routinely-hit ground out before giving up a single that brought the tying run to the plate in rookie Jesus Sanchez.

After falling behind 3-1, the southpaw pumped a 96-m.p.h. fastball past Sanchez, the hardest pitch he threw all inning, before getting him to swing through 95 on the next delivery to end the inning.

• Familiar relief: Tuesday night, the Jays got a strong six innings from starter Ross Stripling and the trio of Tyler Chatwood, Tim Mayza and Jordan Romano took it the rest of the way, throwing three innings of one-hit shutout to seal the deal.

Wednesday, Charlie Montoyo went with the same three guys for a second straight night, trying to hang on to a two-run lead. This time the order went Mayza, Chatwood, Romano but the results were exactly the same: three innings of one-hit shutout to seal the deal.

That’s seven shutout innings in a row for the once-incendiary Jays bullpen, though tellingly all seven innings have been thrown by the same three pitchers.

• The lost umpire: Sometimes an umpire has a rough day and one can sympathize. They’re trying their best, you assume, and the game can move awfully quickly at ground level.

But sometimes Ryan Wills happens, and one hopes that the minor-league call-up umpire working first base in Miami was looking to dig a hole in the infield dirt, crawl inside and hide after missing three calls very early in the game.

With two out in the top of the first, Randal Grichuk hit a ground ball to the right side and got in a foot race to first base with pitcher Taylor Rogers. Rogers got there first, caught the throw and stepped on the bag, but Grichuk was called safe. It was overturned on review.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. was the very next hitter, leading off the bottom of the first with a grounder to Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who picked it up and fed Ray. The pitcher knew he wasn’t going to beat Chisholm to the bag, so he reached out and tagged the runner in the chest. Wills called Chisholm safe, because he wasn’t watching Ray make the tag, instead looking at the base to see whose foot was going to get there first.

That call was also overturned on review.

The next batter, Starling Marte, hit a little cue shot up the first-base line that started to spin back toward fair territory. Ray picked it up just before it got to the line and it was called fair, but that wasn’t Wills’ fault. That’s the home plate umpire’s call, and not reviewable.

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Wills got back in the action in the top of the second, though, declaring Marcus Semien out on a grounder to third despite Aguilar taking his foot off the bag well before catching the throw. That one didn’t even go to a replay review, as the other umpires got together with Wills and overruled him without even looking at the video.

Three blown calls, all visibly incorrect to the naked eye, in a span of nine batters is a terrible look for a big-league umpire, whether replay (or his crew mates) fixes the issue or otherwise. He had another call overturned by replay in the eighth inning, calling Cavan Biggio safe at first despite him stepping over the bag, but that one is more forgivable given that Wills’ view was obscured by the base.

You’d imagine a late-June game in Miami in front of 6,164 would be a pretty low-pressure environment for a young umpire, but Wills most assuredly wasn’t up to the task.

Tune in to 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