Blue Jays takeaways: It was a story of opportunities — and lots of them — lost in New York

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This article was published 25/07/2021 (1579 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The view from Deep Left Field on the Blue Jays’ 5-4 loss to the Mets Sunday in New York:

The Mets made the biggest mistakes in this game, but they were able to overcome them because of some erratic work by a couple of Blue Jays relievers and, more importantly, an almost-complete inability of Toronto hitters to come through in big spots.

The Jays only have two more games this season in National League parks — barring an unlikely trip to the World Series — so we won’t have to deal with the silliness of pitchers hitting much more often, but Mets manager Luis Rojas really stepped in it in the bottom of the fifth by sending starter Rich Hill to the plate with two on and two out and New York on top 1-0.

Hill had thrown five innings of four-hit shutout ball to that point, but had been wriggling out of trouble all afternoon. He hadn’t thrown a single clean inning and had allowed the leadoff man to reach four times, three on doubles. His veteran savvy and 68-mph curveball had managed to allow him to emerge unscathed, but there was no case to be made that he had been dominant enough to eschew a real opportunity to build on a slim lead.

The 41-year-old struck out to end the fifth, then took the mound and hit the first batter he faced, George Springer. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. singled him to third, Hill walked Marcus Semien, and the Mets starter’s day was done.

It was a spectacular waste of a run-scoring situation to allow Hill to bat in the bottom of the fifth, and he wound up leaving the game without recording another out. The Jays scored all three runners Hill left behind, the big blow a two-run single by new cleanup man Bo Bichette.

But that hit stood out because it was one of only three that the Jays had all day with runners in scoring position — in a whopping 19 tries.

That was what cost the Jays the game, despite the bullpen imploding to allow four runs in the bottom of the sixth. Leadoff doubles in the first, second and fourth never advanced past second base. The Jays had runners on econd and third with one out in the eighth, down by a run and … zilch.

You can’t ask your bats to save you every game but, when opportunities present themselves to the extent they did for the Jays on Sunday, you have to take advantage at least a couple of times.

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The Jays shot themselves in the foot more than once — Springer was caught trying to steal third with one out in the first inning and Alejandro Kirk was picked off first by catcher Tomas Nido in the fifth after Ross Stripling bunted through a pitch. But the Mets returned those favours by having the slow-footed James McCann thrown out trying to steal third to end the eighth and closer Edwin Diaz moving the tying run into scoring position in the ninth with a 100-mph wild pitch to Bichette that was a couple of feet off the plate.

It’s easy to blame the bullpen and, yes, Ryan Borucki gave up a game-tying two-run homer to Pete Alonso in the sixth on a slider that got neither down nor in enough. It wasn’t a great pitch, and a great hitter made him pay. Perhaps worse was the fact that Jacob Barnes threw four straight two-strike changeups to pinch-hitter Jeff McNeil with two on and two out in a tie game later in the inning. The first three missed the zone and the fourth, predictably, was smacked into the gap in right-centre for what wound up being the game-winning double.

There’s no shame in going on the road and losing two of three games to a first-place team. The frustration, as it has been for almost the entirety of the first 95 games of the season, is that it felt like the Jays could just as easily have swept the series.

Another first-place team awaits, as the Jays open a four-game set at Fenway Park on Monday night. They’re buyers going into Friday’s trade deadline no matter what, but a good showing in Boston — the Jays are 4-7 against the Red Sox this season — would allow those upcoming deadline adds to have much more of an impact.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness