Blue Jays Beat Mariners Again — And Toronto’s Playoff Chase Is Suddenly Getting Real

Don’t look now, but the Toronto Blue Jays are still hanging around.

A season that has spent months bouncing between frustrating and promising took another turn Saturday afternoon at Rogers Centre, where the Blue Jays pulled out a 4-3 win over the Seattle Mariners and quietly made the American League wild-card race a little more uncomfortable for everybody ahead of them.

Toronto has now won two straight.

More importantly, the Jays improved to 67-70 and sat just two games behind the final American League wild-card position when the standings were updated Saturday evening.

Considering where this season has been at different points, that’s enough to make September meaningful.

José Soriano Gave Toronto Exactly What It Needed

The biggest reason Toronto survived Saturday was José Soriano.

Soriano went seven innings, allowing three runs on five hits while striking out six and walking two.

He threw 94 pitches, 65 of them for strikes, and reached 98.8 mph with his fastball.

It wasn’t a completely stress-free afternoon. Seattle scored three times and Soriano briefly fought his command during the fourth inning.

But instead of letting the game get away from him, he settled back down and kept Toronto close enough for the offence to respond.

That is exactly why the Blue Jays made such an aggressive move for Soriano at the trade deadline.

Toronto acquired the 27-year-old right-hander from the Los Angeles Angels in a deal that sent shortstop prospect Arjun Nimmala, outfielder Eddie Micheletti Jr. and pitcher Angel Rivero to Los Angeles.

Nimmala was one of the best prospects in Toronto’s farm system, so this wasn’t a cheap pickup.

The Blue Jays paid for a pitcher they believed could help them now and stay part of the rotation beyond this season.

Saturday was the type of outing that explains the gamble.

The Blue Jays Had to Fight for This One

Friday night’s 8-1 win over Seattle was easy by comparison.

George Springer went 4-for-4, Toronto hit three home runs and Dylan Cease controlled the game for six innings.

Saturday required something different.

The Jays had to manufacture their way back into it.

With the bases loaded in the fifth inning, Springer drew a walk against Seattle reliever Eduard Bazardo to bring home one run.

Then things got interesting.

Ball four escaped catcher Cal Raleigh, and Brett Bateman reacted immediately. Instead of settling at third, Bateman kept going and scored all the way from second base on the wild pitch.

That turned one mistake into two Toronto runs.

An inning later, Bateman came through again with an opposite-field single that tied the game.

Alejandro Kirk followed with the go-ahead RBI single to right field.

That was enough.

Brett Bateman Is Suddenly Part of the Story

Bateman being right in the middle of Saturday’s comeback makes his situation even more interesting.

He wasn’t even in the Blue Jays organization at the beginning of August.

Toronto acquired Bateman from the Chicago Cubs organization as part of the return when the Blue Jays moved Kevin Gausman around the trade deadline.

Now he is contributing in games that actually matter.

His heads-up sprint from second base on the wild pitch might not look as impressive on a stat sheet as a three-run homer, but those are exactly the kinds of plays that can swing one-run games in September.

And right now, Toronto doesn’t have room to waste those opportunities.

The Wild-Card Race Is Wide Open

This is where Saturday’s win becomes more important than simply taking another game from Seattle.

Toronto entered the weekend surrounded by teams fighting for the same final playoff position.

Cleveland currently occupies that last wild-card spot, but Toronto, Baltimore and Texas are all within striking distance.

That’s a traffic jam.

And when five or six teams are separated by only a handful of games, nobody needs to suddenly play .800 baseball.

You need to stay alive long enough for somebody else to stumble.

That’s exactly what Toronto is doing.

Don’t Ignore the Bigger Problem

Now comes the part where we don’t pretend everything is fixed because the Jays won two baseball games.

Toronto is still seven games under .500.

The club has allowed considerably more runs than it has scored this season.

There is a reason the Blue Jays are chasing the final wild card instead of comfortably holding one.

They have been inconsistent.

The offence disappears for stretches.

The pitching hasn’t always been able to cover for it.

And just Thursday, Toronto was on the wrong end of a 13-2 beating against Kansas City.

That’s what makes this team so difficult to figure out.

They can look completely out of it one night and come back two days later playing like a team nobody wants to see in a short series.

Toronto Has Given Itself a Chance

For all of those problems, the math is still the math.

Two games is nothing with nearly a month left in the regular season.

One good week can erase that.

One bad week can end the season.

That’s basically where the Blue Jays are now.

There is no more waiting for the team to “find itself.”

There isn’t enough schedule left for that.

The playoff chase has become a nightly scoreboard watch.

Sunday Suddenly Matters Too

Toronto gets one more crack at Seattle on Sunday afternoon at Rogers Centre.

The scheduled pitching matchup is an interesting one.

Seattle is expected to send Logan Gilbert to the mound, while Toronto is scheduled to counter with veteran Max Scherzer.

Gilbert enters the matchup with an 11-7 record and a 3.36 ERA.

Scherzer’s season has been much rougher, with the veteran carrying a 1-7 record and a 7.02 ERA into the game.

That makes winning the first two games of this series even more valuable.

Toronto already owns the series.

Now it has a chance to sweep a team that is also fighting for its postseason life.

A Big Day for Buck Martinez Too

Saturday wasn’t only about the standings.

Before the game, the Blue Jays officially opened their new Hall of Excellence at Rogers Centre and honoured one of the most recognizable figures in franchise history.

Buck Martinez became the Hall’s 12th member.

For different generations of Blue Jays fans, Martinez has been a player, manager or broadcaster.

For many Canadians, his voice is simply part of Blue Jays baseball.

The ceremony brought franchise legends back together, including Dave Stieb, Joe Carter, Carlos Delgado and José Bautista.

Then Toronto went out and gave the crowd a one-run playoff-race win.

Not a bad afternoon at the ballpark.