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TORONTO – All eyes focused on the man on the hill.
From the moment Robbie Ray entered the field for pre-match warm-ups and the final playing field, the sold-out 29,659 Rogers Center crowd lived and died with every move.
Blue Jays playoff hopes rest firmly in the ace’s strong left hand. Usually it’s a recipe for success, but Thursday’s 6-2 Blue Jays loss was no ordinary start for Ray.
The early energy of the dome took a big hit in the first set when Yankees ’right field player Aaron Judge destroyed Ray’s fast ball from a magnificent 455-foot explosion that landed above the WestJet cockpit sign in the middle.
Ray then withdrew 13 straight strokes before Anthony Rizzo fired his own solo shot to level the game in the sixth. Ray has been vulnerable to longball all season, but never as vulnerable as he decided on Thursday.
After Rizzo’s home run, the Yankees did it over and over again. Rizzo, the referee (in the second game) and Gleyber Torres came home in the sixth round when New York took four shots in the frame. Each home team made a bigger and bigger blow to the Blue Jays playoffs, and Ray surrendered to the top five earned runs of the season with just four hits in a 5 1/3 innings.
– I think their game plan against me was to try to slip the slider and get the fast ball out [the plate]”Ray said.” Those situations, home wires, I think they were all on quick balls. “
Indeed, Ray allowed everything in his home to run away from the fast ball, which he said was due to the fact that he didn’t land the slider early on. Well, that and a few steady good Yankee hits.
“They gave good swings to the ball,” Ray said. “Torres [home run] was 0-2 fast ball. He put a good swing in it. It’s the pitch I’m trying to throw, and he just hits it. “
As cold as Toronto – just 16 degrees Celsius during the game – the ball seemed to fly in favor of the Yankees and die when the Jays needed a boat.
Before the six rounds that changed the Bronx Bombers game, Vladimir Gérrero Jr. shone a screaming lining that came inches away from the home game and revealed the top of the wall in the fifth set.
“It’s an inch game, it’s fun, and it’s one of them,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “[With] Vladdy, you know the ball is going to go on, but for some reason it didn’t go out. “
Guerrero Jr. was content with an RBI double, but a small extra stance would have changed the course of the entire ball game, especially if the Blue Jays had found a way to take advantage of scoring opportunities, such as Bo Bichette’s lead double in the eighth.
Ray had a lot to come – after Thursday, his ERA will rise to 2.84, putting his shares in AL Cy Young – and even more on the Blue Jays line. The loss leaves Toronto’s full-game Red Sox and Mariners in second AL-wild slots, with only three games left.
The situation is about as bleak as the Blue Jays. An Orioles win from the Red Sox will buy for a while, which means it’s not over for Toronto, but the club needs to play perfect baseball from now on — and get help from outside — to secure a playoff spot.
“We just have to go one game at a time and win every game now for sure,” Montoyo said.
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