Alek Manoah set things up perfectly for a 6-1 week that followed with 7.1 dominant innings in Game 1, setting the stage for both the bullpen that beat the Pittsburgh Pirates the next day and the Kevin Gausman/Jose Berrios combination which swept on Monday. doubleheader from the Baltimore Orioles. The plan for a weekend deep in the heart of Texas ahead of next week’s five-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays wasn’t much different for the Blue Jays, who rallied from a late deficit to defeat the Texas Rangers 4-3 on Friday . night on Danny Jansen’s RBI single in the ninth. Raimel Tapia started the decisive rally with a walk, stole second, advanced to third on Santiago Espinal’s deep fly ball and easily drove Jansen’s 68.8 mph liner over a drawn-out infield in front of a crowd of 21,329 in the cavernous Globe Life Field. Jordan Romano then closed things out in the ninth, securing six plate-setting innings from Ross Stripling and another brilliant night in Beau Bisset’s September surge — a homer that opened the scoring in the first, a two-run homer that provided some he needed a cushion in the third and a triple in the eighth – it didn’t go to waste. Situational baseball pushed them to 77-60 and ensured they would remain at least tied for the wild-card seed pending the outcome of Seattle’s matchup with Atlanta. “That’s something we’ve been doing for the last couple of months, trying to get the small-ball effect in there,” Jansen said. “Get the protective bunts, dude on second, nobody out, get him over the little bits of the baseball that’s huge. That one inning, with Tapia’s walk and steal and Espinal moving him around, that shows you how critical that small ball is.” However, it was Stripling, delivering his usual slick work, who kept the club’s plans for a grueling 11-bout 10-day streak on track, even after the final three frames proved tougher than expected. “It was perfect,” pitching coach Pete Walker said. “If we had scored two more runs, (Stripling) probably would have stayed in there (longer) but obviously our bullpen was rested. It puts us in a great position going into Game (Saturday) with Gause and then a board day probably the Sunday and then next week. It’s kind of a lot right now, a lot of games in a short amount of time. And any time a starter goes deep into the game, it gives us a big opportunity from the next day.” The Blue Jays worked one more reliever than planned as Adam Cimber got two outs in the seventh, but needed Yimi Garcia to save him from a runners-on-the-corners jam. Garcia then left a runner on third with one out in the eighth to Tim Mayza, who delivered a game-tying RBI double to Corey Seager before getting Nathaniel Lowe and Jonah Heim to end the frame, with Romano later collecting the save No. 32. “Anytime you can get deep into the game, it lines up the bullpen for the next day and the next day, so the quality of the starts is huge, getting guys in the right spots is huge,” interim manager John Schneider said. “Stripe sure did tonight.” Adam Cimber got two outs in the seventh but needed Yimi Garcia to save him from a runners-on-the-corners tag while Garcia left a runner on third with one out in the eighth to Tim Mayza, who retired the tie. RBI double off Corey Seager before getting Nathaniel Lowe and Jonah Heim to end the frame. Gausman starts Saturday, and the deeper he goes, the easier it will be for the Blue Jays to throw another bullpen game Sunday in the series finale. That would allow them to push Jose Berrios back into Monday’s opener against the Rays, with Alek Manoah slated for one of the games in Tuesday’s day-night doubleheader. Mitch White is tipped to return from the taxi squad as the 29th man to start the other, with Stripling and Gausman handling the rest of the series. The Blue Jays would have to find a starter for Friday’s comeback against the Orioles, but would have Berrio and Manoa for the weekend. Working on that is necessary as the lineup took a hit when Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was forced to the injured list with a strained left hamstring. The earliest he could return is for Sunday’s finale against the Orioles, though interim manager John Schneider said he’s “not sure” if Gurriel would be ready in time and added, “he has a chance to be longer, I think . But we’ll know more after the first 10 days, how he responds, and we’ll go from there.” The Blue Jays will get a boost on Saturday when Teoscar Hernandez returns from paternity leave, and anything the offense can do to lighten the load on the pitching staff will be welcome. However, in the midst of a season-defining series, the Blue Jays will continue to need all hands on deck regardless of the opponent, whether it’s bottom feeders like the Pirates and Rangers or postseason opponents like the Orioles and Rays. “I mean, it’s fun,” Jansen said of this high-leverage run. “That’s baseball you have to go through them. We’re all there in the standings, so what better than to play each other and see what happens, right? That’s definitely our thinking, take each game one game at a time. We know how important they are, but we don’t stress about it, putting too much pressure on each other. I’m just going out there preparing and having fun.”
