Since the right-handed ace was slated to start the opening game of a day-night doubleheader against the Tampa Bay Rays, that wasn’t ideal. The club’s strategy for the day hinged on Manoah going deep in the first game with a bullpen built around Mitch White carrying some volume in the second. A late night/early morning race ensued. “It’s a tight group that communicates on the phone and then we meet when we get here,” Schneider said of the sudden reset. “You have a lot of different options mapped out. It’s nice that we have the depth that we have at the major league level on multiple sides of the ball, so it’s trying to put the best pieces together as best you can.” Their build-up, Julian Merryweather pitching a perfect two innings as a starter for White, who they had hoped to extend, did not go to plan, with some sloppy fielding also contributing to what ended as a 4-2 loss to the Rays. Tuesday afternoon. Merryweather allowed back-to-back singles to open the game, and Yandy Diaz eventually walked when Randy Arozarena beat a potential groundout double play at first base, while White was burned by a triple in the third fueled by some avoidable errors . White managed to throw six frames, matching a season high, keyed by uncertainty over whether Manoah would be good enough to start at the back-end, which he will do after recovering during the day. But two moments in the third inning were difficult for the Blue Jays: • Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who didn’t put his foot on the bag to receive a relay from Santiago Espinal after the second baseman made a great diving play on a Jonathan Aranda pitch, then didn’t get a toe on base in time , loading them up with none out; • Arozarena slowed as he went from first to third on a single by Manuel Margot that eluded the glove of Matt Chapman, putting Teoscar Hernandez to sleep as he walked the ball back to the infield, then raced home, leading to a flyout to plate and a discouraging fourth run. They played better, the Blue Jays allowing just one run in that span instead of three, a key reason why the Blue Jays (79-62) fell a half-game behind the Rays (79-61) in the wild-card game. “That’s how (the Rays) play, and you’ve got to try to stay ahead of that,” Snyder said. “I hope people learn from this and it doesn’t happen again. But we’re familiar enough with this team that we know that when you give them extra outs, they usually make you pay. The chance run drove in all four of Tampa Bay’s runs as they went up 2-0 when Arozarena beat another potential double after Aranda reached 2-0 and David Peralta followed with a fly ball to left by shortstop Wander Franco. Arozarena was an agent of complete chaos in that third inning, twice having her steal attempts nullified by bat interference calls before smartly taking advantage of Hernandez on Margot’s base hit. “Sometimes he’s his own third base coach, coach and he’s invisible,” Rays manager Kevin Cash said of the dynamic outfielder. With Rays starter Jeffrey Springs striking out the Blue Jays over six innings — a major contribution for a Tampa Bay bullpen that has carried a heavy load over the past three days — there wasn’t much reason for a crowd of 23,497 until the second spot. in the seventh. Sean Armstrong, having escaped unscathed from a two-on, one-out jam in the seventh, wasn’t so lucky in the eighth when Guerrero and Beau Bisset led off the inning with back-to-back singles and his lover Alejandro Kirk brought in a run . and Matt Chapman’s base hit another. Cash turned to Pete Fairbanks at that point and got Danny Jansen on a sharp grounder to short to end the inning before wrapping things up in the ninth for his seventh save. The laser-firing righty hasn’t allowed a run in his last 18 outings after working a Raimel Tapia single and catcher’s interference to George Springer, striking out Guerrero and winning a high-drama, 11-pitch duel with Bichette. causing a game ending groundout to first. “He’s been in tears and it’s been impressive to see,” Fairbanks said. “And so there, I try to attack the strike zone for as long as I can. One of us will win it eventually. Today we have a ground to get out of it.” The effort by White, who rushed to the field after receiving a 10 a.m. call for the pitching change, meant the Blue Jays needed to use only two relievers and marked a significant turnaround from the 18 runs he had allowed in his previous three starts that led to relegation. He returned as the 29th man for the doubleheader and will have to be sent down again afterwards and, barring injury, will not be eligible for recall until September 22. The Blue Jays have a hole in the rotation on Friday – another bullpen game is likely – but then they won’t need a fifth starter again until Sept. 24 at Tampa Bay. Either way, White’s work with pitching coach Pete Walker and Kevin Gausman, who he said “have been great,” will help him next time he needs to focus on “simplifying things.” “What (Gausman) has said is 80 percent. Nice and smooth and easy,” White continued. “I got into trouble trying to reverse in that last outing and the last few as well, trying to do too much. Today was all about pace and pace, nice and 80% easy. … “Most of it is just mindset. That’s what gets me out of the situation mechanically,” he continued. “When I’m smooth and in rhythm and attacking the zone, then it’s fine. Maybe a handful of two-strike pitches I’ll extend, but every pitch was like, OK, I’m throwing this in the zone.” His biggest outing since joining the Blue Jays at the trade deadline largely erased the possibility that they’ll have to put some relievers on both ends of the bullpen, though Schneider previously said that “those plans are already underway, if need”. Bullpen manager Matt Buschmann said using someone from the bullpen twice a day was very doable, especially since the relievers throw daily before the game. Given how this happens about 4-5 hours before their work on the game that follows, “it’s not unusual for them to experience the throw, relax and then build back up to throw the same day,” he explained. . Between games, the Blue Jays planned to review everyone’s pitching load, “which we can track in a number of different ways,” Buschmann said, and if someone had the green light, “you’d go through the outing, you’d get some recovery and then you basically went in and out in the second game like the first game was like playing catch.” Manoah was not in the clubhouse before Game 1 as the Blue Jays tried to “give him some extra time to get hydrated, rested and hopefully ready for Game 2,” Schneider said in the morning. That’s what happened. “It feels good,” Snyder said after the loss. “I expect a normal exit for him. I’m feeling a lot better, so just ride it like we always do.”
