The Blue Jays’ playoff push took another hit Friday night, as Toronto fell 7-4 to the Baltimore Orioles for its second straight loss. The Jays are now 73-75 and sit two games behind Cleveland for the final AL Wild Card spot with only 14 games remaining in the regular season.
On game 149 preview of Flight Deck, Nick Paleolog breaks down a disastrous start from Max Scherzer. Baltimore jumped on Scherzer for six runs over the first two innings, including five in the second, before the veteran settled down to retire 12 consecutive hitters. Scherzer finished with six earned runs allowed over five innings as Toronto once again found itself trying to climb out of a massive early hole.
The Blue Jays did make things interesting late. Kazuma Okamoto launched his 31st home run of the season, while Brett Bateman continued his impressive rookie campaign with three hits and his first career MLB home run, a two-run shot in the ninth that brought Toronto within three. The Jays eventually loaded the bases and brought the tying run to the plate before Alejandro Kirk grounded out to end the comeback attempt.
Nick will also look at an increasingly dangerous Wild Card picture. Cleveland’s win over Minnesota pushed the Guardians two games ahead of Toronto, while Baltimore has now climbed to just one game behind the Blue Jays. With Toronto and Baltimore tied 4-4 in the season series and five head-to-head meetings remaining, the tiebreaker could become extremely important down the stretch.
Looking ahead, Spencer Miles gets the ball for Toronto and enters at 6-2 with a 2.77 ERA and 81 strikeouts. The rookie right-hander has been one of the biggest bright spots in Toronto’s rotation this season, and the Jays badly need him to deliver with their margin for error disappearing.
Baltimore counters with Kyle Bradish, who enters at 7-13 with a 3.91 ERA and 140 strikeouts. Bradish has already shown he can dominate this Toronto lineup, throwing seven scoreless innings against the Blue Jays earlier this season.
With only 14 games remaining, Toronto can’t afford to let this slide continue. Can Miles deliver another strong start, can the offence build off its late rally from Friday night, and can the Blue Jays pull themselves back within striking distance of the final Wild Card spot?
We finish with Nick’s picks presented by bet365.
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