Blue Jays suffer ‘frustrating’ loss to Cubs despite productive day at the plate

TORONTO – Down by a run, in want of a giant hit with two runners on, Santiago Espinal lastly delivered one for the Toronto Blue Jays, lining a ball to the centre-field wall that will have simply scored two had it been hit about 10 toes to the left.

Instead, the 385-foot drive landed on the centre-field warning monitor and passed over the eight-foot wall for a ground-rule double that compelled Cavan Biggio, who’d already come round from first base behind Davis Schneider, to stroll again to 3rd from house plate. The go-ahead run by no means got here in, the Chicago Cubs eked out a run towards Jordan Hicks within the ninth and the Blue Jays suffered a 3rd straight loss, and fourth in 5 outings, 5-4 on Saturday.

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“I mean, it is frustrating, especially at this time, where we are in the standings and all that stuff. We have a lot of teams behind us and they’re all fighting, too, for the same goal,” Espinal, who had a two-hit day at shortstop, stated of his drive hopping over the wall. “We’ve just got to keep fighting, compete every day. The only thing that we can control is how we play. I feel like we’ve been doing a pretty good job, it’s just (hitting with runners in) scoring position has only been all right, but we’ll figure it out.”

Their most efficient day on the plate since a 13-1 win at Boston final week buoyed the hopes of the Blue Jays (65-54) that the offence is about to drag out of the deep freeze it’s been up to now week, and the urgency is mounting with the Seattle Mariners operating scorching.

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The Cubs (61-56), now in possession of the third wild card within the National League, rode a four-spot within the fourth off Chris Bassitt highlighted by Cody Bellinger’s RBI single off the right-field wall in “a world-class at-bat” and Dansby Swanson’s three-run shot on a middle-middle sweeper the righty stated “he guessed wrong” on.

Bellinger then began the decisive ninth-inning rally, ripping a excessive 96.7 m.p.h. fastball from Hicks to proper for a double and coming round when Christopher Morel hooked a sweeper to left for one more double.

That was it earlier than a crowd of 42,585 that witnessed Jose Bautista’s addition to the Level of Excellence earlier than the competition.

“There’s a reason they’re a top five offence,” Bassitt stated of the Cubs. “You can’t pitch around (Bellinger) because he’s got protection in the front and the back. You’ve just got to make pitches and hopefully he gets out. I thought the Hicks four-seam up was really, really good. I thought a couple of the pitches we made were really good. He’s just doing this all year and I think he’s back to who he used to be.”

The Blue Jays are nonetheless working to be at their finest on the plate, opening the scoring within the second on Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s two-out RBI single and the eking again inside one on Whit Merrifield’s two-run shot off Justin Steele within the fifth.

Then got here Espinal’s double within the sixth, which adopted Davis Schneider’s one-out double and Biggio’s two-out stroll and the combo of reduction and frustration that got here together with it.

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“Welcome to 2023, yeah,” lamented supervisor John Schneider. “Great at-bat from Espy and I want to point out the way he’s worked the last two weeks has been really impressive and it’s been a little bit of a tough spot for him, obviously. But you can’t say enough about the way he’s gone about it, the way he’s prepared and the way he’s gone out and executed, especially the last handful of days. That (ground-rule) really sucks. He works the 3-2 count, hits a ball on the nose and Cavan is going to score easily. Such is life with runners in scoring position for us it seems right now, but just keep doing that, things will be all right.”

To that finish, John Schneider hinted that Espinal might see extra common motion at shortstop with Paul DeJong, 2-for-34 with 13 strikeouts since his acquisition from the St. Louis Cardinals, slumping badly.

The Blue Jays are on the lookout for any additional offence they will discover amid the continuing absence of Bo Bichette, who ran the bases and took grounders earlier than the sport and will quickly have a rehab task subsequent week if he emerges from the same workload Sunday nicely. Danny Jansen will return to catch Sunday after being rested a few days following his most up-to-date hit by pitch on the best arm.

Espinal additionally had an RBI single Thursday and appears like he’s in a great place.

“It was kind of a relief when I got that double, it feels great and I feel, from this point on, even with Whit with his great at-bat with the homer, things are starting to show up. We’ve got to be patient and continue to grind,” he stated. “There are times that it’s very hard to come off the bench and try to do the best you can. But there are also times that if you prepare yourself how you’re supposed to prepare, do the little bit extra to do everything that you can, you can only control what you do. That’s what I did today. I was trying to just go out and have a great at-bats, not worrying about the result, just go out there and do damage.”

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