DETROIT — When facing Tarik Skubal, the best approach is to pray. If those prayers aren’t answered, it’s time to grind.
This is the life the Blue Jays need to get used to, though, with a postseason run sitting right in front of them, where they’ll see ace after ace. Thankfully for the Blue Jays, their own has been reborn.
Kevin Gausman went toe-to-toe with Skubal in Saturday night’s 6-1 win in Detroit, outdueling the American League Cy Young favorite over their six scoreless innings apiece. The Blue Jays had their chances against Skubal, but Gausman completely shut the Tigers down, limiting them to just one hit with 10 strikeouts. He’s back.
It feels like Toronto is only getting stronger. Already owners of the best record in baseball at 63-42 after their fourth consecutive victory, the Blue Jays have their best player and best starter — Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Gausman — heating up at just the right time. Bo Bichette is having his moments, too, first with a brilliant, 13-pitch walk that helped drive up Skubal’s pitch count, then later with the two-run single to finally break the deadlock.
“That’s just unbelievable,” George Springer said. “That just shows one, who he is as a hitter, and two, who we are as a team. We fight. Fight, fight, fight. Against a guy like that, to foul off some crazy things was awesome to see.”
By the time Nathan Lukes, Springer and Guerrero launched their home runs in the ninth inning, it was all just icing on the cake.
It’s all about the big picture for the Blue Jays, who are now chasing a World Series, not just an invitation to the dance. Few teams in baseball have a pitcher of Skubal’s caliber, but the deeper Toronto gets, the better pitching it will see. Manager John Schneider thinks his team is built for those exact types of pitchers, though. We only saw flickers of it against Skubal, but Schneider’s conviction comes from some sensible places.
“I think contact becomes a big-time premium when you’re facing guys with big-time stuff,” Schneider said. “Looking back at the pitchers we’ve faced since the break — Justin Verlander, Logan Webb, Robbie Ray, Carlos Rodón, Max Fried — those are good pitchers. We’ve responded fairly well.”
The Blue Jays are allergic to strikeouts — they have the lowest rate in baseball — and put the ball in play at an extremely high rate. Toronto struck out seven times against Skubal over his six innings, but the Blue Jays walked three times and certainly had a handful of chances they could have cashed in on.
Opponents feel this, too. The Blue Jays finally have an identity, one that’s just plain annoying to play against.
“Credit the Blue Jays with how they’ve been going about it, because contact matters, zone control matters,” said Tigers manager A.J. Hinch. “You know, they take some swings with some definite intent, but they also did some things to create more opportunities for themselves.”
They aren’t going to blow the doors off everyone’s ace, but if there’s a path to beating them, it begins with shaking the starter up a bit, taking them out of the groove they’ve lived all season in.
“When pitchers are big strikeout pitchers and they don’t really get that result, it kind of affects the cadence of their outing,” Schneider said. “It’s not that it frustrates them, but it’s probably a bit of a different feel. When you’re facing really good pitchers, you have to put the ball in play, you have to hit some mistake pitches and you’ve got to run the bases really well.”
For the first time in ages, Toronto fumbled the last part. Typically a clean, aggressive baserunning team, the Blue Jays lost a pair of major opportunities, first when Guerrero was thrown out on a back-pick at third base and later when Springer was thrown out at home. Springer, who’s become the heartbeat of the Blue Jays with his resurgent season and fantastic baserunning, was on third with the bases loaded when a blooper to center caught him in between. Springer guessed it would be caught and went back to tag, but when it dropped, Springer was thrown out at home on an awkward, clunky play.
Those are the plays Toronto won’t be able to get away with in the postseason, but the scoreboard only tells one story Saturday night. The Blue Jays won. They took down Skubal with an ace of their own, and with each passing day, there’s more reason to believe they can do this in October.