Anemic offence awakens late to lift Blue Jays over Pirates

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Another pitchers duel, yet another game when the Blue Jays’ offence was conspicuous by its silence.

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Toronto returned home from a series split in the Big Apple to begin a three-game set against a Pittsburgh Pirates team that is no longer an MLB laughing stock, and bunched together enough hits to score three runs in each of the third and eighth innings to beat the Bucs 6-2.

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The Jays, who struck out a whopping 15 times, managed only five hits on the night — all coming in those two innings — but four of them were doubles and all factored in on the scoring.

With Pirates starter Bubba Chandler bringing the heat, occasionally touching triple digits, and Kevin Gausman keeping the visitors at bay, the margins were slim for the bats on both sides.

Three errors by the Pirates played right into Toronto’s hands given how shorthanded and generally inept its team’s offence has performed.

A Louis Varland wild pitch with none out in the eighth allowed Pittsburgh to score a run to pull within a run at 3-2 and have the tying and and go-ahead runs at second and third.

But the flame-throwing reliever showed his mettle as a closer, striking out Konnor Griffin on three pitches and getting Jhostynxon Garcia on a first-pitch groundout to end the threat.

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Varland, who was asked to get the final six outs for the save, induced a game-ending groundout.

The following are three takeaways on City Connect Friday, a night when the Jays were held to two hits until Ernie Clement stroked a double to leadoff the home half of the eighth inning, prompting the announced crowd of 39,839 to cheer believing it was a homer. For reasons that defy logic, the same fans booed when replays clearly deemed the ball hit the top of the wall. The same fans cheered again when Clement scored on a Jesus Sanchez double.

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THE ‘K’ IN KEVIN

His first two starts of the season saw Gausman recording a combined 21 strikeouts, a rate no one felt would be sustainable. In his next eight starts, the most strikeouts registered were five.
Gausman gave up a run in the first inning, then found his form, lasting into the seventh before giving up back-to-back singles. He did get the next two Pittsburgh batters to hit groundouts to first before being replaced by lefty Mason Fluharty, who got Oneil Cruz to fly out to left on his first pitch.

Gausman finished with eight strikeouts. Chandler had 11.

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PINANGO SHOWS PLENTY OF PROMISE

Yohendrick Pinango continues to evolve, making the Jays’ decision on his eventual fate difficult. In time, the likes of Addison Barger, who has twice been on the injured list this season, and Nathan Lukes will be back, two whose roles are established.

Injured catcher Alejandro Kirk will also be in Toronto this weekend as the countdown to his return from a fractured thumb continues. Once cleared, Kirk, a two-time all-star catcher, will be back, leading to one of Tyler Heineman or Brandon Valenzuela, Friday night’s starter, being sent down.

What to do with Pinango remains unclear, though it would be hard not to keep him around.

Witness the Jays’ three-run third inning when he lined a two-RBI double that left the infield in the blink of an eye.

THE HORRO-WITZ

His time with the Blue Jays, albeit brief, proved to many that Spencer Horwitz possessed the tool kit to serve as an everyday player, at worse cast as a serviceable bench piece.

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In 2024, his final season in Toronto, Horwitz hit 12 homers.

He was traded to Cleveland in the deal that landed Andres Gimenez, and quickly shipped to Pittsburgh.

Horwitz made his return to Toronto Friday night, though not many noticed. How soon they forget.

Horwitz’s sac fly produced the game’s first run in the top of the first inning. But his throwing error helped the Blue Jays eventually score three runs in the third inning.

UP NEXT

Fans in Toronto will get their first live look at Paul Skenes, Pittsburgh’s scheduled starter Saturday (3:07 p.m.), as the stud right-hander makes his debut at the Rogers Centre … Perhaps it’s bad news for the Jays or perhaps it’s good news, but they will face Skenes after he gave up five earned runs, which tied a season high, in a 6-0 loss to Philadelphia in his previous outing. He surrendered five runs in his first start of the season before yielding a combined six runs in the ensuing eight starts. … The Jays will counter with veteran lefty Patrick Corbin, who is scheduled to make his ninth start of the season. He has dropped his past three decisions, a span that saw him give up 20 hits in 13.2 innings.

fzicarelli@postmedia.com

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