Offensive Awakening Kickstarts Blue Jays Crucial Week

The Blue Jays executed with runners in scoring position to back Robbie Ray over the Orioles

Luis Rivera put up the stop sign, but Bo Bichette kept going.

The shortstop turned third base unflinching. He dodged left, slid into the dirt, and swiped across the plate with Toronto’s fourth run.

Bichette’s score capped off a sixth inning where the Blue Jays faced a recently daunting challenge. With two runners in scoring position and a one-run deficit — a situation they failed in earlier in the game, and a situation they’ve failed in for the last month — Bichette delivered a game-tying knock. He scored from first moments later on a slump-busting Teoscar Hernández hit.

“We’ve been grinding a little bit," George Springer said after the game. "We haven’t got the results we want offensively, but that’s the game."

Against a team the Blue Jays both should and need to beat, they delivered. Robbie Ray continued stumping on his Cy Young campaign and the lineup exorcized recent RISP demons. Kickstarting an all-important week with three games against a 50-win team and a weekend series against the Oakland Athletics, the Blue Jays started with a win.

The Baltimore Orioles are the type of team a playoff hopeful should regularly top and the type of team title contenders have this year. In 2021, the AL East-leading Tampa Bay Rays are 18-1 against the O’s, the Chicago White Sox are 7-0. Monday’s win lifted the Blue Jays to 7-3 against Baltimore.

Coming into Monday, the Orioles had lost 22 of their last 24 games, allowing 22 runs in a three-game weekend sweep at the hands of Tampa. Three innings into the series opener, the struggling Toronto offense was being no-hit by a 28-year-old swingman with one career start. But in the fourth, and again in the seventh, Vlad Guerrero Jr. bookended Toronto's offensive breakout.

Blue Jays General Manager Ross Atkins talked about ways to kickstart the offense ahead of Monday’s homestand, suggesting a more balanced offensive attack. Against Baltimore, the Blue Jays had two left-handed hitters in the lineup, stole two bases, and tried for more. But, with Springer back atop the lineup, the runs didn’t come from gimmicks or manufactured offense, they came from execution. Toronto’s three hits with runners in scoring position were tied for the most they’ve had in since August 8th.

The seven runs of support Toronto provided Robbie Ray with were the most he’s received in over a month. Delivering seven innings of four-hit ball, with 10 strikeouts and two runs against, Ray delivered his latest gem. For the first time in a while, Toronto's bats matched him.

“The big bats came around tonight,” Ray said.