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July 10, 2022 • 13 hours ago • 3 minutes reading • 7 comments JP Crawford of the Seattle Mariners jumps after getting a force on Lourdes Gurriel Jr. of the Toronto Blue Jays during the fifth entry into T-Mobile Park Saturday night. Photo by Alika Jenner / Getty Images
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SEATTLE – The bigger the game, the bigger the bet, the more attention, the more it looks like a game is made for Alek Manoah.
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And as things go with the launch staff these days, the Blue Jays need their ace the most.
In these situations, it’s as if the right-wing bully is ripping off all his 6 feet 6 and 285 pounds, hoping to drag his team with him.
But so good, close to excellent, as Manoah was in a fascinating throwing duel at T-Mobile Park on Saturday night, the big man can’t do it all himself.
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Over the past week, the Jays haven’t been able to do much to support any of their starters. And facing an overly familiar elite arm in the form of former Jay Robbie Ray, his latest attempt to break a streak of cold would always be a difficult task.
So when an almost flawless effort from Manoah was undone with a powerful Carlos Santana shot from the Mariners in the seventh inning, it looked like the night was as good as it was made by a Jays offense that just can’t score.
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Santana’s two-run homer made the difference, as the Mariners got a 2-1 victory over a crowd of 41,210 Jays fans in western Canada.
The defeat favored the Jays ’free fall to eight defeats in their last nine games and three straight defeats here in the Pacific Northwest.
The Mariners, meanwhile, have won seven in a row and have gone just one game behind the Jays to secure third place in the American League.
A defeat tomorrow of a Toronto team that has run out of starting pitchers and will go with a bullpen day would erase what’s left of that margin.
Manoah’s brilliance – he allowed three hits and only those two runs while hitting seven in 7.1 innings – was essentially lost when the bats couldn’t stand him.
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As difficult as the commission was against Ray, who has returned to the Cy Young form he showed last season (an ERA of 0.80 in his previous five), the benign approach to the dish is killing them.
The fifth inning featured much of what has gone wrong with the Jays ’attack lately. They loaded the bases when Ray issued back-to-back walks to Alejandro Kirk and Teroscar Hernandez then allowed a single from Lourdes Gurriel Jr.
A situation that insisted on getting at least one ended in failure when Matt Chapman got out, Santiago Espinal came out gently in the second and Raimel Tapia hit a ground ball in a force out.
The Jays tried to mount a rally in the ninth inning when Vlad Guerrero Jr. and Kirk offered singles from an out. But after Teoscar Hernandez came out first and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. was intentionally kicked out, Chapman hit a ball to the ground in an out to eliminate concentration.
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It’s been a frustrating race for the Jays, who keep coming down.
“I’m not making excuses for my team, but it’s a routine,” coach Charlie Montoyo said before the game. “Boys can hear. They are human beings.
“I don’t feel frustrated … No one is happy that we are having a streak of losses.”
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The worst part is that no one can see when it can end, either. The attack, built to be a force, has pushed just six runs all over the place here in three games and 12 in its last five games.
The only run came in the sixth inning with a solo homer from George Springer’s bat, which lined up a Ray bid on your wall in right field.
The team is trying everything to get out of it, including a player-only meeting that happened before on this road trip. The attack can’t be unstuck, he hit 10 times on Saturday, including six from Ray’s right hand, who made six innings and only made three hits.
Manoah was even better, dealing with the best, until Santana touched him for that lethal explosion.
Normally, the Jays team should shrug their shoulders with two allowed runs, but that’s not how things are going lately.
In the 15 hours before playing again, they will have to go back to avoid a sweep and do so with uncertainty in the mound.
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