Blue Jays Sweep Royals In Bizarre Fashion, But Real Test Awaits With Texas Coming To Town

The moments of past frustrations, times when the Blue Jays have looked clueless, or games that either got away or turned in their favour, they officially mean nothing today as the most important stretch of baseball officially begins.

At stake is the Jays’ post-season fate and potential wild-card standing based on how the final 19 games play out beginning Monday night in a highly anticipated four-game set against the visiting Texas Rangers.

Toronto’s 15-game stretch of against teams with records below .500 came to an end on Sunday afternoon with a bizarre 5-2 victory over the Kansas City Royals.

By sweeping the Royals, Toronto went 10-5 during that run against some of baseball’s lightweights. The Jays should have posted more wins, but it’s a moot point knowing what awaits.

The Jays enter the Texas series with a 1.5-game edge on the Rangers, who beat the Oakland A’s on Sunday. But in an intriguing twist, Toronto (80-63) now owns the second wild-card slot in the American League, having traded places with the Seattle Mariners (79-64) who lost again to the Tampa Bay Rays.

Sunday’s starters at the Rogers Centre — Jose Berrios and Cole Ragans — engaged in a pitchers duel for five scoreless innings.

Berrios blinked first as the Royals produced two runs in the top of the sixth. And the way young lefty Ragans had been throwing — he hadn’t been scored on in four consecutive starts — it looked as if the Jays would be hard-pressed to rally from this one.

But in the home half of the inning, the game swung in Toronto’s favour with a most unusual and totally unexpected turn of events as the Jays scored two runs without the benefit of a base hit.

And to think the inning began when Ragans retired the first two batters.

But Vlad Guerrero Jr., and Davis Schneider both worked Ragans for walks. If that wasn’t bad enough for Ragans, he then uncorked three wild pitches in a row, a weird sequence triggered when he slipped awkwardly on his left plant foot when throwing to Alejandro Kirk at the plate, falling as the ball sailed high and wide to the backstop, the runners advancing to second and third.

His second pitch was also high and wild as Guerrero scampered home to make it 2-1. A third consecutive wild pitch — in which Ragans fell again — then allowed Schneider to tie the game.

Ragans, who clearly had lost his confidence, lasted one more pitch — a fourth ball to Kirk — before being mercifully relieved.

Given a fresh slate thanks to Ragans’ wildness, the Jays took advantage in the seventh inning when Kevin Kiermaier’s solo homer to right put them ahead to stay.

Very little has come easy for the Blue Jays, even when playing bad teams. And even after tacking on two more runs in the eighth and summoning closer Jordan Romano for the ninth, it was another nail-biter.

Romano loaded the bases with a single, a double and a walk with one out as the go-ahead run for K.C. was suddenly at the plate.

But Romano ended any doubt with a strikeout and a game-ending fly ball.

Unless the Jays and Rangers happen to hook up in the post-season, this four-game series will be the final meeting between the two teams.

Back in mid-June, the Jays ventured to Texas following their sweep of the D-backs to play the Rangers, who took the three-game set following an 11-7 win in the series rubber match on a day when Toronto led 6-0.

In the series opener, Chris Bassitt will take to the bump for the home side, while Dane Dunning gets the call for the visitors.

Then comes a veteran duel Tuesday night pitting Hyun-Jin Ryu and Max Scherzer.

On Wednesday, the probable pitchers are Yusei Kikuchi and Jordan Montgomery.

In the series finale, Kevin Gausman will battle Nathan Eovaldi.

Barring something completely out of the ordinary, the Jays are expected to activate reliever Erik Swanson in the hours leading up to Monday’s first pitch.

The righty completed a rehab outing for triple-A Buffalo on Saturday and was back with the big-league club on Sunday, albeit in the dugout.

Chad Green has looked good since his initial return from Tommy John surgery when he gave up three consecutive hits in the ninth inning in Colorado.

The sweep was the Jays’ first since their early-August stay in Boston when Schneider had his coming-out party in helping Toronto outscore the Bosox 25-8.

Toronto’s previous home sweep came in the first series after baseball’s all-star break when Arizona visited the Rogers Centre and was outscored 25-8.

Ragans is an emerging star who has flourished from a change of scenery following his June 30 trade from Texas and a change in roles.

Ragans entered Sunday boasting an MLB-high scoreless innings streak of 21, the longest stretch by a K.C. pitcher since Wade Davis posted a 22-innings window in 2015.

He ended the day by extending his streak to 27.2 innings and in the process Ragans established a Royals record.

In eight previous starts with the Royals before Sunday, Ragans, 25, had an ERA of 1.51. With the Rangers, Ragans was used as a reliever.

Ragans struck out George Springer and Bo Bichette to begin Sunday’s outing, his first against the Jays. A Vladimir Guerrero Jr. fly ball to left field would end the first inning.

In the second, Ragans erased a leadoff walk by inducing a double play.

A second free pass would be issued, but Ragans kept the Jays from plating a run as he officially entered the Royals’ record book.

His day ended in that crazy sixth inning. All told, Ragans gave up six walks, threw three wild pitches, struck out six and surrendered one hit in 5.2 innings.