Gregor Chisholm: Blue Jays vs. Tigers: Max Scherzer brings Toronto off the ropes in series finale - Toronto Star

Jays are 1 1/2 games back of White Sox for the last AL playoff spot.

Blue Jays right-hander Max Scherzer allowed just one run and three hits in five innings Wednesday.

Gregor Chisholm is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star. Follow him on X: @GregorChisholm or reach him via email: gchisholm@thestar.ca.

The Blue Jays have been backed into a corner, but they aren’t done fighting quite yet.

In what felt like a must-win game, the Jays managed to avoid being swept by the Detroit Tigers and, along the way, narrowed the gap in the standings for the final American League wild-card spot.

Max Scherzer tossed five strong innings while Myles Straw and George Springer came up with a pair of timely RBI singles in the Jays’ 5-1 victory over the Tigers on Wednesday afternoon at the Rogers Centre.

The win allowed the Jays to pull within 1 1/2 games of the Chicago White Sox for the third wild card. They remained two games back of the Cleveland Guardians, who moved a half-game above the White Sox in the AL Central. Toronto owns the tiebreaker against Cleveland, but not Chicago.

“I’ve been scoreboard-watching for a while,” said Jays manager John Schneider, whose team will enjoy an off-day Thursday before opening a three-game series in Texas. “I may take a break and just try to focus on going 1-0 every day with the Blue Jays. Whatever’s going to happen is going to happen.

“There are a lot of moving pieces. There will continue to be a lot of moving pieces. I think if we can worry about us, that’s the best thing to do.”

A loss Wednesday would not have brought an end to the Jays’ season, but it would have come pretty close. Falling three games back of Cleveland, and 2 1/2 back of the White Sox, with just nine games remaining would have been an extremely difficult deficit to overcome.

Wednesday’s victory means the Jays are still within striking distance. Since they own the tiebreaker over the Guardians, they could reclaim a playoff spot if they make up the two-game gap. If Chicago loses to the Tigers on Thursday, picking up two games on the White Sox would also result in a playoff spot.

The task won’t be easy. First, the Jays will need to win at least two of three games from the Rangers, who entered Wednesday’s late slate of games 1 1/2 games back of the third wild card. After that, it’s a three-game series in Baltimore before the Jays close out the regular season with three home games against Cincinnati.

The Jays need to go 6-3 to finish with 82 wins. That would put them two games above .500, which is where the White Sox currently sit. To match the Guardians at three games above, the Jays need to go 7-2.

“It’s great when you come to the field and it’s must-win baseball,” Scherzer said after picking up his third win of the season. “That’s how we’ve felt for a while now. We know the position that we’re in. We’re aware of the standings. But at the end of the day you have to come here and win ballgames. You can’t worry about anything else, you have to worry about yourself.”

Wednesday’s victory was made possible because Scherzer bought his offence enough time to get going. Even with his velocity down a tick on nearly every pitch, the future Hall of Famer survived because of his command and his ability to mix speeds to keep hitters off balance.

Scherzer allowed one run in the first inning on an RBI single by Riley Greene and nothing else. He surrendered just three hits and struck out three before turning things over to the bullpen. Mason Fluharty, Spencer Miles and Louis Varland combined to retire the Tigers the rest of the way.

The Jays took the lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. With a runner already on base, Josh Smith doubled to put men on second and third before Ernie Clement tied the game with a sacrifice fly. Straw followed with an RBI single to put the Jays in front by one. Springer and Nathan Lukes eventually added RBI singles while another run scored on a throwing error by Tigers shortstop John Peck.

“We’ve got a lot of good leaders on this team,” said Straw, who finished the game 2-for-4 with a pair of singles. “George, Vlad, they always seem to calm the team down when the pressure might feel higher at some points. We’re going to go have a good off day, come back, be fresh and ready to roll.”

The Jays were seeing stars earlier this week following a 3-6 stretch that saw them take a series of punches from the Kansas City Royals, Athletics, Orioles and Tigers, but they survived the standing eight-count and have made it to another round.

That doesn’t change the fact that the Jays are still wobbly and behind on points. It also doesn’t change the fact they can still get a few swings of their own in before the clock fully expires.

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Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details

Gregor Chisholm is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star. Follow him on X: @GregorChisholm or reach him via email: gchisholm@thestar.ca.